Everything Todd Golden said before Florida faces Wake Forest on Thanksgiving Day

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden spoke with the media Tuesday before his team travels to Orlando for the ESPN Events Invitational. UF will play Thanksgiving Day against Wake Forest at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.

The Gators will then play Minnesota or Wichita State on Friday. Florida lost last season at Wake Forest, 82-71. Below is everything Golden said during his press conference.

Todd Golden Q&A

On what he hopes to find out about his team in Orlando:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think this kind of provides another challenge for us, a really good team, neutral floor, kind of in the MTE (multiple-team event) time of year, where you’re playing for a championship. Obviously, only a four-team deal, and you got to win two games to do it. But a Wake Forest team I think it’s incredibly well coached. They have a couple really talented veteran players that have had a lot of success. TBD on what’s going on in terms of Efton Reid’s health. He didn’t play last game and only six minutes or so the game before. But he’s another really talented player that they have. So, I think this will be a good challenge to see how we perform against a team that’s had success before and again, neutral floor early, not a lot of time to warm up. It’s just kind of one of those tournament-like atmospheres that I think will be unique for us – and since we haven’t really had that yet this year.”

On the challenge of playing another game the next day:

TODD GOLDEN: “For sure. Again, this 48 hours down in Orlando will give us a good experience to see what we’re made of in a different setting, right, playing two games back to back, whether that’s SEC tournament preparation, or a little like the NCAA Tournament where you’re going to be playing a team on short rest that didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for you either on the second day. So the second day is going to be pretty equal in terms of the preparation, both us and Wake Forest are going to be really excited to try to get that win on the first day to be able to play for the championship. But again, a different environment, different experience. But I know our guys are really excited to get down there.

On the familiarity with them from last year’s matchup:

TODD GOLDEN: “I know our guys are excited for the opportunity to play Wake again. We felt like we played relatively well for a majority of that game, and then to their credit, held us down the last 12 minutes of the game.  (Hunter) Salas played great down the stretch, hit some big-time shots. They had some timely 3s. I didn’t think we executed well enough down the stretch. We turned the ball over, and it’s kind of an empty feeling leaving Wake last year. So to get them back to get another opportunity to compete against them this year ow, our guys are looking forward to it.

On the key to stopping Hunter Sallis:

TODD GOLDEN: “First of all, he’s a very, very good player, and (Cameron) Hildreth is a very, very good player. Both those guys have, have played an integral role in Wake Forest’s program now for two years. They have a lot of freedom. They are able to play with the ball in their hands quite a bit. Those two guys make a majority of their decisions, whether it’s in transition or in the pick-and-roll. They’re both big, they’re strong, they get to their spots on the floor, and they play out of the pick-and-roll almost every possession. So, there’s a big challenge because they have two guys that can get you playing with the ball in their hands, and they have put shooting around them with (Davin) Cosby and (Parker) Friedrichsen and some of these other guys. So, a good team. Similar to, I think, Florida State and what they’ve been able to do so far. They’re proven to be a really good club, undefeated, except the game we played them. And I think Wake is in that bucket as well. “

On if he likes Thanksgiving tournaments:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, yeah, I do. I think, you know, the whole MTE environment is shifting in our profession. It used to be all you could do to get in these eight-team, three-game MTEs that are on the different networks or whatever. But that model is slowly, I don’t want to say dying, but it’s going away a little bit. Very few eight-team MTEs, a lot of them gone to four. A lot of high-major teams are playing these MTEs at home. So, for us, and being at Florida, we like these opportunities to play against other really good clubs. We’re doing this this year. I know all you guys saw we’re going out to San Diego next year to play Kansas, Wisconsin and Providence, which will be an awesome MTE. o when we get the opportunity to do this, well, we will try to do it for sure.”

On what’s an MTE: 

TODD GOLDEN: “A multi-team event.”

On if the back-to-back games affect rotations: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I think one of our biggest strengths is our depth, right? So, I’m gonna play. We’re gonna do everything we can to beat Wake Forest, you know, and that’s gonna take a lot to give ourselves that opportunity. So, if we have to stretch guys out minutes wise, to get that done, we’ll do that, and then we’ll prepare for whoever we play the next day. You know, two games, we got to be able to handle it. If we were going to four games, maybe we start thinking about it. But I expect – our guys are young. They’re fresh, they should be able to play big minutes on back-to-back days, knowing that we have about four or five days from the time we’ll play our second game to playing Virginia in here next week. So, we should be able to give it a good go that way.”

On Alijah Martin’s overall game: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I think what has been so impressive for me with him, as well as the other guy, is just the way they’ve played together. And again, I think in this era of college basketball and portal and transferring, like, everybody’s looking for the perfect situation for themselves, and it’s understandable. It’s what the environment is providing these guys with the opportunity to make those decisions. And I’ve talked about it a good amount, like we wanted to put a team together that enjoyed playing with each other and could root for each other, and I thought our guys did a great job of that. On Friday night, it was clear early on that Alijah had the hot hand. He was getting going, and he had a great moment in the first half against Florida State, where he got going, but that was the first game where it started to finish. He just really had it cooking. And I think it says a lot about the rest of the team, how excited they were for his success. And we talked about it a lot with our team before the game, that it’s going to be, it’s going to be Alijah’s night last Friday. It could be Walter’s night on Wednesday. Could be Will’s night on Wednesday, it could be Condo’s. We have enough guys that can score 20 points in a game that dependent upon matchups, dependent on game flow it could be a different guy. And if it is not you, are you going to be happy about that? Are you going to be able to enjoy the success of your teammates? And so we’ve been good that way, but we’ve only played however many games we’ve played, and it’s going to get harder and harder as we get into the tougher part of our schedule. But I think his maturity, his competitiveness, obviously, his on-floor ability is really, really good. He’s given us a little – he’s added some toughness to our team this year just with the way he competes and his physicality defensively. And the thing I respect about him is we can be up big in the last four minutes in the game, and he’s still going to compete, like, it’s 0-0. That’s a really, really great quality to have, and it’s something you can’t really teach, like you can talk about it, but he’s just, he’s a pit bull that way. But again, I think the combination of him, Walter and Will, along with Denzel, the four guard tandem, obviously Urby is getting in there now, but those guys have just played really well together. You got 24, 25 assists, six turnovers last game. That’s a bigger part of it now than I feel like it’s been in the last couple years.”

