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Todd Golden: First two games will be ‘good litmus test’ for Gators

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•06/22/23•

ZachAbolverdi

Florida-Gators-Will-Richard
Florida forward Will Richard hits a 3-pointer. (UAA Photo)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Another non-conference opponent for Florida hoops was revealed Thursday. Gators coach Todd Golden held his first media availability for the 2023-24 team.

During the presser, Golden mentioned who the Gators will face in their season opener.

“We play Loyola-Maryland to open the season, a Monday or Tuesday night, and Virginia is that Friday. Quick turnaround,” Golden said.

Florida announced Wednesday that it will face Virginia on Friday, Nov. 10, at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. The game will be part of a 2023 Hall of Fame Series tripleheader.

“We scheduled it for a reason,” Golden said of the matchup with the Cavaliers. “We’re going to face a program that has continued to be successful for a long period of time, that has a great brand, a great understanding of what they do and a very successful style over the past 15 years or so. For us, we’ll still be trying to figure ourselves out and come together quickly.

“Hopefully, we will have had some good scrimmages and practices to have done that. We’ll lay it on the line and see what we’ve got. For us, we’re excited to play a game like that. It’s not going to make or break our season one way or another, but it’ll be a good litmus test early to see what we can do together.”

The Hall of Fame Series will be one of two trips to Charotte for Golden and his team. The Gators also face Michigan in the Jumpman Invitational on Dec. 19 at the same venue.

After losing nine players from last year’s team, Golden and his staff signed one of the nation’s top transfers classes as six transfers joined the three freshmen signees.

“We think we’ll be better, but it’s hard to say exactly just how much we’ve improved that way. We have some talented players,” Golden said. “Obviously, Colin [Castleton] was fantastic last year. I think we’ll be more solid as a team. I think we have a little higher IQ in terms of on-the-floor making decisions and guys that have more to their games.

“They can do different things and, for lack of a better term, are just more ‘basketball players’ in certain respects. So, again, like we feel like we brought in nine new guys, nine out of 13 are new, and we feel like we hit on a lot of these guys. So organically, I feel like we’ll be a little better than we were.”

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