The 2021-2022 Florida men’s basketball team under former head coach Mike White struggled to shoot the ball well from deep and rebound defensively, only shooting 30% from three and finishing 331st in defensive rebounding with a 22.56 per game average. New coach Todd Golden said during his introductory press conference that if the Gators improve drastically in those areas while getting better in others that the program could return to the NCAA Tournament next season.
“I think the two areas that we’re going to really strive to be better at next year is shooting the ball,” Golden said about his self-scout of last year’s Florida team. “The team I think was around 30.5% from the year on (three-pointers) and the way that I like to play that’s simply not going to be good enough. We’re going to have to go out and shoot the ball better to achieve the goals we want to achieve.
“Also defensively: rebounding. That was an area that was surprising to me when evaluating the team and the roster that they didn’t have a lot of success in because I think the pieces are there, and I think the talent is there in terms of being able to get on the glass. I think if we can lift those two areas up a couple of pegs and stay consistent and get better in other areas, we should be back in the tournament next year.”
It’s easier said than done for the former San Francisco skipper because the Gators’ current roster consists of six seniors and graduate students that likely played their final game for the Orange and Blue. Then there should also be quite a bit of roster turnover like there typically is during a coaching change.
Florida and Golden also granted its top signee from the class of 2022, Malik Reneau, his release from his letter of intent earlier this week. The five-star power forward prospect was ranked No. 28 overall according to the 247Sports Composite. Golden said they haven’t given up on Reneau, but the task of hanging on to him has become more difficult now that other schools can recruit him again.
Golden and his coaching staff will also tackle the NCAA transfer portal to address the incoming roster turnover. It was reported that Florida has already been in contact with Utah Valley center Fardaws Aimaq and Dartmouth point guard Taurus Samuels.
It’s good to see that Golden has high expectations for the Gators program but turning Florida into an NCAA Tournament team again next season is a tall order.
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