Everything Todd Golden said before Florida's season opener vs. USF

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden spoke with the media for the final time this week before the 2024-25 season starts on Monday night. He recaps preseason camp and the final scrimmage vs. Charleston, previews the team’s opener against USF in Jacksonville and more.

Below is everything Golden said and video from his press conference.

Todd Golden Q&A

On the team’s outlook after preseason camp:

TODD GOLDEN: “We feel good about where we’re at. I think we’ve had a good training camp. Feel like the guys have done a really good job of working collectively towards being ready to go for the beginning of the year. I thought we weren’t necessarily great in our first scrimmage, some positive things, but some things we need to do better. I thought we were better this past Saturday, just more complete, a little more physical, better on the glass – looked more like the group that we want to be over the course of the year. So I think we’re tracking, but until we play the real games, TBD.”

On Florida’s rebounding in the final preseason scrimmage:

TODD GOLDEN: “Marked improvement. We were much better. We looked a lot like we did last year at times. I think obviously having Alex back in the mix was important, and just having an extra body in the frontcourt. But it wasn’t just our bigs, the guards did a much better job. It was something that we emphasized going in the first scrimmage and we didn’t do a good enough job. I think our guys got the message in between and executed way better that way.”

On the team’s health:

TODD GOLDEN: “We’re in pretty good shape. I think as of today, we’ll have everybody lined up and ready to go for next week. Obviously, it’s end of training camp. Guys have bumps and bruises, some soreness here and there. But overall, big picture we’re in good shape heading into the opener.”

On the passing of USF head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim:

TODD GOLDEN: “Honestly, first of all, we want to make sure our guys. A lot of them new coach Amir from either being recruited or just the fact that he spent a lot of time in the Southeast, being from Atlanta. It was an emotional time for our guys, as well, and a lot of our staff members. They have been recruiting Joseph Hartman, Coach Hartman’s son, so he had a relationship with them as well. There was a lot of connections with them. As a staff we’re trying to decide something meaningful that we can do for the program and to honor Amir before the game on Monday. But it’s obviously a tragic situation for everyone involved. We feel an incredible amount of sympathy to the players and the people in the program, and also Amir’s family and everything they’re going through. It’s obviously a really tough situation. Our thoughts and our prayers are with them on a daily basis.”

On whether Alex Condon played against Charleston:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, he did. He looked good. He’s healthy. He was flying around out there. And obviously it was impactful. Like I said, the addition with him and his depth that he provides, and then you have Rueben, Sam, Tommy, that group was really good. He looks good, and he looks like you should be ready to help us on Monday night.”

On what Florida has emphasized on defense:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think, really, just everything we’re doing on the defensive side. That’s not the fun side in practice. But we have spent a lot more time on it. Coach Andrzejek’s done a really good job just preparing us and making sure we’re hitting the right things. Defense, obviously in game, it’s all about your energy and just your effort. Getting better in practice has a lot to do with just getting through the monotony of guarding a lot of the similar actions over and over and over again until we get to the point where it’s a lot easier. So just spending 20 to 30 minutes every day on defense has definitely, I think, prepared us better to be better on that side of the ball this year.”

On Florida’s defense in the final scrimmage:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, again, I thought we did a good job. And I would say that was kind of the one bright spot of the FIU scrimmage for us. I thought we did a good job defensively. And the Charleston scrimmage, I thought for the first half we did a really good job. Second half, we weren’t as tight as tight as we probably need to be. But big-picture-wise, I was pleased with our effort against a really good offensive team. So, yeah, we’ve improved, but I’m anxious to get to Monday and see how we do once we have a regular-season game.”

On Florida’s rim protection:

TODD GOLDEN: “I’m happy with the way we’re protecting the paint and the rim right now.”

On Alijah Martin’s performance against Charleston:

TODD GOLDEN: “He played fantastic, obviously, was very efficient. I thought was impactful, not just scoring the ball, though, in all areas, did a great job defending and getting on the glass. And that’s kind of the benefit of having that perimeter with Walt, Will, Alijah, Denzel. These guys are all potent. They can all get you 20 on any given night. Just having the ability to take advantage of a matchup where maybe a weaker defender is guarding one of those guys is going to benefit us all year. They’ve continued to be unselfish and play together. Saturday was Alijah’s turn. Monday, it could be Will’s or Walt’s or Denzel’s. We’ll see what it looks like. But I really think that’s going to be kind of the most important part of our success this season is that those guys continue to be unselfish. If they do that, we should be fine.”

On points of emphasis to carry into the season:

TODD GOLDEN: “Just continuing to build off of our offensive success last year and, like we’ve talked about a lot, just making sure we can get in the ballpark defensively of being a really good team. Our goal internally is to be a top-40 defense. I think we were 91 or two or three on KenPom so that’s a big jump. That’s not going to be easy to do. But, I do think if we’re able to accomplish that, it will give us a good landing spot for where we want to go. Obviously, the defensive side of the ball being much better but without sacrificing any of the growth we’ve made on the offensive side of the ball.”

