Everything Todd Golden said before the Florida Gators travel to FSU

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden spoke with the media Thursday before his team’s first road game of the season against Florida State on Friday at 6 p.m. He discusses the matchup with Seminoles, Urban Klavzar being cleared by the NCAA and more.

Golden also addressed the ongoing Title IX investigation and discussed the plan to redshirt 7-foot-9 freshman Olivier Rioux. Below is everything Golden said and video from his press conference.

Todd Golden Q&A

Opening statement: 

TODD GOLDEN: “Before we get started, I just want to, again, just make another quick statement, just so you guys are caught up. Continuing to actively engage in the school’s inquiry. As I said Monday night, I’m not going to comment on absolutely anything in regards to the investigation out of the respect to the process. And to be clear, I would love to be able to comment on multiple elements of the investigation. But I’m simply not allowed to do so out of the requirements due to confidentiality. I’m also actively engaging with my legal team to see what potential proceedings I will have the ability to take as I proceed through this, if I desire to do so.

“Simply, I just appreciate you guys understanding where I’m coming from and what I am and unable to talk about at this moment. I hope you respect that, but I am not going to comment anything in regards to the inquiry at this moment. I appreciate that.

“Moving forward, we got some great news for our program. We found out about 45 minutes ago that Urban Klavzar has been cleared by the NCAA and will be able to suit up and participate tomorrow night against Florida State. So I’m incredibly happy for him. It’s been a really trying time for him as he’s moved over from Slovenia on his own, trying to figure out this process. But he will be in uniform tomorrow and he will play tomorrow night against Florida State.”

On the effort he’s looking for in the first road game:

TODD GOLDEN: “It’s going to be a great challenge. To your point, being on the road for the first time in a rivalry game. It’s a tricky one for your first road contest, but this early in the year, I think it’s going to be a great opportunity regardless to go out and see what we’re capable of. But, honestly, the thing that I look for the most is just consistency from our guys being able to execute the same way that we have neutrally and at home so far this season and on the road in what we anticipate being a tough, road-game environment.”

On his situation being more of a distraction at FSU:

TODD GOLDEN: “Honestly, to me, it’s no different than any other road game. We anticipate it being a raucous environment, a crowd that is going to come after us and we’re going to do everything we can to be prepared to go compete the best of our abilities.”

On Urban Klavzar: 

TODD GOLDEN: “He’ll play tomorrow night for sure. It’s going to take some time for him to kind of become acclimated and integrate him in with the other guys. Obviously, we played three games and we have a good flow going. But he’s a high-level player and he’s a guy that we have counted on being a part of this rotation since the summertime, since he came to Florida. We’ll have to work those kinks out. It’ll be a little similar to when Zyon (Pullin) came back last year after three games and trying to figure out the best way to get him into the lineup. But, again, it’ll be really nice to have him out there tomorrow night.”

On if he thinks Sam Alexis’ role can expand: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I do. I think it’s a fortunate thing that we have to deal with — that we have four really good front-court players. They all, in different ways, give us a good chance to help us. I think for Sam, he’s played really well over the course of the season. I feel like he’s a great, low-post scorer and he’s a great rebounder and he’s done a really good job protecting the rim. But the more you play him, the less you’re playing in Tommy, Condo or Rueben. So you got to figure that out, what the right balance is. But he’s definitely played at a high enough level to where I feel like he’s earned some additional minutes.”

On the scout for Jamir Watkins:

TODD GOLDEN: “He’s a really good player. He was fantastic last year, kind of that do-it-all wing, a guy that’s unique because at that position he’s able to initiate and execute a lot of the offense. He has a high assist rate; he makes good decisions; shot the ball well in the past. He hasn’t shot it as well this year, but he’s capable of being a 3-point shooter, and he’s strong and physical. It’s hard to guard him with guards, but it’s hard to guard him with front court players as well. You got to kind of find the right fit. I think Alijah, Will, Tommy will all get cracks at him. But he is the head of their snake, and we got to do a good job on him if we want to win tomorrow night.”

