Florida basketball moved to 10-0 on the season Saturday with a dominant win over a good Arizona State team.
Head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] and his three star guards — [autotag]Walter Clayton Jr[/autotag]., [autotag]Alijah Martin[/autotag] and [autotag]Will Richard[/autotag] — spoke to the media after the win and touched on the team’s undefeated start, the contribution of the frontcourt and the increased emphasis on defense this season.
Here’s everything they said.
Opening Statement
Golden: Really proud of our players. I thought they did an incredible job of executing our game plan. (Assistant coach) John Andrzejek had the scout tonight, and I thought he did a wonderful job preparing our players. But then you have to go out and execute it, and Arizona State’s really good. So, for us to be able to do it at such a high level was impressive.
I thought we played well both halves. I thought in the second half we did a great job letting our defense lead us to transition and we were able to get in some spurts — getting some steals, getting some runouts, getting some dunks, and I thought our depth showed up really well tonight.
Sam (Alexis), Tommy (Haugh), Zel (Aberdeen) coming off the bench, providing great minutes. I just think our depth wore them down a little bit. But really proud of our players for the way we played and another really good win for us.
On improved 3-point shooting
Golden: Our whole mentality is we want to be really disciplined defensively, and we want to play with a lot of freedom on offense. It’s “to whom much is given, much is required,” and I think our guys have a good feel and understanding for that. And we were locked in defensively.
We held them to 37 (percent) from the field, guarded the three really well all night and getting those stops and then you get out in transition, you get to play in the open court. Obviously, we have really talented scorers and shooters, and our perimeter can really get going. But, yeah, I feel like our guys played with great freedom offensively today and that led to us having a really good night.
On sustained success for program, 10-0 start
Golden: We’re getting great efforts from multiple guys. We have good players, and they bought into each other, they play hard for each other and there’s no selfishness on this team right now. I think that’s a huge, huge key for our success up to this point but also moving forward, and we talk about it a lot.
I think it’s easier when you have three seniors that kind of lead you in that perimeter and have a great understanding that they can all have success at the same time. Or if they don’t, then it could be their night the next night. We’ve had that all year. Will scored 25 in a game, A-Mart scored 30 in a game, Walt scored 30 in a game. That unselfishness is contagious and for our younger guys, they look up to these guys playing together, and they can’t do anything other than that or they know they won’t be on the floor.
Our team has good chemistry. We have to continue it, though. It’s been good through 10; we’ve got to make sure it’s good on Tuesday night as well.
On the frontcourt
Golden: This group really complements each other very well. Our perimeter complements our frontcourt well and vice versa. I thought Rueben (Chinyelu) was really impactful defensively. I thought he did a great job on the glass. When you have a guy like Rueben that can guard Basheer Jihad and you don’t have to bring a double, it allows you to be solid and stay on the glass better.
Rueben, (Alex) Condo(n), Tommy, Sam, they’re all awesome players and they are all starter-level talents. Again, Sam and Tommy are coming off the bench, but they’re playing big-time minutes, they help us win every night and their time will come to be starters in our program. Just having that depth on the frontline makes us really tough.
Clayton: I don’t know if everybody really be knowing what Rueben, Condo, Tommy, all them guys. They’re down there banging all game. Just being physical, and a lot of physicality down low. It’s hard to do that for 40 minutes with them guys. Throughout the game, they’re just down there banging, banging, banging, and it gets to a point where the other team’s bigs break.
I appreciate our bigs, man. They do a lot for us.
On building on first-half lead
Golden: We didn’t finish the first half very well. To be honest, I thought we got content. We were up 13 or 15 and then didn’t play the end of the first half very well. We should have held for the last shot. We threw it ahead, got a jump ball that ended up basically being a turnover.
At halftime, we talked to our guys. We thought we did a good job shot making in the first half, but we didn’t think we played great in terms of finishing possession defensively and taking care of the ball. So we focused on those things in the second, as well as making sure we had another good effort on the glass.
We still had some turnovers, but for the majority of the half we played a really clean game and our defense was fantastic in the second half. We had five kills, which is three stops in a row, and holding Arizona (State) to under 40 from the field and under 30 from three is really tough to do.
Clayton: Just keep being physical, keep doing what we’re doing. They were going to break. We didn’t feel like they could hang with us the whole game, so just keep doing what you’re doing and wait for them to break.
On turning defense into offense
Martin: We’re just trying to focus more on the defensive end this year. We’ve got a very good offensive scheme and most teams aren’t going to be able to hang with us offensively, so if we get stops we’re just untouchable.
Clayton: It’s definitely taken a big step forward from last year. Last year, we were a great offensive team, bad defensive team. This year, I feel like we’re still a great offensive team, even better this year than last year because we’re turning so many defensive stops into buckets.
On three-point run at end of first half
Richard: just trying to be aggressive. We all put a lot of work in, put a lot of reps in. So, when we see those opportunities, we’ve got to take them and there were going in. It’s definitely good to get on a run like that.
Was Arizona State the best team you’ve faced this year?
Martin: It’s hard to say, but definitely a big shoutout to Arizona State. They’re a really good program. No discredit to any of the teams we’ve played, but that’s what good basketball looks like. Every night, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing
On preparing for North Carolina
Martin: Just knowing that we’re going into their territory. It’s going to be in North Carolina. They’re going to have a lot fans there. Just knowing it’s going to be a road and you’ve got to be strong mentally. These next upcoming practices, we’re going to have to really lock in and be strong mentally.
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