Florida basketball is riding a three-game winning streak as they come to Knoxville to facing a struggling Tennessee team on Saturday morning.
The Gators dominated Tennessee 73-43 in the first matchup earlier this month in Gainesville. The Vols are looking to avenge that loss while ending a two-game losing streak.
Ahead of the matchup, Florida head coach Todd Golden discussed xxxxxxxxxx
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On the SEC only having three NCAA Tournament bids in 2016, how far the league has come since he was an assistant at Auburn during that time
“Obviously, a long way. We joke about it, I talk to both Bruce and Steven (Pearl) about it sometimes how when we got to Auburn, there was a big push from the conference in terms of scheduling. That was kind of where people thought the league was falling short, was scheduling. And I think, eight years, fast forward, nine years, whatever we are now, that wasn’t the issue. There was obviously a lack of talent in the league, and it started with the influx of great coaches coming into the league. And then obviously now it’s turned into the best basketball conference over the last 20 years. I think it’s obviously an incredible example of growth and a league just kind of taking the bull by the horns and doing what it needed to do to regain prominence.”
On the foresight of former SEC commissioner Mike Slive’s push to get schools to invest
“I think it says a lot. Again, I don’t know all the intricate details about those conversations about what was going on. But when I was first in the league, it started with Bruce getting hired by Auburn -obviously, that was a big deal for them to get a coach of that magnitude. And then Coach Barnes got to Tennessee. And then after I left, Nate Oats got to Alabama, just to name a few. (Eric Musselman) Muss did an incredible job at Arkansas. Like there were some really, really big time coaches that really came in and just started doing really, really well. I think right now, there’s an incredible amount of talent in our league from a coaching standpoint, I think from top to bottom. You see that on a nightly basis, how well these teams are coached, how well they’re prepared, how physical these teams are. And it’s just an absolute battle every night.”
On the backcourt matchup Saturday between Florida and Tennessee
“I mean, that’s a huge part of it, but I think it’s, you know, every guy in the game, you know, is going to be really important. We got to win the backcourt, but we also got to win the paint. I thought we did a really good job of that in here, and we gave up some good threes that didn’t go in in the game here, the score probably should have been closer than it was, but the overarching theme that I thought we did a good job of was protecting the paint and the rim. And you know, if we can do that again, we’ll give ourselves a good chance, like Kentucky did the other night.”
On defending the three-point line against Tennessee
“When you limit three-point attempts, you’re giving up something. And that might be drives, you know, that could be more rim-twos. And, you know, against a team like Tennessee, you got to pick your poison a little bit, like you don’t want to give Lanier and Gainey and guys like Dubar shots, you know, good looking shots from three, but at the same time, you can’t let them live in the paint and attack the rim and get on the glass.
“So you got to pick your poison a little bit. This would be a game where we might be okay giving up more threes than we generally do, as long as they’re contested. And we didn’t do a good enough job contesting their threes in the first game, we just got away with it. And I thought that showed up in the Kentucky game for them the other night. I thought Tennessee got some looks, you know, and I saw something said on Twitter that they, you know, missed a good amount of uncontested looks, which is pretty unusual for them. So it’s the balance, and we can’t give up a lot of good looking threes, but at the same time, I don’t want to be giving up room twos all night either.”
On what winning on the road at Tennessee would mean for the program’s trajectory
“It would just be another sign that we’re on the right track, you know. And it’s an incredibly difficult place to play Again, I reference Bruce a lot, but, you know, we talked about that job and just the environment around Tennessee basketball, and obviously, what Coach Barnes has been able to do in terms of getting them back to where they’ve been, in terms of their success – one of the hardest places to play in America. And so if we can go in there and win, it would be similar to last year at Rupp. That’s how I would look at it, you know, just going into one of the best venues in college basketball and holding onto your guts enough for 40 or 45 minutes, whatever it takes to find a way to win. But yeah, it would be a great feather to put in our cap. And I think if we can somehow find a way to win on Saturday, you know, I think we, at this time, should be a one-seed, to be honest.”
On how Florida handled not having a game this week
“It was really important for us. Think it couldn’t have come at a better time. This is a very difficult league, and you get fatigued, you get some bumps and bruises, you see very few teams can stay healthy for all 18 games through the conference season. You’ve seen it with Auburn with Johni (Broome), you’ve seen it with Kentucky and Andrew Carr and (Lamont) Butler missed the last game. Zakai (Zeigler) got banged up and their last game. Obviously, Will has been a little banged up for us and has done an incredible job playing through it. Sam was a little sick last week. He did a great job on Saturday playing through it. But that’s just kind of what it takes to be good. And as I said, this was the perfect week for us to get a bye. I would have been a little concerned if we would have played Tuesday or Wednesday, how much we would have been able to rally from a mental and physical preparation standpoint. But it’s been good to us. We took Monday relatively off, we practiced really hard Tuesday. Took Wednesday off. We should be pretty fresh going into Saturday and we should have everybody ready to go.”
On Florida ranking fourth in offensive efficiency during the KenPom era
“Well, first of all, I didn’t realize we were fourth in the KenPom era offensively. I guess Walter Clayton can play point guard. Sorry, I just had to. No, it’s a combination. Our bigs, they probably don’t get enough credit for how good we are offensively because obviously Walter is such an efficient scorer, Alijah’s been so good for us and Will has really taken it up a notch, right? Those three, and Denzel obviously. I mean, he’s been great the majority of the year as well. And those guys have the ball in their hands a lot, they make a lot of plays and they deserve a lot of the credit.
“But I think we probably have the easiest frontcourt in America to play with, with the way we play, three out, two in, obviously having two big guys on the floor, it’s not easy to do and to be able to be smooth offensively the way we are, Condo, Tommy, Sam even Rueben, they deserve a lot of credit for the way we move the ball, and kind of get to the second and third side offensively and what you obviously do a great job of recognizing and realizing is how effective our bigs are carving out space for our guards in the paint, in and around the rim and a lot of those two-point field goals, like our guards shoot an incredible number from two, their two-point field goal percentage is just elite, I mean it’s just absurd and a big part of it is when they get in there and they’re finishing around the rim, our bigs are taking the rim pressure away, with their bodies and their physicality, and like Rueben for example, he doesn’t get a lot of assists necessarily with the pass but he probably gets three or four screen assists per night where he’s just clearing out space and our guards are just driving in and just laying the ball off the backcourt with no help defense.
“Again, the key is the unselfishness and willingness to accept doing for lack of better term the dirty work which they do an incredibly efficient level and also just enjoying the success of their teammates, because again like Walter, Alijah, Will, those three specifically get a lot of credit and they deserve it for how well we’ve played and how well we’re doing, but the great thing about our team is those guys realize it wouldn’t be as easy without the frontcourt being unselfish playing in the physical nature in which they do. Our guys play well together I think they respect and appreciate what they do for each other and if we can keep that going hopefully we can get above four, maybe three or two.
“I texted Hov (assistant Kevin Hovde) the other night because I think Auburn, they’re at 1.29 per possession, I think that might have been adjusted, we were at 1.25 which is second or something like that, I told him dude we are right there. I was like, ‘we’ve got to go get these guys, we’ve got to find a way to get to number one on the year,’ and he’s like, ‘they’re gonna be hard to catch.’ I said, ‘we’ve got some time.’ What have we got, 10 more games left, so it’s an internal goal for ours.”
On if he watched Tennessee play at Auburn last Saturday night
“I did. Rock fight.
“It was a good game, very physical, you knew both teams were going to be really fired up, ready to go. Tennessee did an incredible job of dictating. All of the good teams, you have a little bit more juice at home and Auburn is hard to stop and keep out of transition on their home floor and Tennessee made it a style of game they could win, and obviously they had some opportunities, it was a 50-50 game down the stretch and Kelly hits a big corner three and Zakai rims out a big corner and that was the difference in the game the last couple of minutes but yeah it was an absolute war and the final was like 53-51, I was giving Steven Pearl a hard time, I told him we scored 51 in the first half on Saturday, but yeah it was what you would expect with two elite programs competing on a Saturday night.”
On facing Tennessee as it comes off two consecutive losses:=
“Listen, we know we are going to see a really, really fired up team. Sometimes on the road, you have to absorb it a little bit. We will definitely try to be proactive and set the tone, get it up and down the floor a little bit and push tempo, which should help. We will push tempo regardless whether we play here or on the road. But it was physical enough, they were incredibly physical against us here in our place. Obviously, they missed some shots and we were able to get out in transition some and get that lead and not relinquish it. It will be different up there and it will be a super challenge that way. We have to be physical. We have to be strong with the ball. We have to make them earn their offensive baskets. And we have to make them guard us. That will be key, and obviously they are the best defensive team in the country. So we have to handle it. We have to not turn it over, avoid live ball turnovers, got to play off two feet, take smart shots. We have to have great mental discipline to win.”
On how difficult the SEC schedule is, if it’s unfair
“I wouldn’t say unfair. You feel sorry for yourself, and you say, ‘Man, this is a tough stretch.’ But then you look at Alabama and I think they have 9 of their final 11 games are Quad 1A games or something like that. So that’s pretty challenging too. It’s one of the great things and bad things about this league. You really don’t get punished for losing games unless you lose in a really bad manner. So every win is a really good resume win. You have a lot of opportunities to build your resume. Saturday would be another step in the right direction in that manner because that would be another Quad 1 win, a huge win on the road. Win a game like that and maybe you are in a position to be a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.”
