Most coaches would be ready to praise their squad endlessly in the moments immediately after a 21-point win, but [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] managed to open his post-game press conference with some criticism of the Florida Gators after an 81-60 throttling of South Carolina.
“I thought we did a nice job,” Golden led before jumping into what the team could have done better. “We still didn’t shoot it great, so if we can look at one thing to improve upon (it’s) that and getting on the glass — we didn’t do a good enough job defensively on the glass.
“But, a lot of great things, and what I’m most proud about is just the way we’ve continued to be unselfish and share the ball. You know, we had 21 assists and six turnovers tonight. It’s really hard to do at this level, especially when you only make seven threes.”
In one of Florida’s best wins of the year (and the fifth over the last six conference matchups), the Gators looked elite on the court, leading by as much as 30 points at one point. Unlike the Mississippi State game, there was no second-half collapse and Florida finished off a convincing victory.
[autotag]Colin Castleton[/autotag] led the team with 18 points and [autotag]Kowacie Reeves[/autotag] trailed him with 15, but the real story was [autotag]Myreon Jones[/autotag]’ triple-double bid that saw him fall just short of double digits in each category (nine points, seven rebounds and eight assists).
Jones has seen more minutes lately after proving to be an effective second ball-handler for the Gators with point guard [autotag]Kyle Lofton[/autotag] on the court. The duo has spent a good chunk of time together in the same lineup and the results speak for themselves.
“Him (Jones) and Kyle (Lofton) have just played really well off each other and complimented each other really well,” Golden said. “I think over the past two games they are 22 assists and zero turnovers or something like that. It’s insane. But, when you have senior leadership out there, guys that have been through it a little bit, they are Batman and Robin in the backcourt a little bit running our team.
“They can both play the ball screens, both shoot the ball and they’re heady, IQ players that have made us really, really good over the past couple of weeks. But, really happy for Myreon because obviously he struggled at the beginning of the year. He couldn’t really get comfortable, but I felt like in that Auburn game, even though we lost, he kind of broke out and felt like he got back to himself and has played really, really well all through league play.”
Golden wouldn’t go as far as to say that Jones had to remake himself but instead pointed to the process of trying out different rotations and lineups as what was holding him back. Getting him on the court with Lofton seemed to make everything click. Golden also pointed out that Jones is more relaxed on the court, knowing that he has a defined role on the team.
Seeing it all come together on Wednesday was the cherry on top for a Gators team that is working hard to live up to its full potential. Let’s not forget that Florida is down two of its “bigger” players right now, forwards [autotag]Alex Fudge[/autotag] (concussion) and [autotag]CJ Felder[/autotag] (away from team).
“It’s a great feeling for our guys to have kind of gotten through some tough times early and now see winning five out of six, and see multiple guys –– nearly almost had six guys in double figures tonight. It’s just a really complete effort from the team, and I thought our guys on the bench did a good job picking up for Alex being out tonight.”
Still, Golden isn’t calling this the perfect win. A lack of aggressiveness in the second half led to a worse performance on the boards, and that’s the kind of thing he’ll have the team focus on as a matchup with No. 5 Kansas State draws near.
Golden is slowly figuring out what works for this team, but February will be a big prove-it month for Florida.
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