‘Missouri is a scary team’: Todd Golden previews rematch vs. Tigers

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Gators look to continue their strong play at home, where they have won six straight and 12 of 13 this season, on Wednesday against Missouri.

The win at Missouri on Jan. 20 sparked a current 8-2 run over the last 10 games for Florida (19-8, 9-5 SEC). The Tigers, meanwhile, are 0-14 in SEC play and 8-19 overall.

Here’s everything UF coach Todd Golden said about the rematch with Mizzou and more. Tip is at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network.

Todd Golden Q&A

On the importance of getting back to winning on the glass:

Golden: “Super important. Not only for this game, but for the rest of the year. It’s been such a big reason as to why we’ve been successful. If we’re not rebounding well, it just closes our margin for error – a lot. We want to get back to what has allowed us to become the team we are right now. It’s something that’s a lot about effort, but there’s some execution as well that we have to clean up today and tomorrow morning before the game. My hope is that we respond the right way and have a really good effort tomorrow night.” 

On Micah Handlogten fouling out with just 13 minutes played:

Golden: “I think it was a little bit of some unlucky situations he was in, but he’s got to do a better job of defending without fouling. I think it’s been an issue for our whole front court, not just him. And even our perimeter, at times, around the rim, we’re in position to go vertical and be in a position not to get a foul and we swipe down at the end or bail out at the last second. It’s just another area, along with rebounding, where we have to defend without fouling, especially around the rim. We’re trying to figure out why our rebounding wasn’t as good last game? Well, a big part of it was that Micah only played 13 minutes. He’s a guy who plays a lot and rebounds really well for us. So keeping him on the floor will naturally be better on the glass, as well.”

On not overlooking Missouri with South Carolina coming up:

Golden: “We talk about it a lot. We try to be super consistent with our approach and with the way we prepare for games. Every team in this league is really good. Obviously, they haven’t had a lot of success in terms of wins and losses. But a week ago [they’re] playing Tennessee, a top 10 team in the country, and they’re within a bucket or two with like a minute or two to go in the game. So I think it would be really, really silly for us, as a program, to feel like Missouri walking in here is an easy game. We’re not there yet. We’re obviously having a good year, but we’re by no means at a place where we can just show up and get on the court and be OK. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure our guys don’t do that. I don’t think they will. We have a lot of respect for Missouri. We don’t fear them, but we have respect for them and we’re going to make sure we prepare the right way to go out and compete against them. But I’ll be super, super disappointed if we’re talking on Friday and our team wasn’t ready to play.” 

On what it will take for UF to show more of a killer instinct to put teams away: 

Golden: “I think every game is a little different. But, you know, I think we’re close. But we’re not all the way there yet. If every game that we’ve been playing, you know, finished with a 20-point win and, you know, then we’d feel like ‘Yeah alright we may be getting to a point where we’re satisfied’, but, again, we are playing very well, but we’re not by any means a complete team, you know. I feel like myself and our staff can identify a lot of areas for us to improve, which I think is really important this time of year, you know, so, I like, by no means am I saying I don’t like the direction our program’s headed, I think we’re doing some really good things, but, you know, within that same conversation, we’re not where we need to be, or where we want to be ultimately, in terms of the ceiling of our team. So it’s a balance because I want our guys to understand we’re, like, really happy and proud of the growth we’ve made, but at the same time, we’re not satisfied.”

On if he sees the potential to be an elite team in this group:

Golden: “I do, I mean, we’ve played that way, you know, over the last month and a half or so we’ve played like a top-10 team in America analytically. So we’ve shown the ability to do it, and, you know, going from good to great, making that next step in my mind, it’s all about that consistency piece. Not allowing teams back in the game when we’re up 15 points, you know, things like that. But that’s also really, really hard to do, right, not only getting the lead but keeping them there for an extended period of time. Again, we’re trending, but we’re not satisfied.”

On improving breaking the press: 

Golden: “Obviously, we didn’t handle it very well at the end of each half on Saturday. You know, Stack talked about how he feels that might be an area of weakness for us, so I think it’s pretty clear those turnovers were pretty loud. And so, again, we’re talking about different areas where we can identify things that we can get better at, and handling pressure is definitely one of them.”

On the role of NIL and Florida Victorious in getting transfers:

Golden: “I think the majority of these guys wanted to come here to be part of our basketball program and the different things that we were doing on the court and the growth, just being at a place like Florida, the opportunities that it provides and presents. But obviously the NIL opportunities at this university are really strong. I think that’s something that that combination of having a great basketball program, having a great campus, being a top five academic institution, along with having really good supporters and people that want to do what they can to help our programs. I think it’s all going together. So I think it’d be silly to say it was just NIL or just our program. I think it was a combination of all the different things that Florida has to offer that brought back home, that brought Z over here, Tyrese, Micah, Julian, the list goes on and on. So yeah, that’d be the best way I can answer that.”

