The focal point of Florida’s frontcourt received Southeastern Conference honors for the first time in his career.
On Sunday, Rueben Chinyelu was named the SEC Player of the Week after recording double-doubles against Oklahoma on Wednesday and then-No. 10 Vanderbilt on Saturday.
“My confidence has always been high,” Chinyelu said after the game. “I’m just taking advantage of opportunities.”
Against Oklahoma, his dominance contributed to Florida's 60-22 advantage in paint points. The Nigerian finished the night with 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting and a team-high 12 rebounds. He did a majority of his damage in the second half, scoring 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
He also played an important role on the defensive front, holding Mohamed Wague and Derrion Reid to a combined six points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field.
"Just getting better each 1% in each aspect is, it's a beautiful thing,” Chinyelu said. “ So I'm just enjoying it, and I'm appreciative of being able to go out there, get better, offensively, defensively, shooting wise - so it's something beautiful- free throws, or all those aspects. Now I'm really excited for them."
In Saturday’s ranked win versus Vanderbilt, Chinyelu picked up his 10th double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Again, he did a majority of his damage in the second half, recording 16 points on 5-of-5 shooting. He made four-straight free throws after a flagrant foul on McGlockton, leading to a 7-0 run that gave the Gators a 51-49 lead with 18:51 to go.
“At halftime, we talked as a staff about making sure we got him some low block touches, because it calms us down and it slows the game down,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said. “It makes the tempo of the game kind of more the way we want to play.”
Defensively, Chinyelu made his mark with three blocks, all of which came in the second half. His rejection of Tyler Tanner’s 13-foot jumper led to an Urban Klavzar 3-pointer, giving Florida a 60-51 lead with 15:23 left in the contest.
Prior to this season, Chinyelu briefly tested the NBA pre-draft process before returning to Gainesville for his junior campaign. Last season, he started all 40 games for the national champion Gators, averaging six points and 6.6 rebounds a game.
Chinyelu and the Gators return to the court Tuesday against LSU (13-5, 1-4 SEC), with tipoff set for 7 p.m.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the spring 2026 men's basketball beat reporter and a second-year journalism sports & media major with a media, management and production minor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams
