‘A great statement’: Todd Golden reacts to Florida’s win over Texas

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The No. 5 Florida Gators (16-2, 3-2 SEC) rebounded Saturday from their first home loss in more than a year with an 84-60 blowout win over Texas. Three UF players scored in double figures, while their defense forced 14 turnovers and held the Longhorns to 4-for-16 (25%) from beyond the arc.

Here’s everything Florida coach Todd Golden said after the game.

Opening statement

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah just really happy and proud of our team. I thought our players did a great job tonight answering the challenge, you know, we talked a lot about it after the game yesterday that I didn’t think our mentality was where it needed to be on Tuesday night against a really good Missouri team that came in here and took advantage of it. And, you know, we talked a lot about it over the last 48 hours that, you know, with this opportunity on Saturday, we just cannot allow it to happen where a team comes in here and plays harder than us, and to the credit of our players and our staff, I thought we played incredibly hard. We were not perfect. We had some, you know, silly turnovers in transition, some missed coverages here and there. But when we play with that level of effort, it allows us to make some mistakes and still be victorious. And I thought, you know, for us to win the game the way we did, and to extend it and win by 24 was a great statement coming back off Tuesday night.”

On holding Texas to 16 three-point attempts:

TODD GOLDEN: “Well, we weren’t great the other night. So, we’ve grown in the past, 48, 72 hours. But no, our mentality and being on the scout was much better tonight. You know, I thought Alijah and Denzel did a great job on Jordan Pope, you know, a guy that could really hurt you if you let him loose and give him some space, stay in his hip pocket. You know, only gave him three attempts, he didn’t make a shot tonight. And he’s an incredible offensive player. We did an awesome job, you know, just cutting his water, turning his water off. And then with Tre Johnson, you know, you got to pick your poison a little bit. Obviously, he’s an incredibly talented young man. Will be a lottery pick here shortly, but you know, our mentality was, if we force him to take contested mid-ranges over the course of 40 minutes, that we would have to live with it if they beat us that way. And, you know, we talked before the game to the team about winning the battle of the paint and winning the battle behind the three-point line, and we have struggled in our losses in league in both those areas, and between the two I think we won like 66 to 32 or something like that today. So I thought we set the tone, and our guys executed our gameplan very well.”

On Alijah Martin and Walter Clayton Jr. hitting clutch shots:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, I mean it’s obviously a big reason as to why we are where we are. And, you know, I’d throw Will in that group as well, from a standpoint of just providing just some really big winning efforts, you know. And we’ve talked about his growth as a player a lot, but every time he was in the game, his 33 minutes, we had him on Tre Johnson today. And in the past, you know, might lose a guy for three – he was locked in. He did a wonderful job, you know, I’ll pick on him with a few contested or fouls on the jump shots. But he made everything really, really hard for Tre tonight. And you know, Tre is going to get his, he was, what, six for 15 from the field, but only 16 points, a turnover, like, he wasn’t as efficient as he would have needed to be for them to beat us in here today. And that was a big part of why we were able to win.”

On forcing Texas deep into the shot-clock consistently:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah. Well, you know a big positive from today’s game for our defense is that we turned them over. You know, they had 14 turnovers, and this is a team that is not turnover prone, you know, they play a lot of isolation, so there’s not a lot of opportunities to turn them over. But 10, you know, live-ball steals, to your point, 14 turnovers. That was a huge, huge area as to why we won today. And I was really, really pleased with the effort on the defensive end.”

On winning the rebounding battle and Rueben Chinyelu’s hand injury:

TODD GOLDEN: “He’s fine, you know, probably just bruised up a little bit. I thought Condo was incredibly active on the glass, you know, and he was not as much on Tuesday night. Our goal is generally to be plus-10 on the glass. We were plus-eight. We can live with that in a game like this. You know, that’s, you know, a really good job against an athletic front court. But again, like, we are a team, you know, for us to be an elite team, we have to win in the margins as well, and we did that tonight. We took care of the ball, only eight turnovers. Won the rebounding battle by eight. And you know, we track kills as a team in games, kills equate to three stops in a row. We had eight of them tonight, so all three of those areas, we achieved our standard.”

On the missed alley oops by Florida:

TODD GOLDEN: “I bruised my shin probably kicking my little stool during one of them. And it’s kind of the balance, right? Our guys are playing free, they’re competing really well defensively. They’re getting on the glass. And so in those moments, even as hard as it is the stomach, some of those turnovers, you gotta live with it when you’re playing hard and you’re playing right. And so that’s what I meant earlier. We had some not perfect plays, but overall, we played really hard and we played really well. And so we can live with it in a game like today.”

On closing out the game with a 23-6 run:

TODD GOLDEN: “Probably a product of wearing them down a little bit. They got us early in the first half, and then we were able to sustain it and then get a lead going into halftime. Really happy with the way we came out of halftime. We won that first mini game, mini game being the first four minutes of the half. I think we tied the second one, so we were up 10 or whatever at that point, and they got really good players. We made a couple of plays. They got an offensive rebound off a free throw, I think, blockout or off a shot, tipped out, hit a 3, then got a lay to cut it from 12 to seven. And in that moment, we need somebody to step up, make a plan. A-Mart might have hit a 3 or we hit a big shot and then we called the timeout. And the other great thing was I thought Denzel and our perimeter stepped up. We gave Walt a rest at the under eight and we were able to just extend it. So we were able to get him pretty good rest and let him come back and close pretty fresh. So just a really, really good effort by everybody that’s stepped on the floor today.”

On Alijah Martin being +18 in the second half:

TODD GOLDEN: “We wanna try to find ways to get him downhill. To your point, he’s a great finisher through contact. I think he had two or three and-one’s today that were really tough shots that he was able to kind of get his body back in position and finish. And listen, he, Walt, Will, they’re all confident guys. And if they see something they like, you gotta let them play and let them make those decisions and live with it. It’s a lot better than having guys that you feel like you have to coach and put in certain specific spots for them to always be successful. And Mart is a winner, man. He’s a winner. I thought he competed really well, 22 points, six rebounds, four assists, only one turnover. That’s a heck of a line right there. And he’s been a huge, huge plus for us all year.”

On Alex Condon scoring all of his points in the second half again:

TODD GOLDEN: “He didn’t score in the first half, but he was playing really hard, and he was doing what we needed him to do. I think he was 0-for-5, but it wasn’t because of softness or because of not being physical or attacking. He was playing really hard, playing really well, just missed some shots that he normally doesn’t. And I think everything evened out for him that way in the second half. But again, he finished with 11 and 12, four steals, had another incredible block. He’s probably one of the best guys in the country blocking dunks. He goes up there when guys are trying to smash on his head and he does a great job of just knocking it out of there. And when he plays with that edge and that fire, he’s really, really hard to keep up with.”

On Denzel Aberdeen’s behind-the-back pass to Alijah Martin:

TODD GOLDEN: “That was a huge play, too. That might have been the moment where we took it from 7 to 10. But Denzel, great read off the pick and roll, a little we call it rub action, where we roll the five, Cono popped, Zel put it behind the back on the money, he hits that 3. It kind of calms us down a little bit and allows us to go back on another run. But, like I said, all those guys were really impactful for our win today.”

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