Todd Golden discusses how Florida defense overcame turnover issues in win over Missouri

The Florida Gators took down No. 20 Missouri 73-64 at home Saturday to pull off one of the bigger wins of their season.

Head coach Todd Golden was proud of his team overcoming 19 total turnovers in the game to pull away in the second half. The Gators were -5 in the turnover battle against the Tigers, but managed to outscore Missouri 45-36 in the final 20 minutes for the SEC victory.

Golden discussed how Florida overcame the negative stat.

“Probably a little lucky to be honest,” Golden said. “But in a way it’s probably, you know, some of them were dead ball turnovers so we could go set our defense up. But our guys are tough and they don’t. They don’t quit. We’ve gotten so much better at playing in finishing positions, you know, over the course of the year. 

“And again, like we’re, we have developed into one of the best. probably top 10-15 defenses right now. You know, for us, it’s a great backbone to have in your program to be a great defensive team. Like tonight when you make shots, you’re going to give yourself a great chance to win more often.”

Golden was asked about the backbone he discussed, saying it was a positive moving forward.

“Yeah, I mean, I think the team has definitely gotten more confident,” Golden said. “And part of that might be the fact that we’ve become so solid defensively. But, you know, early on in the year, we just weren’t great at playing through adverse conditions and I feel like now we got to stop creating that for ourselves, but we’ve done a better job playing through (that).

“Our defense has been great. And obviously Colin (Castleton), you know, being on that backline, two more blocks today and a lot of great rim protection is a big part of why.”

In addition to his two blocks on the defensive end of things, Castleton finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Will Richard was Florida’s leading scorer in the win. He had 18 points, one rebound, one assist, one steal and one block in 30 minutes on the floor. Alex Fudge and Kyle Lofton each added eight points.

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Florida (10-7) returns to action Wednesday on the road against Texas A&M (12-4) at 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network.