Alex Condon made history when he came out of the 2025 March Madness tournament as a winner. Three Aussie men before him - Justin Brown (Connecticut, 1999), Mangok Mathiang (Louisville, 2013) and Kody Stattmann (Virginia, 2019) - could claim to be NCAA champions, but Condon’s accomplishment was a landmark one. He was the first Australian to actually see court time in a championship game, and logged 28 minutes as a starter for the Florida Gators.

Florida eked out a tough 65-63 win over Houston to claim the title, and Condon’s contributions were a major talking point. The big man finished with 12 points and seven rebounds on 5/9 shooting from the floor, but it was his defensive efforts that really raised eyebrows. Condon had four steals, the last of which secured the title for Florida, after the Aussie put his body on the line and dived for a loose ball.

Florida’s victory added an exclamation point to a breakout season for Condon, who ended up making the All-SEC (Southeastern Conference) Third Team. In a strong conference that includes the likes of Kentucky, Auburn, Tennessee and Alabama, making an All-Conference is no mean feat. Condon enjoyed a meteoric rise up the Gators’ depth chart, after finishing the 2023-24 season with just one start out of 36 appearances.

In his sophomore year, the lanky forward/centre increased his average from 7.7 to 10.6 points per game, while also generating an uptick in his rebounding, going from 6.4 to 7.5 rebounds per game. These changes don’t jump off the page, but Condon’s playing time did not see a sharp increase, despite his regular starts. He had averaged 20.3 minutes as a rookie, before playing a touch under 25 per game in his breakout sophomore season. Thus Condon saw a general uptrend in his productivity, and added another dimension to his game as an occasional playmaker. Condon nearly doubled his assist average from his rookie year - going from 1.2 to 2.2 assists per game - while seeing no uptick in his turnover rate.

But Condon’s impact on the Gators goes far beyond stats. The 20 year old is known primarily as a defensive player, with a developing offensive game. His off-ball impact does show up in the box score, with averages of 1.3 blocks and 0.9 steals per game, but these numbers don’t tell the whole story. Noted NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports lauded the Aussie’s athleticism, writing that he “moves well laterally defending in space”.

Condon’s above-average mobility, for a 211cm tall big, makes him a switchable piece in various defensive schemes. While he has the verticality to develop into a rim protector, as evidenced by that blocks average, Condon can also hang with small forwards further away from the hoop. And with a reported seven foot wingspan, the rising star is a menace in attacking the passing lanes - a skill that was on display in the championship game.

Condon is self-aware when it comes to his strengths. "We play through the bigs at Florida," Condon told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony in a recent interview. "My job is to get the ball to our guards and then crush the glass. My defence is NBA-ready. I already know how to switch ball-screens and stay in front of smaller guards, which you need to do in the NBA.”

Moreover, rebounding is considered the last line of defence, and Condon’s average of 7.5 rebounds in 25 minutes places him amongst some of the better rebounders in college basketball. He’s also far from a stat padder; in addition to recording 4.8 defensive boards per game, Condon isn’t afraid to do the dirty work at the other end, corralling 2.8 offensive rebounds on average.

Despite his size, athleticism, rebounding motor and defensive hustle however, questions linger around Condon’s offensive potential. He is very much an old school big man, who does his best work in the paint, primarily through dunks and layups. The big man is an above-the-rim athlete, with a vertical jump that also made him a coveted AFL prospect at one point. Condon has been described as a “mobile ruckman”, with athletic attributes that prompted Collingwood to sign him as a Category B Rookie. But as Condon’s star grows in the United States, the chances of him coming back to Australia and picking up a sherrin look slimmer and slimmer by the day.

Condon has also developed as a cutter, showing impressive chemistry with some of the Gators’ guards - including Walter Clayton Jr. He is capable of finishing with either hand around the hoop, and gets to the foul line at a good rate, with 4.6 free throw attempts per game. But on closer inspection of the Condon’s offensive skills, his shortcomings become evident, and NBA scouts will undoubtedly fixate upon these aspects of his game. Condon shot just 60.4% from the charity stripe this past season, and free throw shooting is considered an important surrogate marker of shooting potential, from either midrange or three-point range. Take Josh Giddey for example, who recently had his best shooting season from the NBA, and that growth coincided with an uptick in his free throw clip to around 80%.

Condon did shoot 32.8% from beyond the arc this past season, which is a reasonable figure for a big man who resides in the paint. But that’s on a small sample size of 1.6 attempts per game, and many of these buckets will have been assisted looks. For Condon to become a high level NBA draft prospect, and crack the lottery, he would have to show NBA scouts some growth in his shooting stroke. Given his combination of size and mobility, Condon projects as an archetypal four man at the NBA level, and a reliable jump shot is now an expectation even for some of the bigger bodies.

Florida head coach Todd Golden said as much in a recent interview, where he recently expressed hope about Condon returning to school. Golden intends to deploy a plus-sized lineup next season, with Condon at the power forward spot.

“Thomas Haugh is a core player. We’re going to play him more at the three this year. We hope we get his running mate Alex Condon back and if we do we’ll play really big this year,” “We’ll start Haugh at the three, Condo at the four, and one of the other bigs at the five.”

But in light of his rising stock, Condon recently declared for the NBA draft, although he still has the option of returning to Florida for his junior year. As part of the pre-draft process, Condon earned an invitation to the draft combine, where his skills and athleticism will be measured up alongside a whole host of other NBA hopefuls.

Condon recently broke into first round projections in ESPN’s latest 2025 NBA mock draft, at the 29th spot. An ankle injury late in the season unfortunately scuppered some of his momentum, but the Aussie had done enough to impress NBA draft commentators. Most other mocks have Condon being selected in the early to mid second round, including Sports Illustrated (44th) and Bleacher Report (44th). The next few months will be critical Condon, where he will presumably undergo a serious of workouts with various NBA teams, that will make or break his draft ranking. But it’s becoming increasingly likely that the talented athlete will forego his AFL options, in favour of lucrative options in the NBA.

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Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury recently threw his opinion into the ring, stating that he encouraged Condon to pursue NBA opportunities. With a ringing endorsement from one of the AFL’s most iconic veterans, expect Condon to have a red hot crack at the pre-NBA draft process, before making a decision as to whether or not he returns to Florida.