Everything Todd Golden said about Florida's matchup with Ole Miss

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Todd Golden and the Florida Gators (13-12/6-6 SEC) look to get back in the win column Wednesday vs. Ole Miss after losing three straight games and four of their last five.

That stretch included three top-five opponents (two on the road) and a trip to Kentucky. The most recent loss, however, was cause for concern with Vanderbilt outscoring UF by 30 from 3-point range.

Here is everything said Florida coach Todd Golden Tuesday on the matchup with the Rebels (10-15/2-10 SEC), the loss to the Commodores and how his team has responded in practice this week.

On the mood in practice the last couple of days:

Todd Golden: “I think everybody in our program, staff, players included didn’t feel great about how Saturday ended up and realize, everything we want is still in front of us. Obviously, it’s a little more difficult now, but that’s the beauty about this league. You watch games on Saturday night after we lose to Vanderbilt you’ve got Missouri winning on a buzzer beater at Tennessee, you’ve got Mississippi State I think starting 1-7 in the league, now have rattled off five straight, had a great win at Arkansas. The difference between the third and the 11^th spot in this league is razor thin, and a great reminder that when we have great urgency, great attention to detail, we can be towards the top of that. And when we don’t, we’re not going to be. I thought we addressed what we needed to, I thought our energy was good, and I thought the guys approached practice the right way yesterday.” 

On if the players received an extra day off:

Golden: “Sunday is always a day off for us, for the most part, so that was standard, but I didn’t want them to forget out this. This is one that for the first time all year I felt thing that we lost one that I expected to win. Not saying that we don’t always expect to win, but I think you understand what I’m saying. You’ve got to tip your cap a little bit to Vanderbilt. They shot the ball exceptionally well. A huge part of our gameplan was not allowing 3s, so we didn’t do a good enough job dictating the way the game went. So, this isn’t a flush it type of deal. We have to address the areas we were deficient and get better quickly.” 

On anything he picked up during film study:

Golden: “I wouldn’t say anything new more than just confirmation on what we thought. You know, we have really gone through a long, difficult stretch and I felt like we just didn’t have the same tension in our body, the same urgency guarding things, which is why we got pretty good. And our attention to detail wasn’t as good as it has been in most games in terms of being on the scout, trying to take away certain things from other teams. So, it was more of a confirmation of that. It felt like that during the game. But definitely things that we can point to and try to get better at yesterday.” 

On how to go about restoring that:

Golden: “We have to just take ownership of that and understand it wasn’t good enough for that game and we missed a good opportunity. But we’re pretty consistent in what we do in terms of going about our business on a day to day basis. The things that we stress generally we weren’t great on Saturday and that’s something that is disappointing because that’s where I thought we made a big jump, especially since the New Year started. But at the same time that was the first time I felt that way so I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll be able to get it right Sunday night.” 

On addressing mental and physical fatigue, or just fighting through it:

Golden: “I think it’s that a little bit. Like I said, we gave them Sunday is going to be off so that should address some of the physical fatigue. And my hope is just losing a game like that on Saturday, even if we were in kind of an elongated mental drain or lull, that it’s like, ‘Oh crap, we can’t let that happen again.’ I was really excited about the energy we had yesterday and the way our guys went about getting it right because it can go one of two ways. I thought our guys did a really good of understanding where we were deficient understanding that we missed an opportunity. But also, not compounding it by thinking, ‘Alright, this puts us dead and buried.’ Again, we made it harder on ourselves, but we can still get where we want to go if we continue to get better at the end of the year.” 

On Riley Kugel’s development and finishing better at the rim: 

Golden: “It’s credit to him for continuing to put the work in and getting better and he is what you hope happens with a really talented young player in a sense of had some good success early, generally younger guys are going to hit the wall at some point during their freshman year, I think that’s pretty standard. But his response from that moment has been great. He’s been one of our better defenders, I think now he’s shooting 55 from 2, 40 from 3, and you know had another really good offensive game on Saturday so just really impressed and happy with his growth and the way he’s just continuing to get better in SEC play.” 

On Ole Miss’ ability to get steals and the need for ball security: 

Golden: “This game, every game. I talk about it a lot. It’s always something that’s really important to the foundation of our program. But yeah definitely, we’ve got to take care of the ball, we’ve got to prevent giving them opportunities to be able to run out in transition and get easy baskets and we need to give ourselves a great chance to get a lot of shots up to be successful. So yes, ball security is going to be very important tomorrow night.” 

