Todd Golden talks about Florida’s huge win over Alabama after game

Senior Night, obviously Tyrese and ZP have been blessings for us all year but Senior Night can be funky sometimes and you get a lot of energy, a lot of exterior situations happening and sometimes those guys don’t have a great game on Senior Night.

Fortunately for the Gators, that was not the case tonight. I thought Tyrese was a monster. We had a lot of fun with the fact that he was 9-for-9 from the free-throw line in the locker room. He hit some big, big, big free throws to keep that lead where it needed to be and then ZP, I was actually really happy we were able to get him some rest throughout the game.

You know, 33 minutes is on the lower side that he’s been playing for us and Denzel Aberdeen deserves a lot of credit for that. I thought he had a great game tonight. But ZP, just the steady, calming influence out there. Both those guys, just a huge, huge reason as to why we won. I did think everybody that played tonight contributed to winning and I think that’s something that’s really unique and hard to say after any game but really, every guy did their job tonight. Just a huge win for us before we get to the tournament and obviously before we go finish the regular season against Vanderbilt.

For us to finish the year with only one loss in here, an overtime loss to Kentucky where we led for most of the game, just an incredible year for us in this building. I’ll say this again, our fans have been absolutely incredible. Incredible. Our trainer Duke Werner who’s been here for almost 30 years said that was one of the best student sections he’s seen in the O’Dome in his time and you could feel it right before tip, the energy for a Tuesday night tip.

Just really proud of our team and really grateful for my staff and the way we executed tonight.

It was one of our biggest keys. We talked a lot about rebounding going into this game because that was something that really hurt us at their place and probably kept us from winning that game so we talked about that a lot.

In the second half at their place, we let Sam Walters get loose. He made three or four threes and Sears got loose. I think they made six or seven threes in the second half, which allowed them to tie it. After rebounding we talked about having great discipline and execution for 40 minutes and understanding who the shooters were and not letting them get off.

I thought Walter Clatyon probably had his best defensive effort of the year in that regard. He was so physical, so tough, not letting guys get threes off. If you hold them to five made 3s on the road, you’re going to give yourself a chance. They probably need 10. Just a great effort that way.

Tommy was plus-12 in his minutes, Condo was plus-five in his minutes. It’s been the same story all year, those guys come in the game and we don’t drop off. They’re able to maintain leads and in certain situations, extend them. I thought they played with great energy and enthusiasm all night.

So much so, to the point where I would have normally been very upset when Alex Condon tip-dunked Walter’s and-one and then they wiped it but he was just playing so hard. He was giving us such great minutes that I was just like, “Hey dude, keep going. Keep going. It’ll work itself out.”

We talk about it a lot, those guys are a huge reason why we’ve been successful this season.

I think there’s only been eight or nine teams since 1980 that have gone undefeated or only lost one time in here. It’s really, really hard to do and we had some really good teams in here, too, with Kentucky, Auburn and Bama, specifically, Mississippi State.

One thing in this league, to be a really good team, you have to take care of your home court. You just got to do it and you’re going to get some opportunities like tonight to get a Quad-I A win and if you kind of stumble in a couple of those, it’s going to be really hard but we took care of business against Auburn.

We took care of business tonight. I feel like our guys have done a great job playing in here all year.

We were very physical. We guarded hard and our guys did a great job of executing our coverages and what we wanted to do. That was the main thing. Just turning those steals into offense was good.

Early on, I think we shot it 1-for-10 from the field or something like that but it wasn’t concerning because I felt like we were playing the right way and part of that was our rebounding and our defense. I felt like we would end up making shots and scoring the basketball.

Obviously, we scored 105 but I thought our defense and rebounding led to a lot of that as well.

I think so, you know, I really do. And, you know, we’ve talked very honestly about our second half and, you know, where we focus on the losses and that’s normal, and that’s understandable. But it’s also really enjoyable on a night like tonight where it never gets under 18 or whatever, 15, 16 in the second half, you know, start to finish.

We’re up nine at halftime, we get that thing to 15 pretty quick and it never drops below that, especially with that team. We were trading baskets a lot down the stretch. They scored 52, it’s not like we stopped them a lot, but a lot of free throws in the second half both ways. But again, we did what we needed to do to beat the best offensive team in America.

I mean, we’re deep. it’s part of why we’re good. We don’t have any guys that are dragging it down out there, you know, where you can really help off with them and if they do, you know, our frontcourt guys who have really good IQ and know how to take advantage of those situations. You know, so it’s going to be different guys on different nights.

I thought Will (Richard) was fantastic tonight. He was a guy, we talked about in our session yesterday or whatever it was, where it’s, “Is he going to deliver?” you know, he’s a guy that, like I told you guys, every time he shoots the ball, I think he’s going in and for him to have 23 tonight, was just a huge, huge effort.

Will’s a stud man. He’s a super, super just tough, intelligent and gritty dude, and for him to have a night like this, it’s deserving. You know, he’s stayed the course and hasn’t questioned anything and really proud of him.

Yeah, I agree with that. You know, I think he got a lot late. He had three or four threes late, got to line a lot late. What I would say to that is: We did a great job on him for long enough to where it could never become a game. You know, when late he got his, but I agree. I thought, especially in the first half, you know, I think he had like four points in the first. Did he have 29 in the second half?

So yeah, we were great in the first half, but I agree with what you’re saying essentially. We were trading baskets at that point. And a big part of our talk to the team down the stretch was, once we got that lead to 20, or whatever it was, “They’re not going to, they can’t catch us unless we give them threes. They just can’t, they can’t. We’re going to be able to make enough baskets or get to the foul line enough.”

And a lot of those layups that Sears got was because we weren’t over-helping, and we weren’t giving them spray-out opportunities. So, you got to you got to tip the cap a little bit and give him—well first, heck of a player. But if they’re gonna beat you one way in that situation, great. Make two, don’t let them get to three-point line and just try churn that clock down to zero.

Yeah, you know, absolutely, I think to lead from start to finishing against Bama, who’s, you know, top seven or eight team analytically, depending on which way you look, we weren’t capable of doing that last year.

Actually, we beat Tennessee here one time, but I think that was a little bit of an aberration. We had UConn and those other teams, we weren’t able to beat them. You know, especially in here this team is elite. We really are and I think we have the potential and the capacity to go on the road.

Vanderbilt is going to be a battle. Alabama struggled, teams struggle in that gym. And then getting past that game, the conference tournament. You know, we have some opportunities to go play on a neutral floor and see what we’re capable of in that setting. So, yeah, I think we’ve definitely made a jump and we got to see how far we can go this year.

Certainly hoping, you know, certainly hoping. Last year, we had some ups and downs, you know, and kind of had to get the program back on track a little bit.

Obviously, our spring, last spring was, you know, a big deal, we were able to go get a lot of good transfers and bring in some really, really gritty freshmen that fit the DNA of our program, and like we talked about last time, we’re not as consistent as I necessarily want to be, especially on the road, but we’re in the arena right now.

I feel confident that we can compete with anybody on a neutral floor over the next couple of weeks. So hopefully, we can stay the course and our guys will handle success the right way and make sure we get back to work on Thursday, preparing for Vanderbilt.

Florida wraps up its regular-season schedule on Saturday, March 9, in Nashville as the Gators travel for a rematch with the Vanderbilt Commodores. Tipoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

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