On FSU having an elite Leonard Hamilton defense:

TODD GOLDEN: “On tape, they do defend like those teams. They’re an incredibly aggressive defense so far. They played three games against teams that kind of range from 150 to 250 so far this year, one neutrally. But their defensive numbers, their defensive-effective field-goal percentage and their defensive turnover rate jump out at you. They’re insanely good so far. So to me, I think the key is just take care of the basketball. We cannot turn it over, because that’ll lead to run-outs and easier percentage shots for them, and we got to make them work defensively all night long. If we take care of the ball, I think we’ll have a really good chance to win the game tomorrow night. But if we don’t, and we end up leaving there with a 20% assist rate or so, we could be in some trouble. So again, I think the key for us is taking care of the basketball, especially on the road against a team that has turned teams over, I think about 25% of time so far this season.”

On Urban’s process and how unique it was:

TODD GOLDEN: “It was a process, to say the least. I give a lot of credit to our compliance staff here at Florida, as well as the SEC and the NCAA for doing what was right and clearing this guy and allowing him to compete. He was unique, in terms of cases that they’ve evaluated so far. But I think anybody that’s kind of studied this year’s class of freshmen from Europe realized that there were a lot of guys that had this unique circumstance. So I’m not necessarily surprised it took a little longer. But I am very pleased with Jamie McCloskey, Kim Green, our compliance staff here at UF for the work they did. They were diligently working on it, making sure that they gave the NCAA and SEC every piece of fact that they needed to come to this conclusion. Obviously we would love to have them three games ago, but we’re satisfied to get them now and to get them eligible.”

On if Urban’s ruling helps set a new precedent with NCAA:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah. I think the one unique piece of this is that they’re ruling them a sophomore to start. Obviously that’s unique, and I probably should have mentioned that also, but there’s time to figure that out. The key for us, and the key for him, was making sure that he could participate right now. And so, he’ll have three years currently of eligibility. Again, I think by the time that fourth year rolls around, there might be some new rules and understanding of kind of navigating young men and women coming over from Europe to play college ball. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But I’m really happy for him that he’s playing tomorrow night.”

On Olivier Rioux:

TODD GOLDEN: “We’re talking about redshirting him for this year. And I should have made that clear, because, and honestly, it’s put him in a tough situation. He’s sitting over there at the end of the games, and everybody’s yelling at him and trying to get him out there, and they just hadn’t understood that that was our potential plan for him. So that’s where we’re at at this moment. I’m not saying that’s 100% gonna be the plan. We’ll continue to talk to him and see if he, you know, changes what he wants to do, but as of right now, that’s the plan that we’re gonna have with him as we move forward.”

On if Rioux was asked if he wanted to play:

TODD GOLDEN: “No, I was more, I was just explaining to him, ‘hey, you know, the reason why I’m not putting you in right now is what we’ve talked about a little bit’, you know, and this isn’t like, this wasn’t a choice that I made for him. This is something that we’ve talked to with – I should say people out of our program have talked with – him and his family and his parents, his AAU coach, and just kind of trying to figure out what the best route for him is. So that, I just went up to him and I was like, Hey, I’m not trying to be disrespectful with you. I’m just not trying to burn your year putting you in for 30 seconds.”

On how Rioux is handling the situation:

TODD GOLDEN: “He’s been great. He’s been great. I think he’s, he’s a great kid, and he, he’s a pleaser, you know, he wants to do what others think is best for him. And he’s, he’s coachable, and so, like, again, if this is what our staff, his parents, you know, the people around him that care about him, think is best. I think he’s going to be comfortable. Ultimately, it’s his decision, but I think that’s where he’ll land.”

On what he said to him on Monday night:

TODD GOLDEN: “It was more of just a quick, like, conversation that I probably should have had with him long before, 30 seconds to go in the game, but that’s, that’s when it was happening.”

On fans stopping the chants for him:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yes, now that should be the case. I think by next week people will know.”

On Klavzar helping out 3-point shooting:

TODD GOLDEN: “He’s just a good player, man. I mean, you’ve been in practices where he’s competed at you know, just another really talented, skilled guard, a guy that should help us against pressure, a guy that can really shoot the ball, a guy with moxie, toughness, you know, little undersized, but really competes on both ends. And a guy that’s played high level basketball, you know. So the great thing about Urby is he’s not going to be your normal freshman, you know. He’s not a guy that’s coming out of the high school ranks, you know, bright eyed bushy tailed going into Florida State. He’s played in big-time environments. He’s played at international basketball, at the highest level, so I think he will be ready to help us right away.”