On what stands out about Ole Miss:

Golden: “A team that’s not been very healthy over the course of the year, which as any coach understands, if you’re not healthy it’s really hard to put a consistent product on the floor. And now they have certain guys back like (Matthew) Murrell, who has really been a good player in this league a long time. So, we’ve got to be mindful of him and I think when they are really healthy, they can be really good. But they have just really struggled having a full lineup on the floor. I think they’ve had 15 different starting lineups this year or something like that, so that has been a challenge for Kermit (Davis) and his crew. But definitely a team we know is dangerous and we have to make sure our minds are completely focused for this one otherwise it can be another tough one for us.”

On how he expects Castleton to fair against Ole Miss:

Golden: “He’ll continue to do a really good job like he has. I expect a better defensive effort from him on Wednesday than he had on Saturday and I anticipate they’ll throw some different looks at him whether it’s throwing a little double at him or fronting him and making it harder for him to catch. But the great thing about Colin is he’s so flexible in the way he can play offensively that if they’re going that we can get him catches in different parts of the floor and he can still be really effective. I expect him to have a good game tomorrow night.”

On Myreon Jones:

Golden: “I think the Alabama game was tough on everybody. I’m not really worried about that. I didn’t think he had his best game on Saturday but he’s aware of that and we’re aware of that. He’s a veteran player, a guy that’s been really, really good all league and I don’t think we have to really pin him down on it. I think he understands what’s in front of him and what he needs to do and what’s allowed him to be so good in league play. The value of having a veteran like him, you expect him to bounce back mentally and be tough so I think he’ll be good for us the rest of the way.”

On whether or not CJ Felder is ready to return:

Golden: “He’s getting closer to that. Could be tomorrow night, could not be. I think from a physical standpoint, we want to make sure he’s ready to go and able to keep up. He missed a lot of time and there are some good teams that we’re up against and you can’t just roll out of bed and expect to be able to go toe-to-toe with these guys but he’s definitely getting closer.”

On how much Felder helps the frontcourt when he’s ready to return:

Golden: “I hope he can be really helpful. He’s another body and a guy who’s played minutes before. Obviously, he was playing a decent amount of minutes earlier on in the year. But it’s a little bit of a wildcard at the same time just because he was gone for so long. If he can help us it’ll definitely be a nice pick-me-up for the rest of the way for us.”

On whether or not the team’s offensive inconsistencies have surprised him:

Golden: “I would say maybe a little bit what we expected. There’s certain guys that are maybe shooting a little bit better, certain guys are shooting a little bit worse. We thought that shooting would be a little bit of an issue for us this year in terms of having the depth on the roster to have enough guys that can do it. We’ve been good some games. We haven’t been [others]. Obviously, we’ve had some guys who struggled in the league shooting the ball. When we do shoot, well, we’re pretty tough to beat. So, that was obviously an issue on Saturday, they were 12-for-23 and we went two-for-20. You got to shoot better than that to win. But it is what it is. Again, that’s why we talk a lot about controlling the paint and the two-point field goal percentage because I feel like that’s something we can control a little more. And we were great that way on Saturday, I think we were 30-for-47 or something from two, 65%, which is really dang good and we allowed 46%. We did our job that way. We did our job taking care of the ball, did our job on the glass. It was just a shot making difference from the three and from the foul line.”

On whether or not he tinkers with the technical shooting delivery of players during shooting slumps:

Golden: “Yeah, I’m not going to, you know, I don’t think that’s gonna fix it. I think you got to make sure you’re doing a good job with your shot selection. Being in the gym a lot, which I think builds and breeds confidence. If you’re going to change something, you probably want to address that in the offseason. It’s not something that I think it’s beneficial to try to change over the course of the conference season in the middle of week where a guy’s out there throwing up shots with a different look than he had the game before. I think that would be tough, you know. So, again, continuing to just hunt good shots and make sure we’re taking the right ones. I think it’s going to be key for us.”

On whether or not he feels he’s set a strong foundation for the program this year:

Golden: “The foundation of the program? Heck yeah. I mean, we guard, we haven’t guarded the last two games, which we need to get right for us to be the best we can be. But, the three things that we talk about all the time are defending, rebounding and taking care of the ball. We’re a top 15 defense in the country right now. Foundationally, I’d say that’s pretty good. We’re elite at taking care of the ball, something that we’ve been good at all year, and we’re deficient rebounding, and that’s more of a size and depth thing and we’ll continue to address that as we’re here. But, I really like the foundation of our program and where we’re at. To be competitive in this league in year one, having to bring in as many guys as we did, and, you know, re-recruit different guys, there’s basically 13-14 new guys on our roster the way we’re building it. So, I’m happy with where we’re at. Obviously, we got to keep going and keep getting better.”

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