On Will Richard’s 3-point shooting:

TODD GOLDEN: “It was a little, for a lack of a better term, bad luck with his shooting percentages last year. Will is an elite shooter and I don’t think anybody would disagree with that. You can watch him and, to your point, he very rarely misses. I think we’ve done a better job of finding him some better looks this year and, again, guys knowing the right places to hit him. We’re trying to get him on the move a little more to find him some more catch-and-shoot opportunities. I think he’s done a better job driving and attacking the rim also, which I think will open up some of that perimeter shooting because the bottom line is if I were scouting Will, I would be like, ‘Hey, don’t give that guy any shots. Don’t give him any shots. We know that that’s what the defense is going to try to do and we still need to find ways to create those opportunities for him. I think the main thing for him, he’s been — his leadership has been amazing. He does a great job along with Walt and Alijah just kind of getting everybody going the right direction. I think he will have a great year for us.”

On working on special situations in practice:

TODD GOLDEN: “It’s an area that probably doesn’t spend enough time and energy on, but it ends up probably impacting and affecting a lot of games. We have worked on it quite a bit. On Tuesday night we spent 15 minutes at the beginning of practice working on late-game, eight seconds left up one, down one, vice versa. I think we are further along in that way in our preparation, but you just never feel like you get enough time working on it but we’re definitely working on it right now.”

On in-bound passers:

TODD GOLDEN: “Different guys. It depends on the situation and what we need to do. Obviously he (Clayton) could do it. He’s a great free-throw shooter. When we’re playing with a lead it might not be the best idea to have him throw it in if they’re going to foul right away. That will be a situation-by-situation basis. The good thing now is I think most of those perimeters can handle it and make good decisions so regardless of who it is, we feel pretty comfortable with them.”

On freshman guard Urban Klavzar’s eligibility:

TODD GOLDEN: “Nothing yet. We’re working on it on a day-to-day basis and hoping for good news soon but nothing definitive. We can’t play him yet but, again, my hope is that we’ll hear something in the next however-many-days until Monday with some good news. Listen, the guy deserves to play college basketball. That’s just how I feel. Great kid, great student. He’s getting straight As right now here at Florida and I understand a lot of the rules and legislation that’s in place and the reason why it is but this guy deserves to play college athletics. There’s no benefit with him not being able to play for Florida. It’s not a disadvantage to somebody else. He’s done all the academic work to be admitted into a place like Florida and now I think he deserves the right to play.”

On what’s caushing Klavzar’s eligibility issue:

TODD GOLDEN: “I don’t want to talk too specifically as we work through it. But again, it’s something that I think we should be able to work through.”

On potentially going from 13 to 15 scholarships: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I haven’t studied the other sports enough to really understand where they’re at. We have 13 scholarships right now. They’re trying to take us to 15. Yes, it is tough. It’s tough to get 13 to a happy place. So now you have 15. And the issue that we were struggling with is that it was at least as it was discussed a couple weeks ago that would eliminate walk-ons, which is another huge part of college sport. I don’t like it as a walk-on. It doesn’t make any sense. I think enough coaches have brought that up. Being like what, why is this guy affecting us negatively? Why is his opportunity being eliminated? What are we saving? Money? You know, it doesn’t make much sense. So, clearly it’s not a perfect solution yet. I think we’re still trying to navigate and figure out the best way to make everybody happy is what’s being discussed. But yeah, like, that’s my biggest issue. I think going from 13 to 15, OK, but we can’t eliminate the guys that were 14 through 18 before. That doesn’t necessarily make programs better. I think it makes practice harder. You don’t have as many bodies out there. It’s just not necessarily conducive to improving the sport, which I think at the end of the day should be the goal.”

On whether he’s feeling good about Florida’s depth: 

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, I am. I think our roster’s continued to improve every year. I think depth is something that we have this year, obviously. We gotta stay healthy also. That’s really important. But guys like Kajus now being a second year player. I feel better about his ability to help us in games. Isaiah Brown is a playable freshman. He’s a guy that’s capable. He’s behind some really talented older guys in front of him, but if we had an injury or if we had an issue, I think Isaiah could be more than serviceable out there and our front court’s deep right now with those four guys. So I feel good about that. But you can never have enough, for sure.”

On the preseason accolades for Walter Clayton:

TODD GOLDEN: “He’s been great. I think Walt is a guy that has a lot of confidence regardless. I think whether he was named preseason Naismith or not, he was going to be very confident in his abilities in a good way. So I think he takes it in stride. I think he appreciates the recognition, but he understands that at the end of the day, it’s more important to be on that list at the end of the year than it is at the beginning. And it’s gonna be very important that our team has a lot of success for him to continue to be recognized as well as other guys in a program like Will or Elijah. We need to win and we need to win big for them to have those individual accolades.”