Everything Todd Golden said in final presser of season

Florida Gators men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden met with the media following the end of his first season as head coach of the Gators.

There was plenty to talk about as Golden begins to turn the page into year No. 2 in Gainesville.

Florida had a few things to hang its hat on from the first season of the Golden era, but there is plenty to look forward to next year as well.

With a number of departures including five by way of the transfer portal, the Gators return five scholarship players going into Golden’s second season. With that, Golden and his staff have plenty of roster management to take care of in the coming weeks.

Here’s everything Golden said in his final press conference of the 2022-23 campaign.

Golden on whether he and his staff are better prepared to build a roster compared to a year ago:

“Much better position. Transparently, coming in a year ago today, a lot of unknowns. We didn’t know the players on the team, we really didn’t have any institutional knowledge of how this place operates and what works and what doesn’t and getting our families out and assembling this staff took a little bit of time. Now, going into year two, we have a great understanding of what was in this program and what we need to bring it to be better and how we can grow. I feel like we’re in a much better place that way.”

Golden on how his team improves through the transfer portal:

“Just continue to add quality student athletes who fit the culture that we have and obviously frontcourt size is going to be important this offseason. There are a number of things. Directionally, the way we’re going, we need to make sure we have the right people within our program. I feel really good about that so far with where we’re at.”

Golden on scouting the transfer portal:

“It’s just an evaluation period, an evaluation of the guys that are going in there. I don’t think there’s one guy in there who we won’t at least see what they’re like and what they’re able to do and then we’ll go from there. The names populate and then we’ll do our research and see which guys we want to go after and which we don’t and then go from there. It’s an analytical evaluation, obviously a character evaluation, there are a lot of things that we look at.”

Golden on whether there were any surprises among players leaving the team:

“I wouldn’t say there are any surprises. Finishing meetings the week, you just never know what’s going to happen. I don’t necessarily anticipate any more but you never know. We’ll finish our meetings and see where everyone stands by Final Four weekend.”

Golden on contacting recruits and transfers:

“In terms of college basketball and the way recruiting goes, it’s changed a lot over the last few years. This is as important if not the most important time of year in terms of building the roster where in the past, it used to be the summer eval period leading into the fall where you had official visits for young guys. Have definitely had a lot of conversations.”

Golden how more he and his staff can get done on the recruiting front this year:

“A ton. I think the first guy we got here was [Jonathan Safir] on a Friday and then [Kevin Hovde] the following Monday and then we didn’t add guys for probably another week or two after that. I don’t think we had any visits until after the Final Four last year, if I remember correctly. We’ll have some visits before that. We’re definitely able to be better prepared and we’ll be better organized as we get into this time frame.”

Golden on Will Richard:

“Will’s great. Will embodies what we want to continue to build this program like in terms of being a great young man, first and foremost, he has a great character, and then being a great player. I think he can get a lot better and obviously, the transition from the OVC to the SEC is big and he was a freshman last year and I think he did a really admirable job in year one for how he’s able to produce and what he’s able to do for us and now as he goes into year two for us and year three for him.

“A big part of the jump that we need him to make is from a leadership perspective because we think he can do a great job that way for us. I think the play will take care of itself. He’s a hard worker. You’re excited when you’re able to get guys like that in your program.”

Golden on evaluating his roster to see what his team’s needs are:

 “It’s one of our favorite parts of the job, kind of building the roster out, getting organized on that it’s very … I would say it changes frequently, in terms of what we need or what we think we need and as we go look and when we start adding pieces here the next couple of weeks everything will change in terms of what we’re looking for from other players.

“You know, ballhandling skill is going to be something that we’re going to by heavy on and then size, physicality, you know those are the two areas I think we need to grow quickly to be better next year and obviously it’s a big task, but I think a lot of people in the country especially in the high major level are in a similar spot in terms of building their rosters whether they’ve been successful or not, just kind of the day and age we’re in a little bit with all the movement. We take pride in it, we’re going to do the best we can.” 

