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SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Florida’s Alex Condon has already been through the physical battle with Auburn’s Johni Broome and came out the other side battered but victorious.
Now come the muscular Houston Cougars in the fight for the national championship in the NCAA Tournament final. It’s time for the Aussie to lean into those skills he learned in the rough-and-tumble world of Australian rules football, where he also is a promising prospect.
The 6-foot-11 Gators sophomore forward at times looked overwhelmed by Broome's physical play, as he got backed into the basket or struggled to find his own position against Auburn's beefy front line.
“That game was the most physical game I've had all season,” Condon said Sunday.
He scored just one point and missed all five shots, but he persevered, and was still on the court late, drawing a key charge on Broome and challenging shots.
And that's where the Australian rules football comes in.
Condon was a rising prospect in that sport when he signed a deal with a professional club that he calls a fallback in case basketball “doesn't work out.”
But for now, he's taking the hard-knocks experiences of playing “footy” and the bodies crashing on the Aussie oval to the hardcourt.
“After I played football, it was the most physical basketball I’ve played because I wasn’t scared to get hit and I was able to initiate physicality with guys who are stronger than me," Condon said. “Don’t be scared or back down.”
Enter Houston.
The Cougars' J'Wan Roberts is a 6-foot-8, 23-year-old sixth-year center who gives up 3 inches to Condon but more than makes up for it in muscle and sheer determination to own every inch of space near the basket. Joseph Tugler is a sophomore carbon copy of Roberts and the Cougars' shutdown defender.
Tugler had four blocks in Houston's semifinal upset of Duke. Roberts disrupted Duke star Cooper Flagg's potential game-winner in the final seconds.
“You look at a guy like Tugler, Roberts, they have incredible length and athleticism and physicality inside the paint," Florida coach Todd Golden said. “They wear you down, make it really hard on you.”
Condon won't have to go it alone. The Gators counter with a rotation of 6-10, 260-pound Rueben Chinyelu, 7-1 Micah Handlogten, and 6-9 Thomas Haugh.
Haugh played the most against Auburn and scored 12 points in 25 minutes even though he also got caught in a few physical mismatches with Broome. Chinyelu grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
“We've got taller guys. We just have to play with elite-level energy and pace,” Condon said.
Chinyelu said he's ready for that.
“You have to go in with the mentality that this is war. It's down to two teams,” Chinyelu said.
Houston takes measure of the Gators' height and length but the Cougars don't seem too impressed. Or worried.
“Duke had size on us, too," Roberts said. “I feel like we have heart.”
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