Todd Golden credits Florida's defense in win over Vanderbilt

Florida got back in the win column this weekend with their 77-64 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday. They were able to do so in part from an effort on the defensive end that made Todd Golden proud.

Golden applauded the Gators’ defense in his postgame press conference following the 13-point win over the Commodores in Gainesville. He thought it was as good of an outing as they’ve had on that end in some time, even if they did give up too many free points at the charity stripe as the game went on.

“I thought we defended really well today. I thought this was one of our better defensive efforts in a while,” said Golden. “Held them to 35% from the field, didn’t shoot well from three.”

“We fouled too much in the second half. We went them to the line 23 times, which was frustrating,” Golden noted.

Most of Golden’s praise came down to what Florida did in their preparation and how they followed their scouting in the game. They knew what they could and couldn’t allow to certain players and, as such, undoubtedly made it a difficult afternoon for Vanderbilt on offense.

“Against a team like Vandy, to your point, with how many sets they run? It’s more about concepts. Just understanding, when you’re matched up with certain guys, what you’re willing to give up, what you’re not,” Golden explained. “I thought our guys were locked in to the personnel today.”

In total, Vanderbilt scored only 64 by shooting just 35.7% from the field and 22.7% from three. They made just 20 baskets in the game with only five of them coming from behind the arc.

Much of those struggles came in the first half when the Commodores mustered just 20 points by shooting 25.9% overall and 14.3% from three. 44 points in the second half improved those numbers by game’s end but 23 trips to the free-throw line, albeit with just 14 makes, certainly aided in that.

Florida did what they needed to do in order to secure their 19th win and stay in the race near the top of the conference standings. That included their work on the defensive side of the ball as they performed well after having allowed some higher-scoring outputs as of late.

“The big picture? I thought we gave ourselves a really good chance by the way we locked in,” said Golden.

Joe Lunardi calls Florida ‘a very dangerous team’ come March

Joe Lunardi has Florida firmly in the NCAA Tournament, currently as a No. 7 seed.

However, he wasn’t always that high on the Gators. In fact, he wasn’t even sure Florida was a tournament team just a few weeks ago.

“Before coming on, I took a look at Florida and not even a full month ago they were a bubble team,” Lunardi said. “Checked back even two or three weeks ago in the 10, 11-seed range. Now a seven, knocking on the door of a six.”

Suffice it to say that the job that Todd Golden has done with this team has impressed Lunardi.

“This is really an extraordinary – I don’t want to say turnaround. I want to say evolution, if you will, for the Gators,” Lunardi said. “A lot of teams? The whole isn’t equal to the sum of the parts. But I think, with this squad, it’s the other way around. They’re definitely getting the most out of what they have and look to me like a very dangerous team in a one-and-done situation.”