Everything Todd Golden said before Florida's home opener vs. Jacksonville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden spoke with the media Tuesday before the 2024-25 home opener on Thursday at 8 p.m. He discusses the matchup with Jacksonville, his team’s play against USF and more.

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

Todd Golden Q&A

On UF’s offensive performance Monday vs. USF:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, you know, again, systematically, we don’t want to have to rely on high percentage makes from three to score well. Obviously want that to kind of be icing on the cake. And I think, you know, we saw a tale of two halves that way a little bit in terms of just our attack in the first half. I thought we settled a little too much, and we didn’t get enough rim pressure. Obviously, we only got to the line four times I think in the first half. And I credit our guys for being more aggressive, getting downhill and getting to the rim in the second half. And obviously we shot well from two, but we also got to the line 29 times in the second half, and just had relentless rim pressure. And that’s really the way we want to play. So I think that speaks more about, you know, systematically, how what we’re doing works when we attack it the right way. And, you know, we don’t want to be living in that 25% from three range. And I think we’ll get better as the year goes on that way. But yeah, I was pleased with the result, considering we didn’t shot it great.”

On if taking it to the rim in the 2nd half was intentional or just what USF was allowing:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think a little bit of both. You know, we want our guys to play with a lot of freedom, and I thought we were, we were playing confidently offensively in the first half, but we were a little jittery and a little probably overly aggressive, you know, just trying to make plays and score. And so we kind of recalibrated. It was really in the middle of the first half where we had to recalibrate, obviously being down 13, but at halftime, we talked through it a little bit more and just really emphasized getting downhill and getting to the rim, which our guys did.”

On Will Richard’s defensive performance:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, just a lot of understanding that that’s what the expectation is from us. And then, to his credit, he spends a lot of time watching film, specifically with John Andrzejek, going over our coverages. And he understands being the leader with Walt and Alijah on this team, that we need him to be really good in his execution. And he stepped up that way, not only on Monday, but all throughout the preseason. So, and the great thing for Will is when he’s locked in defensively and doing a good job on the glass, his offense seems to come more freely as well. And I think you saw that on Monday night with how well he played offensively.”

On if UF’s shot selection was positive and it just didn’t fall Monday night:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, I think it was just a lot of three-point volatility in the first half both way. You know, we got some good ones, you know, going back watching on film, Walter had a couple wide open looks. Really, all three perimeter guys got some open looks that they didn’t hit. And then you had a USF team that was drilling shots. They were, they were getting good ones, to their credit. They hit some tough ones that we didn’t expect them to hit. And then, you know, they just had that stretch in the first half where they were getting us in transition, and then made a couple threes to extend. So once that three point volatility shook out a little bit for us, you know, it was, it started creeping back towards a tie game. Now, to their credit, they shot it well all night, you know, and we talked about it a lot here. We got to limit those attempts. Once the ball is in the air, there’s only so much you can do. 27 attempts was too much to allow in that game, and it allowed too much volatility. But again, with that being said, and them making 13, I was impressed we were able to win by 15 points.”

On returning to the O’Dome:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think definitely for me, I’m excited to get back. I know our program is really excited to get back into playing in front of the home fans and we feel like we got a big lift on the back-half of the year last year at home only losing one game at home all year and playing really, really well for the most part here was exciting and my hope is that we can kind of carry that on to this year’s team but, yeah, we’ve been looking forward to getting back home for a while now.”

On Jacksonville coach Jordan Mincy:

TODD GOLDEN: “Jordan and I actually played against each other in college a while ago. He got the better of us. He was playing point guard at Kent State and I was at Saint Mary’s. It was a bracket-buster game. I’ve known him for a while. Seeing him work his way up from LA Tech, here and then over to Jacksonville, I think he does a really good job. I think he does a really good job recruiting, they have good size for a low-major program. He’s always able to find pretty good, jittery scoring guards and obviously he comes from good pedigree. I’m sure he’ll be excited to get in here and give it his best effort with his crew and we’re excited to compete against them.”

On Alijah Martin’s ability to play physical without fouling:

TODD GOLDEN: “He’s just good at it. I think he has really good feet, good core strength and he’s able to just keep guys for the most part. He had some struggles in the first half, to be honest, that we didn’t expect but I think as he got settled in he really did a good job just keeping guys in front. He’s going to be a big part of our defense this year with his ability to pick up the ball. It’s something that we need him to do well not only on Thursday but for the rest of the year.”

On Walter Clayton Jr. running point:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think he did great. It’s going to look a little different with him there but he scored 29 points and I think he only had one turnover or two turnovers. One turnover I think. And again, we scored 98 points and didn’t shoot it well. He was able to get us where we wanted and USF, their credit, they were a pretty athletic team. They were quick, athletic, good size on the back end of their defense. The way we finished from 2 was really impressive. I think we shot 74 percent or something from 2 but again I thought he managed it well. We want him to be really aggressive back there trying to score and make plays and he’s done that not only on Monday but in our scrimmages as well.”