Golden on whether he learned about getting strong, physical players after coaching a year in the SEC:

 “I think we knew that, we just weren’t necessarily able to address it the way we wanted to. We were close on a couple of guys, NIL, the unknowns of NIL last summer were tricky and it was tough to navigate that but we knew we were going to be thin on the frontline. We knew that going into the season and we knew that was going to be an issue and that’s why we were so cautious with Jason in practice to make sure he stayed healthy, and obviously we got through 70 percent of the season in pretty good shape and then losing Colin, was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back, so, we knew it was an issue we weren’t able to address it I think we’ll be better off that way this year.” 

Golden on thought recruits versus transfers: 

 “You can’t these guys that’s pay for play, if you talk to them about it prior, during their recruitment so there’s only so much you can do. You can educate these guys on the collectives or the potential opportunities, but you can’t promise anything so it’s a tricky space that we’re in right now.” 

 Golden on the difficulty of talking to players who are either buying back in or aren’t:

 “I don’t think it’s difficult to be honest. I mean it’s natural a little bit and we were able to retain a lot of guys last year and you see, out of, I guess with the guys that have been in the portal, I think all of them were guys that we retained, off the top of my head and so we gave it a shot, both sides tried to make it work, and it didn’t necessarily work out the way everyone wanted it to, and now you go your separate ways and hope for the best for everybody. So it’s OK. Everybody is going be OK and we’ll continue to try to build the roster this year.” 

Golden on playing with four guards and a center instead of three out and two in:

“I mean, I want to be able to play both, you know. But from a physicality standpoint, three-out, two-in would probably be better that way, you know. You’re playing two bigger guys that maybe aren’t necessarily even fours, and you can, you know, operate that way. But you know, being skilled is really important also. So I think it’s kind of a healthy balance of being able to do a little bit of both.”

Golden on whether anything surprised him in his first season with UF:

“I don’t know. Surprised, I’m not sure, not really, you know, we knew what we were going to be up against in terms of the challenges of this league. Like, that was a big reason why I was excited to be here at Florida, was a challenge of being in one of the best, if not the best league in America, on a night-in, night-out basis. I think the opportunities that you get are really encouraging and it’s a great thing to be able to kind of always have something to look forward to, to be able to prepare for, but yeah, it’s one of the best, man.

“There’s great coaches in this league, great players and, again, we finished 9-9. I think pretty admirable, considering the circumstances, you know, you look at a team like Arkansas, who’s still playing, right, they’re playing tonight or tomorrow. They finished 8-10 in this league, you know, so it’s pretty dang good, and can be challenging across the board. And we definitely weren’t perfect, and there’s a lot of things that we know now that we can grow and get better at, but kind of for a base-line, transitional year, I’m satisfied with how we played in the league.”

Golden on his conversations with Riley Kugel:

“Yeah, no, I think, you know what, we’ll continue to talk with Riley, and I want to support Riley. Like, I want him to be in a spot where he can be really successful. And I think, you know, whether that’s playing in the NBA eventually or here, he needs to have our support that way and he knows he has it, and we’ll keep, we’ll keep working with him.

“I think, you know, him being part of this program growing, I think he has a chance to be an incredibly, you know, high selection next year, if that’s the route that he wants to go. But Riley’s a great kid. He’s a great young man, and a guy that obviously did a great job navigating the freshman year. You know, usually it’s tough for guys as freshmen to be successful.

“You know, you look around the league, you know, obviously you have your guys, your top-10 recruits that have been good, you know, your Nick Smith’s or guys like that, but for Riley, you know, and especially kind of starting off slow in terms of shooting the ball and scoring, the jump he made within the SEC play was remarkable. Like you don’t see that very often. You know, I think the last eight or nine games he was averaging close to 20 points a game.

“I mean, just pretty, pretty impressive stuff and again, like, he’s proven the capacity to do really, really well. And my goal is to just help him get better in all the areas, you know, to make him more complete player and, you know, give him a better chance to be successful at the next level.”

Golden on KenPom numbers to finish the year, whether he will look at anything with offense in offseason?