On how old Klavzar is:

“Urby’s 20.”

On Klavzar as a defender:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think really high IQ, stronger than you would anticipate, good feel, understands where to be, when to be, and like a really good positional and a really good team defender.”

On how the locker room is gelling:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think they’ve been great, you know. And I think you can see it through the way we play, to be honest, right? Like it’s, you’ve seen other situations where you can tell that certain guys don’t like being on the floor with other guys. And I’m not saying in our program, but across the country, and I think you look at the way our guys share the ball and play for each other indicates how they care about each other and the type of relationships they have. I thought there were multiple examples of that in the last game, a couple popped up in the first couple possessions where Walt had a pretty good look at three, he made the one more to Alijah in the corner, Alijah knocked it down. And then two possessions later, Alijah had a pretty good look, and then he one-mored it to Walt for the open three, he knocked it down. And our favorite play from the other night was after Will had that incredible defensive segment in the second half. Steal. Dunk. Gets another steal and could have easily run out and just whammed it, but turns around and sees Rueben and gives it to him. Listen, all these guys are trying to play at the next level. They’re all trying to create the best portfolio, stats, whatever, for themselves. So for him to dish back to one of his teammates what is the highest percentage two points of all time to rock the rim, again, we talked about it and addressed it in the locker room. It was awesome. It just infused the whole team. That’s what we expect. Will is a great leader. He understands it means more to get Rueben that basket than for him to go slam it. I think it talks more about our program that he was willing to do that.”

On if he surprised at the 3-point struggles:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah. We shot it well in the preseason. We shot it well in pickup. Again, early in the year, it can happen. I think we’re taking pretty good shots, too. I would anticipate over these next couple weeks that number going up. And, obviously, Urby playing helps that number, too.”

On Denzel Aberdeen being plus-16 the last game:

TODD GOLDEN: “To be honest, yeah, he’s a really good player. He’s playing this backcourt role with these other guys who are veteran, senior leaders and he’s doing a good job of complementing them. Zell, these first couple games, has consistent rips of playing eight minutes in a row. We put him in around the 16-minute mark, for whoever on the perimeter is feeling fatigued or not on their stuff, and then we’re taking the next one out and the next one out before we take him out. So he’s in that mix. He’s one of those guys. He’s just not starting. We expect a lot of out of him. He’s a guy who’s ready for this opportunity and he’s made some big, winning plays and I think he’ll continue to get more comfortable as the year goes on. But for what we need him to do, and what we expect out of him, I think he’s doing a good job so far.”

On the starts to game not being up to standard:

TODD GOLDEN: “The South Florida game, I’d say wasn’t what we expected it to be. But besides the South Florida contest – and to their credit, they shot the absolute lights out in the first half – we feel like we’ve been pretty systematic with how we’ve played, going all the way back to the scrimmages. Up double figures at halftime in four of the five games we’ve played. We were up in these last couple games 25, 27 points with five, six, seven minutes left in the game. So we’re doing what we need to do systematically over the course of 40 minutes. The starts are going to be a small sample size; the first four to eight minutes of the game. We shoot it well, we might not. We might be playing well and not shooting well and the score might not be what we want. But if we do that over the whole 40 minutes we feel like the process will play out the way we need it to.” 

On when he broke the news to Klavzar:

TODD GOLDEN: “An hour ago. He was in the meeting and got the good news. I was, again, just really, really happy for him. Put yourself in his shoes, coming over from Slovenia, leaving family and friends. He was in Spain playing, then you come over here and they tell you you can’t play. You’re coming over here to play. He’s a great student, also, by the way. He’s doing phenomenal in the classroom. He made the decision to play basketball and he’s been unable to do that. It’s been really challenging for him, but I think it speaks to his maturity and the kind of person he is, the way he’s been able to navigate, keep a good head on his shoulders and be willing to help any way he can in practice. The good news for him is he gets to go tonight.”