On whether the freshmen bigs have exceeded expectations:

Golden: “Yeah, I thought they were both really good players. But it has to be a really unique situation where you want to go into the year counting on freshmen. I think especially at this level, in this league very few people can be successful consistently with that mentality. And so going into the year the idea wasn’t that they were going to each play close to 20 minutes a game and be guys that are finishing games for us and and things like that. But a big part of our program is that it’s a meritocracy. And you come in here, whether you’re a freshman or senior, if you prove to give us the best chance to win you’re gonna be on the court. I think both those guys take a lot of pride in that mentality and obviously, they’ve done their part to make it hard for us to keep them off the court. So I think they’ll continue to be a big part of this team as we finish the year and then an even bigger part as we move forward next year.”

On if he was confident playing them late in games or they grew into that:

Golden: “Both. We just see him compete every day in practice. They do a great job of giving Mike and Tyrese to run for their money on a daily basis. And the mutual respect between the four of them I think is really, really unique. They pull for each other and cheer for each other. It really is like a four-man mini-team in the frontcourt the way they play off each other. All four of them are a little interchangeable in terms of being able to play them together. Are they a little further along than we thought they’d be? Probably. But again, they came in and did it and continue to prove that they helped us win, so they’re gonna keep getting these opportunities.”

On what the team has done best to go 8-2 since last Mizzou game:

Golden: “We’ve been consistent. I think, obviously, offensively we’re top 10 in the country pretty consistently. That’s kind of what has allowed us to make the biggest jump. But we have at times been better defensively. I think the way we played on the glass has been the ultimate separator. If you ask me, what are the two things that have allowed our team to make a big jump?  I’d say we’re obviously a fantastic rebounding team and we do a great job taking care of the ball. When we do those two things together, which we knock on wood have been able to do, we’re tough to beat. So it’s been a winning formula for us. We have to do what we can over these next four games, starting with tomorrow night to keep that up.”

On matching the 3-point defense at Missouri (3 of 16) on Wednesday:

Golden: “A big part of that, the success, obviously they didn’t make a lot but we limited their attempts. Coming in here, generally road teams need 3s on the road to win. So, we got to do a good job defending the line and making sure we’re not getting in rotations. I thought we did a really good job that Saturday, we gave up 5 of 22 from 3, and Vandy is the type of team that can make 10 or 11, 12 3s. So that was a good game, in a prep sense, because it’s gonna be a similar mentality. I think [Sean] East (II) is playing incredibly well. I think he’s averaging like 27 a game over the last three games, and they’ve played pretty well since he’s come back. So gotta be mindful of him and his playmaking. Obviously, [Tamar] Bates gave us the business in game one. He really hurt us. So we got to be doing a better job on him.”

On slowing down Bates this time around (season-high 36 the first game):

Golden: “To his credit, he made a lot of tough shots in Game 1. I think he made 10 mid-range jumpshots. So, he beat the scout a little bit. That volume took away from other guys and you know, they weren’t as efficient as they wanted to be even though they were making those mid-ranges. You’re not going to be able to take away everything. I think, you know, that still worked out pretty well for us, but we got to do a really good job limiting those 3’s. You got to do a good job keeping East from getting the strong hand. There’s little things that if we can be on the scout similarly to how we were on Saturday, we’ll give ourselves a good shot. But Missouri is a scary team. They have different weapons. They can play different ways, they play a unique style defensively. Obviously, they haven’t won in league but they’re a team that if you would have told me they had five or six wins in league, I wouldn’t have been surprised. You know, that’s how close a lot of their games have been. So, a lot of respect for the challenge tomorrow night.”

On the balance between physicality and fouling

Golden: “I’ll live with some fouls if you’re playing physical, you know. And I think that’s been something that we’ve been a little better at, you know. The physical instances don’t necessarily always show up in the paint either. It’s like fighting through screens getting over ball screens. And the reality is you can be really physical in this league and that’s proven. It’s the nature of the beast a little bit. I think we as a program have done a better job kind of navigating that. But again, a big thing that we can improve upon and really show growth is that defense around the rim, defending without fouling, and again that’s a big challenge for (Wednesday) because Missouri does a very good job most of the time with drop outs and they’re a great free throw shooting . So, we got to limit their opportunities at the line.”

On players having more focus knowing what’s at stake: 

Golden: “We have been that way for a while. Yes. Just in terms of the consistency in our prep and our mentality. It’s definitely been better over the last month and a half, two months. But, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be great today or going to be great tomorrow. You know, it’s something that you got to constantly be thing about and working on. But it’s been a big part of our success over the last couple of months.”