“Yeah, just just one thing that maybe we learned is this, we need a little more usage out there. You know, I think that’s something that held us back at times, was not having enough guys that go get a basket, you know, when things break down. So moving forward, I think we’ll address that a little bit. Defensively, you know, you can look at it one of two ways: we were a top-10 defense when Colin was healthy. So that was working really, really well.

“And we were not a top-10 defense when he was out, so we got to address that. But I think on both sides of ball, I think, fundamentally, we’re in a really good spot, and it’s continuing to add pieces that fit, you know, the different types of styles that we want to be able to operate within, and again, that’s the challenge that we have kind of you know, over these next two months.”

Golden on what he learned about his evaluation process this season:

“You got to evaluate yourself, look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, this is what we thought was going to happen’ and whether it did or didn’t. Overall, we brought in seven guys and I think we were pretty close on most of them to what we thought we’d get. Probably one or two that didn’t go the way we wanted to go. But there’s definitely some things that we noticed in terms of things that analytically were on their profiles that maybe we didn’t take into account enough before taking them. Really good learning experiences.”

Golden on the specifics of learning about his evaluation process:

“Go back to usage. I think usage is really important. What I mean by usage is guys that can finish possessions, guys that can get a basket when things break down.”

Golden on how to qualify, quantify players coming to the SEC from other conferences:

“A lot of times there’s not that … levels are obviously really, really important. There’s a difference between going from the NEC to the SEC or the OVC to the SEC. That’s important and the word of the day — usage — tends to go down a little bit as you go up. Again, something that we will continue to think about. But yeah, I would say that.”

Golden on continuing to recruit international players:

“I think we’ll definitely recruit International. That’s something that’s really important to me and I think there’s great opportunity to find guys over there. It’s just economics, man, supply and demand. Guys here in the United States are getting a lot more attention, a lot more recruitment, and they’re within sight of a lot of different people. Whereas you go internationally and you can find guys that are really, really high-level players that might not have the same recruitment or the same shine on them that players do here. So I think that’s really the best way I can answer that as to why it’s going to be something that we’ll continue to do.”

Golden on scheduling philosophy:

“It was a loaded schedule. It was.”

“First of all, the schedule is set when we got here, which is fine. It’s one of the parts of a transition that … again, nobody’s feeling sorry for us. I feel better that FAU is in the Sweet 16. Right. The best part about being here is the ability to play great competition, whether it’s within the league or getting invited to the PK85 or being able to play in preseason NIT in Barclay, so we’ll definitely take advantage of those situations.

“Part of it was a little fluky, UConn. was playing like the No. 1 team in the country when they were here, and they’re back playing like the No. 1 team in the country. They’re fantastic. FAU, I don’t think, the only person that knew how good they’re gonna be was Denver because I talked to him better all summer, about our schedule. But we knew they were going to be awesome.

“It took people maybe a little bit when they won 21 or 22 or 23 games in a row realize, all right, this team’s really, really good. So I would prefer a decent amount of really good games and then a decent amount of good home games, where we feel comfortable and confident that we can go out there and keep growing and getting better and get some wins that can give us some confidence.

“I think that hurt this team a little bit this year, was the difficulty the schedule early on, the FAU game, going into the PK 85 and we had some injuries. It took us, sometimes you gotta get a little lucky and we didn’t have a lot of luck early on that way, being healthy. And so and then playing these games, so it was tough to build that confidence early on.

“But to the credit of the guys who stuck together and I thought from December to January we were playing as well as anybody within the league. It would help us maybe a little bit earlier on being able to play some games where we can win and get some confidence but again, it is what it is.”

Golden on whether his team’s NIL plan is better now than it was:

“It’s a really tough question to answer ,to be honest. It’s a work in progress. I think everybody is still trying to wrap their arms around it and figure out the best way to navigate it. And again, there’s certain things as coaches we can and cannot do that make it really difficult to operate within the space for us specifically. So I would hope you’re being a year later that we are better positioned at the moment.”

Golden on whether he would rip off his shirt like Eric Musselman:

“No sir. I’ll pass on that.”

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