Florida basketball is 5-0 to start the season, but head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] wasn’t happy with his squad’s second-half effort against Florida A&M on Tuesday night.
“Look, I thought we played really well in the first half,” Golden opened his post-game press conference. “I thought we did a good job to get a 24-point lead, and I just thought in the second half we let our foot off the gas a little bit. Stylistically, I thought offensively we played pretty well.
“Obviously, we did not shoot it well. We missed 15 threes and I thought we allowed that to affect our defense a little bit in the second half, and we just fouled way too much on the defensive end — sent them to the line 19 times in the second half.”
Moving forward, the goal is to put forth a more competitive effort for the entirety of the game, starting with Friday’s matchup.
“Like I talked about with the guys in the locker room, our expectation is to be able to play two complete halves, play 40 minutes. I thought tonight, we played 20 really good minutes in the first half and then we were just okay in the second. A lot to improve upon. We’ll have some good film to break down tomorrow with the guys as we prepare for Southern Illinois on Friday.”
Florida has struggled to jump out to early leads the season, especially within the first five minutes of the game. The Gators have not trailed at any point this season by the 15-minute mark of the first half, but they’ve only jumped out ahead early against Grambling State — tied against South Florida, up three against Jacksonville, up six against Grambling State, up one against Florida State and up four against FAMU
“I think we come out with the right mentality,” he said. “We haven’t played our best in the first four minutes. We did win the first mini-game. I think we were up 7-6, or whatever it was, but sometimes it does take you a couple possessions to get in the flow and to get comfortable. But I do believe our mentality was good and we had the right spirit about us coming out. We just didn’t play our best until kind of the middle of the first half.”
Strong finishes to each half
Despite the slow start to each half, Golden praised his team for putting a better effort together in the final minutes on both sides of the break.
“I was pleased with both (finishes to each half) for different reasons,” he said. “In the first half, to be able to extend (the lead) to 24 on a 19-2 run was awesome. Different guys stepped up and helped us create that lead. We challenged our guys (in the second half).
“The last eight minutes we were getting after them pretty good because we have bigger goals. Making sure we’re competitive for all 40 and not letting ourselves off the hook.
“In that last mini-game, we challenged them and said, ‘Listen, we’re not satisfied with how this game is ending right now. We have to find a way to spread it out a little bit,’ and we did. Again, we want to more complete, but in those specific situations, I thought we did a good job.”
Golden praises veteran leaders
The returning duo of [autotag]Walter Clayton Jr[/autotag]. and [autotag]Will Richard[/autotag] have helped keep the team level through these first five games, and Golden added FAU transfer [autotag]Alijah Martin[/autotag] into that group as well.
“I’d throw Alijah in there, too. He had 14 (points), nine (rebounds) and four (assists), no turnovers. Those guys, as you all know, we built this team with those three guys being the main cogs on the perimeter and guys we play off of and lead us with their veteran leadership and their experience,” he said.
“All three of those guys have scored 1,000 points in college, all are great shooters, tough, physical defenders and guys that understand how to win.”
Golden added that being able to rely on that trio allows him to make adjustments on the fly, even if it means giving them more minutes in a game that should be able to go to the backups.
“It gives you a lot of confidence as a coach to be able to rip those guys out there. When we’re at our best, they’re just playing, right? Like we’re getting stops, we’re getting clean rebounds and we’re getting out in transition and they’re just making plays.
“I had to play them a little more than I wanted to tonight to be able to make sure that we finished the game the right way but, yeah, it gives you a lot of comfort as a coach when you’re able to roll those guys out there.”
Martin stepped up in particular against FAMU, which speaks to his competitive nature as a player.
“It’s one of his best qualities, his competitiveness and his maturity in the way he attacks it,” Golden said. “First of all, he knows what winning is, playing in the Final Four (a year ago), and to have someone like him on the floor with Will and Walt that has that kind of mentality — this is all three of those guys’ last rip, and so the way they compete on a daily basis is really important.
“Alijah’s a guy that, regardless of what the score is, he’s going to compete at a high level. He’s not always going to be perfect, but he’s a guy I’d always want on my team. He’s always going to play the game the right way. I’ve seen his floor game improve dramatically since he’s been with us — another four-assist, zero-turnover night tonight. He’s just becoming a really complete basketball player this year.”
Thomas Haugh stepping up
With Sam Alexis out, [autotag]Thomas Haugh[/autotag] played a season-high 28 minutes against Florida A&M. He made an argument for increased playing time by breaking the double-digit barrier in points and forcing a handful of turnovers.
