Todd Golden shares key factors in UConn loss

Florida suffered its fourth loss of the season on Wednesday, falling to No. 5 UConn 75-54 at home. The Huskies (10-0) controlled the game from the opening tip and never really gave the Gators (6-4) the chance to get back into it, and coach Todd Golden highlighted some key factors in the UConn loss.

Golden, Florida’s first-year coach, was relatively pleased with the effort, if not the execution.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge going into it,” Golden said. “I thought we competed, for the most part, really well. Defensively in the first half we did a good job, kept us in the game that way. Second half thought we came out with some juice and we just couldn’t get over the hump to where we could put them in any sort of peril. They were able to keep us at 10 when we had some chances.”

Leading scorer Colin Castleton had an especially tough time, finishing just 4-of-12 from the floor with 12 points and eight rebounds.

UConn big man Donovan Clingan dominated the matchup in the paint, using his size and awareness to make life exceedingly difficult on Castleton. Clingan finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in just 19 minutes of action.

He was 8-of-9 from the floor.

Poor shooting among key factors in UConn loss

Florida hasn’t had a ton of success putting the ball through the hoop just yet this season. The Gators rank No. 118 nationally in field goal percentage, hitting at a 46.0% clip.

“In terms of our competitiveness, and we talked about this last time, that was better against a good team,” Golden said. “But at the end of the day against a team like UConn, you’ve just got to make some shot to give yourself a chance. And multiple guys on our team didn’t, and obviously we shot 30% for the game.”

Forward Alex Fudge was the only player who took multiple shots who finished shooting better than 50% in the contest, knocking down five of his eight attempts.

Florida simply needs more scorers to emerge if it hopes to have a shot against the elite teams in college basketball.

“I don’t think it’s too complicated,” Golden said. “Our competitiveness is getting better, it’s improving, especially against a team like this.”