On if he saw his football stats: 

TODD GOLDEN: “No.”

On him rushing for 3,000 yards and throwing for 5,000: 

TODD GOLDEN: “Are you surprised? We’re trying to find really good guards that were really high football recruits in high school, like Walter, and Will actually. He played a little football in his younger days, as well his dad was a great player at Clemson football-wise. So no, those guys are tough, man, they’re tough. But Alijah again, experience, competitiveness, consistency. There’s a lot of great qualities that he has.”

On if he learned a lot about meshing guys together last year: 

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah.”

On what they had Alijah Martin do on his recruiting visit to realize he could fit:

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, we just had them hang out, to be honest. I know it sounds, like, crazy, but you get 48 hours on these visits and the basketball. We feel like we have a good product to sell from recruiting standpoint with the basketball, and so we spent a lot of time with that. But at the end of the day, like, we were with these guys a couple hours every day, and there’s 24 hours in a day, obviously they get a lot of time with their teammates. And we wanted to make sure, especially with Walt and Will going into their last year that we added somebody that they could enjoy the experience with. And so we wanted them to go spend time together and not with us around, where they felt like they had to be different because their coaches were around or whatever, and to kind of see how that went. And to be honest, we just talked to our guys afterwards and said, ‘What do you think? Do you like him, you don’t like him’ and they were like ‘yeah, this guy’s a good kid, like, good guy, like, enjoyable to be around, talking the right way, seems to have the same goals that we have.’ And, I mean, that’s really all you could do. You can dig in as much as you want, but obviously, he’s a really good guy, and those guys enjoyed being around him, so that was pretty much why we felt comfortable with adding him.”

On message for Gator fans to show up Thursday and Friday: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I mean, it’s an awesome opportunity for us. I’m excited. I feel like we got a good group already coming. Obviously, we have three Orlando guys in our program, with Denzel and Sam and Isaiah, so they should have some really good support. And obviously, Orlando, being somewhat centrally located in the state, people can get there in a relatively short period of time. Obviously, on a holiday, but we’ll be spending Thanksgiving with our team and our families. But would love any support we get.”

On if he’s been to the venue: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I have not, but I’m excited to get there.” 

On a feel for the gym: 

TODD GOLDEN: “We’ll get in there tomorrow. We get an hour time tomorrow to get in, get shots and probably abbreviated warm-up due to the tournament setting. But yeah, same, same issues that Wake Forest will have.”

On any changes to Wake Forest’s offense: 

TODD GOLDEN: “I think I’d say they’re playing pretty similar to what they had when we played them last year. They didn’t have Efton yet either, so that changed them a little bit. The two guys that they lost were great players, Boopie Miller. And then Carr, both those guys were awesome players that were really important to their deal. And those guys are hard to replace, and Spiller’s just been really good all year, like, I think he’s been a huge positive for them. I feel like they’ve probably wished that they had somebody to replace Boopie a little better than they’ve had. Because, I mean, he was 16 or 17 a game. He’s really good. And so, I feel like Hildreth and Sallis are shouldering a majority of the load, and we have to do a great job of preventing them from hurting us. And, obviously, if other guys then step up and beat us, you got to tip your cap a little bit. And they have more than capable guys. Cosby’s a great three-point shooter. We cannot let him get going, right? We can’t let him get threes up. Abass is really tough on the glass. Juke Harris is a good freshman, like they have a lot of good players, but again, if we can stymie their main two guys and make it really hard for them to be efficient, we will give ourselves a better chance. But what we can’t do is let them get us, and then we’re giving Cosby, six catch-and-shoots, and he’s making three of them, and now we’re chasing him down. But they play with the ball screen a ton. They’re trying to get Sallis and Hildreth downhill. Both those guys continue to draw fouls at a really good rate. And, I think if we do a good job on those two, it’ll give us the best chance to win.”

On if they’ll switch in similar fashion, if it was helpful against SIU: 

TODD GOLDEN: “Yeah, I think it was. It did. It allowed us to do a good job in the most important thing, which was making them miss. Our effective field goal percentage defense was really good. The area that I feel like it affected us a little more than we would want to is on the defensive glass. We were not good on the glass. *Condon walks in* And if Condon could ever grab a rebound, we might be all right. Oh, what’s up man? No, like, we have to do better at when we switch. To Condo’s credit, Tommy’s credit, we have bigs that can move their feet, so we feel comfortable switching with these guys. But then that’s only a portion of the battle. That shot goes up, now we need Walt, Will, Alijah, Denzel, to be blocking threes and fours, keeping them out of the paint, keep them off the glass. So, you gotta figure out the balance of how much switching really does. It could be a part-time solution and not everything. You need to be honest, like, I’m just not sure how much we’ll switch in this game. I think we’ll want to keep size on Sallis and Hildreth. I think we’ll want to keep certain players on those guys. But the way we guard, we do conveniently switch sometimes. So, we’re every guy is going to have to have a good idea and understanding of how to stop them.”