Florida scores another transfer portal win with former Cougars center
Florida basketball added another player from the transfer portal to its 2024-25 roster on Thursday. Former Washington State Cougars center Rueben Chinyelu — a rising sophomore originally from Enugu Agidi, Nigeria — committed to the Gators for the second portal score of the offseason for Todd Golden’s gang.
“We are thrilled to welcome Reuben into our basketball family here at Florida,” Golden announced. “He is an ultra-talented young man who fits into the culture of our program seamlessly. He has fantastic tools on both the offensive and defensive end, and we expect him to make a big jump across the board as he enters his second collegiate season.”
Chinyelu played 35 games for WSU last season with 12 starts, averaging 4.7 points per game while adding five rebounds per game and 45 total blocks in 14-ish minutes of playing time per game.
The Gators had pursued him during the 2023 cycle, hosting Chinyelu on an official visit in September 2022, but ultimately chose the Cougars over Florida, the Tennessee Volunteers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The 6-foot-11-inch, 245-pound transfer will ostensibly fill the role that Micah Handlogten — who will need some time to recover from a severe leg fracture — had in the rotation next season.
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