“He’s the definition of a winning player,” Golden said. “He does all the quote-unquote little things that impact winning. He’s a guy that can switch defensively, he’s a very good rebounder, a really good ball mover and facilitator on the offensive end and he hit a couple shots tonight. Twelve (points), seven (rebounds), I guess two assists and three steals, he just finds ways to impact (the game). Plus-23 in 28 minutes.
“Without having Sam, without having Denzel (Aberdeen), obviously our bench was shortened and we needed a guy like Tommy to step up and play more minutes and we knew he’d be up to the task. He’s fantastic. He comes to play and compete every day, and he generally gives us a better chance to win when he’s on the floor.”
Other players stepping up off the bench
With Haugh taking the bulk of the extra minutes in the frontcourt, Golden split Aberdeen’s minutes between freshman [autotag]Isaiah Brown[/autotag] and first-year sophomore [autotag]Urban Klavzar[/autotag], who recently was cleared by the NCAA to play this season.
“I though Urby played well, he just didn’t shoot well,” Golden said. “I thought he played hard, I thought he defended well, had a good floor game with three assists, zero turnovers. I think for him it’s just going to take a little bit to get comfortable playing at this level — just kind of getting thrown into the mix early in the season, but I was pleased with his effort. Obviously, we want him to make a couple more shots but I was pleased with his effort.
“I thought Zay was awesome. I thought he did a really nice job at the end of the first half taking advantage of the minutes that he got in the last mini-game. Hit those two big threes that really extended it to 24. Got a great defensive stop at the end of the first half. Kind of was put in a one-on-one situation in the middle of the floor, moved his feet and kind of used his physicality to force a turnover.”
With the aforementioned trio of guards in the starting rotation all set to move on from Gainesville after this season, Golden is eyeing Brown as a potential replacement in the backcourt for 2025-26.
“Zay Brown is a guy we believe will be a great player here at Florida and obviously has some really good ones in front of him right now but as early as next year, we think he can be an impact player in a big way. I was happy for him that he got to play a little more tonight and proud of him for taking the opportunity.”
Off night for Alex Condon
Preseason All-SEC forward Alex Condon scored 14 points in the win, but he shot 3 of 14 from the field. A 7 of 8 night from the free-throw line saved him and he remained effective on the glass with nine rebounds, but the poor shooting performance as him at a season-low 12.2 points per game.
“I think tonight was hopefully a little bit of an aberration,” Golden said. “He was shooting like 85% from two coming into this game and tonight just had some bad breaks. Credit to FAMU, I thought they bothered him around the rim. They blocked a couple of his shots and didn’t go for a couple of his pump fakes. He kind of got caught in no-man’s land. But Condo is always playing hard.
“He didn’t have his best game, his most efficient game, but he’s always playing hard and competing his tail off. Got on the glass, protected the rim again, got two steals so, again, he found ways to impact winning, he just did not finish tonight. Hopefully as we kind of prepare for SIU, I think he’ll be better on Friday night that way.”
Transition offense good, but could be better
Florida dominated the fast-break against FAMU, but the Gators still aren’t knocking down all of the open shots they’re creating, especially from distance.
“That’s kind of who we are,” Golden said. “We want to get out in transition and score early in the clock, and to win that battle, 30-4, is important. To be honest, I thought we should have done a little better, in terms of what we were able to do on the offensive end. I do think that when we go back and watch, we missed some really good looks from three. I thought we maybe took three quick ones or ones that weren’t great shots, but for the most part I think we got some really great catch-and-shoot looks that we just didn’t knock down.
“Playing the percentages, I do believe that will go in our favor here shortly, especially with the guys that are taking those shots. It just hasn’t gone that way for us, but fortunately we’ve still been able to wins.”
Drawing fouls a positive for Florida
Florida has attempted 25 or more shots from the free throw line in all but one game so far this weekend. With the three-ball not falling as frequently as the Gators would like, the ability to draw fouls consistently has helped Florida stay out in front in most games.
“When you’re not shooting the ball well, you can go through spells where you have a lot of empty possessions. When you’re able to get to the line, I feel like that settles you a little bit. We shot it decent from the line, about 70% tonight, but that’s the most efficient way to score. You get to the line, it’s about 1.4 points per possession. It’s a good way to maintain consistency and not allow teams to go on runs against you.”
On the flip side of that coin, Florida got in some foul trouble during the second half, which hurt its ability to extend the lead.
“To be honest, that’s why we were having so much trouble keeping FAMU down in the second half. We just let them get to the line 19 times, and to their credit, they made 85% of them. Our field-goal percentage on defense was great, 34 from the field, they only shot 24 from three, but that free-throw percentage for them was the equalizer and allowed them to play us even in the second half.”
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