re: 2024-25 Florida Men’s Basketball

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Starting at Rupp in two weeks,

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Ahead of Florida's upcoming contest, Tuesday's 7 p.m. ET battle at the Exactech Arena with No. 1 Tennessee, UF head coach Todd Golden met with the media Monday to discuss the Volunteers, along with diving more in-depth into UF's loss Saturday at Kentucky.

Here's everything he had to say:

On if there's anything you reviewed from the film that stood out about defensive effort at Kentucky:

"Yeah, we didn't obviously do a good enough job. I thought we generally have the ability to, at least in a game like that, limit something - and transparently we just weren't able to. I think credit to them, obviously. They played a fantastic offensive game,. There was a lot of great shotmaking on both sides. That was my biggest takeaway after watching the game was I thought it was an insanely high- level basketball game. Obviously, we scored 100 so we were doing some good things as well. And to their credit, they did not let us off the hook when we made mistakes. I think that's kind of the biggest takeaway. When you're playing a good offensive team like that, there's going to be some breakdowns. They 're, I think, fifth offensively on KemPom right now, so they're going to get something. To their credit, we just had a few too many breakdowns where we didn't make them execute off of an action. Maybe, we kind of maybe got straight line driven or screwed up some of our switching that we were doing. When we did those things, they took advantage of it what seemed to be every single time. So, disappointed in the result, not discouraged in terms of our effort. We need to be better defensively, I understand that. But I think that could happen to a lot of teams on Saturday. The fact that we were still in the ball game, even allowing them to go on three different 10-0, 10-0, 16-0 runs says a lot about our group. I thought we were pretty resilient. I thought we competed really, really hard and stayed the course throughout all 40 minutes. Disappointing result, but again ancouraged that you go into a place like Rupp with a really good team and playing the way we did."

On if he can think of a tougher start to conference play than at Rupp, then the No. 1 unbeaten team coming in:

"Not through the first two games at least. I think this is probably as difficult as it gets. But listen, it's part of the challenge and just the opportunity of playing in this league. It really is an absolute war every single game. Tomorrow night's going to be no different. And then when we go to Arkansas on Saturday, and it's going to be no different. I think we saw only one road team win on Saturday, right? I think Vanderbilt won at LSU. Everybody else took care of the home floor. You saw some pretty crooked results. You look at Alabama and the way they played against Oklahoma, who was undefeated going into that game. It's going to be really hard to win on the road. So getting Tennessee at home, awesome opportunity. I think our whole program is really excited for it. And we got about 24 more hours to prepare."

On how important is winning the game, avoiding the 0-2 SEC start and maintain some momentum:

"They're not necessarily related to me, but yeah going 0-2 would definitely be disappointing for conference play. We're in a good spot. Whether we win or lose tomorrow night's not going to make or break our season. I think to your point, though, if we can get this thing done, it gives us really good momentum throughout the rest of the conference slate, and gives us a really good chance to be competitive in the top fourth of the league. If we don't win tomorrow night, that might get difficult. I just look at it more like an incredible opportunity. And the great thing about our non- conference is we're not in a position like last year where we felt so much pressure going into every one of these conference games. Because last year we were kind of bubbly, outside, looking in, probably going into conference play, whereas this year that's not the case. So we feel like we're gonna have plenty of opportunities the rest of the way. But yes, obviously all we got, and we're looking forward to this opportunity against Tennessee. "


On what makes Tennessee even better this year, is it what they're doing on offense:

"Coach Barnes is pretty consistent, with the way his program runs, and what they're good at - they're fantastic defensively. I think they're No. 1 KenPom right now defensively, they're so physical. They make it very hard on you. They're physical on the ball, but they also get in the gaps and so you kind of finally get around your man, then somebody's raking at your ball - and they're disciplined. They do a good job covering each other up. Got good rim protection on the backside with (Felix) Okpara and (Cade) Phillips. So they're just very good team. But I think coming into our place, we just have to dictate, whether it's defensively, whether it's a tempo. We just got to take advantage of the opportunity of having them in here. And yes, they're a very good team. I don't think there's a ton of difference in terms of the quality from Tennessee to Kentucky, necessarily, or from us to Kentucky to Tennessee,I think we're all pretty close, a couple points over 100 possessions. So, yeah, I'm just looking forward to having No. 1 in here tomorrow night."

On Chaz Lanier:

"They're perimeter is really hard to guard, with Zeigler – he's one of the best point guards in America, obviously – and Lanier has done a great job of coming in and assuming that role as a high-usage, efficient scorer for them. And Gainey is playing well off the bench. He doesn't start, but he's playing like a starter. Whey they play Mayshack at the 4, they'll put [Gainey] in there and now they have a lot of shooting and you have to be mindful of that. But yeah, they've got really good, talented players, so we have to do a good job of defending them."

On when you face the No. 1 defense vs 3-point shooting, does it deter you from shooting 3s: "No. It's interesting, though. They are a statistical anomaly and we were just talking about it a little bit ago. They give up a ton of 3s. In my opinion, there are very few teams that can afford to give up a ton of 3s and still be able to guard the line well. I was talking to Coach Andrijek and Coach Hovde about it. Houston kind of does it. They give up a lot of 3s, but you work to get 'em. Tennessee has been pretty good at it, as well. But it's a tough way to live, for me, at least. I've never been a big fan of giving up a bunch of 3s. … So, no. Listen. We're pretty good offensively. I'm not going to tell my guys, 'Hey, we're going to go out there and play. We just scored a hundred at Rupp.' This team is pretty good offensively. So, yeah, Tennessee is a fantastic defensive team, but they have to guard us too, right? It's going to be a challenge for them to come in here and stop us also. I just think it's going to be a little like Saturday. It's going to be an awesome game tomorrow night."

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