‘We carved in the second half’: Todd Golden reacts to UF's win at Bama

Fifth-ranked Florida picked up its fifth top-25 win of the season Wednesday with a 99-95 victory over No. 7 Alabama. It marked Todd Golden’s third top-10 road win, the most by any UF coach in school history.

The Gators’ 66 wins under Golden through 99 games also mark the program’s most all-time through a head coach’s first 100 games (65, Mike White; 62, Tommy Bartlett & Sam McAllister; 58, Billy Donovan).

Here’s everything Golden said in his postgame interviews after the win over the Tide.

RELATED: Takeaways from Florida Gators’ 99-94 win over Alabama

Opening statement:

TODD GOLDEN: “Really proud of our group tonight, just an amazing win obviously going up against a fantastic team here, a club that’s been one of the best teams in college basketball over the last couple years. Coach Oats has done an incredible job just getting this program to be a perennial top-10 team, and for us to be able to come in here and play with a lead for 27 minutes and not ever get behind [late] in the second half was a great effort for us. Obviously, these two guys sitting next to me [Alex Condon and Walter Clayton Jr.] had remarkable games. I thought Walter did a great job controlling the game. Eight assists, one turnover, five rebounds, 22 points and just really kept us poised, making great decisions. Condo obviously had his best game as a Gator tonight, just did a remarkable job finishing around the rim, hitting big threes in the first half, just playing with great physicality and effort and setting the tone. Twenty-seven and 10, remarkable game for him. I’m just incredibly proud of our guys. This is a big win, obviously both clubs competing for the last 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and this was a big one for us.”

On the Gators’ ability to win against top teams on the road:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think it’s a strength of our team. We have a very mature team, workman-like approach. We’re very consistent. For whatever reason, I feel like we really hone in and do a great job of preparing on the road and making sure we come in with a great mentality. To win a game like this, like Walt said, you’re going to have to deal with some highs and lows and you can’t allow your emotions to affect you negatively, and I thought we did a great job of doing that. But I think we’re one of the best teams in America, and to do that you have to go on the road and beat good teams. We did that with Auburn, and we did that tonight with Alabama.”

On the difference in style of play between Alabama and Texas A&M: 

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, it’s what makes this league so great, you know? You have a team like A&M, who had lost four in a row, and at home controls the game against the No. 1 team in America last night, and obviously very contrasting styles. I think our group does a good job of being able to execute our game-plan, and obviously there was a much different game-plan tonight than there was on Saturday night. Teams that really guard much differently, and, again, against a team like Alabama that drops in the ball-screen a lot, guys like Walt, Mart, Zelly, and Will did a great job eating that space in the paint, making great decisions, you know. But again, us as coaches can do what we can to put our guys in good position, but at the end of the day it’s up to these guys to make plays, and they did a wonderful job of that for 40 minutes tonight.”

On how much fun that win was for him and his team:

TODD GOLDEN: “It was an incredible effort by our players. First half I thought we played pretty well with the exception of some sloppy turnovers in the open floor, and we just missed some shots. And so, at halftime we talked to our team a lot about staying on the glass, doing a better job taking care of the basketball and we thought that we’d be in good shape, and we certainly did that. We had two turnovers in the second half, we were plus-10 on the glass in the second half. Just a great effort by our players tonight.”

On the Tide not being able to keep up with UF:

TODD GOLDEN: “We did a great job of giving some stops, getting some clean rebounds. And once we got in transition, I’m not sure there’s a better team than us in America in the open court. And we made some really good decisions, some big shots. it was just an impressive effort, 99 in here’s hard to do. Our guys played very well tonight.”

On the play of Florida’s bigs against Alabama:

TODD GOLDEN: “Condo obviously was remarkable, 27 and 10. Just playing his tail off, made some big-time 3s early. Great job finishing around the rim, getting some second chances. I thought Reuben gave us a great effort, 11 rebounds, nine points. Tommy had a great second half and Micah gave us great minutes as well. It’s a big strength of our team. You need multiple guys to step up to win a game like tonight and they certainly did it.”

On Florida’s perfect execution out of timeouts:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, we carved in the second half. Our guys did a great job of executing. We have some good ideas that took advantage of the way they were guarding us. And again, we can draw it up, but our guys have to go make a play and they certainly did that.”