On what he wants to see improved on defense:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think a couple of things defensively, transition defense, we had a stretch in the first half where we were really bad that way and that’s been an area where our team have generally been pretty good, so we’ve got to be better that way and then just guarding the 3-point line, limiting attempts, those would be two things defensively that we’ve just got to improve upon, Monday, offensively I think we did a good job, just stay the same, keep taking care of the ball, keep getting to the rim, I think we can throw it in to the post a little more, I think Rueben had some opportunities, early in the game where he had his guy sealed and we didn’t find him and you know just kind of giving those big guys their opportunities for how hard they are playing and how hard they are running I think is going to be important throughout the rest of the year but again, the great thing for us, is that was a tough first game, usually, not usually but sometimes your first game of the season you know a home game against a team that you are generally expected to beat, like, USF is a good team, obviously they’ve had to go through a lot these past couple of weeks and in a way, I think that’s continued to unify their group and they have a lot of great kids, their staff is really good, and that was a team that was really together on Monday night and as you can imagine going into that game going into that game it concerned us a little bit what we were going up against. We knew we were going up against a team that really had to rally together and I thought they played that way, re-watching the film to be honest, I thought that was a pretty high-level game, I thought they played really well and I thought, after kind of getting our footing, we played pretty well.”

On having to stare down adversity this early:

TODD GOLDEN: “Especially when it turns into a win, but yeah, I wouldn’t have expected we were down 13 in the first half, you know, but we were in that moment and I thought it was a good sign that we didn’t blink, we kept our head up, we weren’t pointing fingers, we weren’t just making excuses, we just kind of got back to it, and obviously Will kind of got it back going and that kind of opened it up for us, and we got that thing back to where we were only down 1 at halftime so we were able to take a deep breath and go get it in the second half.”

On the right guys getting to the free throw line Monday or just good shooting:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think it’s a little bit of both. Our bigs shoot free throws better this year, for sure, at least to this point. Rueben going 2-for-2 in that moment was huge it was a big stretch where if we get to the line and if you get an 0-for-2 there, it can be deflating, and he made two big ones. Our perimeters are all really good free throw shooters. Any time you get Will, Walter, Alijah or Denzel up there, you’re gonna feel really good about getting both of them the majority of the time, so that’s another area where I think our team will improve this year.” Walter Clayton, father, going through NBA draft process, what it says about maturity? “I think it says a lot, Walter is a very unique guy, he’s a great player, he’s a really, really awesome person, too. Very mature for his age. And I think the thing I love the most about Walter is his level of self-confidence because he believes in himself about as much as you can without being arrogant and I think that’s a really unique quality to have and it’s infectious and I think his teammates appreciate and value that about him and I know as a coach I value that about him. He’s a guy that we knew if we could get back would be a great piece to build around and I think he gave us a good feel for that on Monday night.”

On the start from Alex Condon:

TODD GOLDEN: “Great. Obviously he’d been a little bit banged up in camp and he was able to play and played well in our last scrimmage. But just kind of getting him back in the game flow was huge. And obviously I think there’s one call that was a tough one on him. The fourth foul was a foul. I think it was, in your guys’ world, it was defensive pass interference. You didn’t fight sight of the ball. And so I agreed with that whistle. And I think those will clean up as the year goes on. But, again, his energy and just the way it protects the rim, how athletic and fast he is, it just gives us another element for sure.”

On Rueben Chinyelu’s debut:

TODD GOLDEN: “I thought he was just OK his first stretch. Again, we’ve seen him play really, really well throughout camp, so my expectation for him is pretty high right now. But what I was most impressed about was even though he didn’t play his best early, he was huge for us when we went on that 16-2 run or whatever to go from down one to up 13 or whatever it was. I think we got six or seven stops in a row and him and Tommy were in there. It was right after Condo picked up his fourth and he was just really, really good defensively and on the glass for that stretch. So I think we gotta remember, he’s still a sophomore, he’s young, but he’s super talented, great kid, super coachable. And I think as the year goes on, he’s going to keep getting better and better.”

On his celebration with Thomas Haugh coming out naturally:

TODD GOLDEN: “Most of the time I would agree with that. I think in that moment too, I was just really pleased with the energy that our guys were giving on the floor and he made a big time hustle play. We call it first to the floor loose ball. And again, I was probably as excited as anybody in the gym for how hard we were playing. So, I just wanted to make sure he understood how much I appreciated the way he was playing. It’s also kind of neat, the way it’s kind of blown up. He was showing me at lunch today, he pulled up his TikTok and it got like 900,000 views, which I thought was funny. How about that?”

On Walter Clayton Jr. being more aggressive:

TODD GOLDEN: “When you say more aggressive, I want him to just be aggressive, not necessarily more aggressive than he is right now. I just want him to be a score-first, attack-first point guard because the plays for others will be natural out of that. And so I think he has a good understanding now of how we want him to attempt to lead the team. And for me, it’s just math, man. Any shot from Walt is way better than a turnover, right? So there’s really not a bad shot for him, and he’s not selfish. So, it was kind of a quiet 29 if there’s such things. Did a great job room finishing, made his free throws, but he only made two threes. It wasn’t like he bombed and got loose that way. But again, I thought his floor game was really good and he was poised against a team that’s good and pressures hard defensively.”

On how many 3-point attempts he wants per game:

TODD GOLDEN: “Honestly, that’s gonna be more game by game, just depending upon how teams are trying to guard us. You know, if teams are stretched out and denying us, we’re gonna probably try to attack the rim a little bit and put pressure that way. If they’re packed in and trying to alleviate driving lanes and make it hard for us to get that rim pressure to get penetration, then we’re gonna shoot more threes. So I think it’s game by game. We just gotta figure out the way that the defense is trying to stop us and then pick the most efficient shots.”