Todd Golden: Gators need to play with more physicality, effort at Mizzou

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After dropping their first two away in conference play, including Tuesday’s 85-66 loss at No. 6 Tennessee, the Gators will be going for their first SEC road win Saturday at Missouri.

The Tigers (8-9, 0-4 SEC) are looking for their first league victory overall as they host Florida (11-6, 1-3 SEC) at 8 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Here is everything UF coach Todd Golden said Friday about the matchup with Mizzou, his team’s loss against the Vols and more.

Todd Golden Q&A

On his takeaways from the Tennessee loss:

Golden: “Believe it or not I thought we played with better purpose than we did in our first road game in league, you know  obviously the result wasn’t very good but you know our intent was in the right place, defensively, you know we struggled guarding Knecht, I think that was the main thing first and foremost, obviously did some poor things on some post ups with Aidoo, you know outside of those two guys I thought we did a pretty good job. You just can’t let Knecht get going like that, especially after the week he had before we got there, with that being said I thought he made some really good individual plays as well when we weren’t in error situations so I thought we did a better job taking care of the ball, we did a better job of not allowing poor offense bleed into offensive opportunities for them, we rebounded well, we got seven more shot attempts, four more free throws, you know that’s generally a good formula for success, but we just didn’t own the paint very well, we didn’t finish well enough around the rim and did not prevent them from finishing well enough, that’s why the result was the way it was.” 

On the trends with defense on the road vs. at home:

Golden: “Well it’s really a negative trend right now, right? We’ve defended like a Top 20 team at home, and we’ve defended really, really poorly away from here, specifically on the road, neutral we’ve been OK, our two-point defense neutrally has been fantastic, we’re at 44 percent from 2 but we’ve got bombed out neutral from 3 like Baylor, Michigan, Richmond, all those teams all those teams in two plus 3 percentage, so we were able to withstand that on the road in those three contests, the Wake game was OK overall but our two league games not quite good enough and a lot of that is just around the paint, around the rim, we’ve got to do a better job of preventing rim finishes if we want to give ourselves a better chance to win tomorrow.” 

On whether some of that is communication:

Golden: “I think it’s communication, I think it’s physicality, and we just did not do a good job of owning the block in that game on Tuesday. We didn’t execute well enough defensively, we knew we had to keep Aidoo away from the rim, especially with his catches, keep him from getting to his right shoulder, we didn’t do either well enough and then part of that is their execution but also we’ve got to do a better job in road games, hostile environments, whatever it is, being able to communicate and execute those things that are pretty basic. So, we’ve addressed it really, really heavily this week, have spent the last couple of days leading up to this game working on things that I think will give us a better chance against Missouri, but it all starts with our effort on the defensive end, especially on the road, if we want to give ourselves a good chance to win.” 

On why UF has been a good bounce back team:

Golden: “I think we’re pretty good. We’re pretty mentally tough. We’ve had some moments where we haven’t been at our best, but we haven’t let it bleed into the next game, and listen, as you all know, this league is very, very tough, there’s a lot of good teams that are 1-3 right now so, I’m not super worried about that. I’m more worried about how we come out and perform tomorrow in an environment that’s going to be really tough. Missouri’s good, they’re 0-4 but they’ve played Alabama awfully close until the end, they’ve played Kentucky awfully close on the road, lost some tough home games where they had leads late against Georgia and South Carolina, so they are a team that can easily be 2-2 right now, so we go into an 0-4 environment but that’s not the attitude or mentality that our team has, you know we have a lot of respect for how they operate and what they do and we know we have to play really well to win tomorrow night. I think that’s something that’s really important for us to understand going into it. But I think again the way we practices you know the past couple of days and our mentality and our approach will give us the best chance to win.” 

On if improved defensive effort comes down to pride:  

Golden: “Yeah, I think it’s a little bit pride, I think it’s more of just not being afraid to fail, you know. You’re going to use Tennessee as an example, like, they’re a top-4 team in America, so it’s not exactly an easy thing to do, but you’ve got to let it hang out, and, you know, there’s going to be times where your coverage is perfect and they still score, and you got to be okay with that. And so a big part of what we’re emphasizing is just making sure we execute our plan, what we’re trying to take away defensively, and if they beat us that way, then you tip our cap. But what we can’t do is allow Missouri to get out in transition or allow them to get good catch-and-shoot 3s for [Tamar] Bates or allow [Noah] Carter to operate comfortably and then wonder why it didn’t work, right? So, again, I think our mentality and our understanding of what the expectation is defensively is in a better spot now. It was in a decent spot the Tennessee game leading up to this Missouri game, so I’m expecting a much better effort on that end.” 

On if there’s anything else he can evaluate in road preparation:  

Golden: “Yeah, I mean, I think consistency is really important to being good, right, so even though we haven’t performed great, it’s been three contests. They’ve been three of the best teams on our schedule, you know, I think that’s part of it as well. And, you know, we’re not going to change who we are and what we’ve done for a long time and our preparation that’s worked for a long time, you know, so we’ll continue to address what we need to, but, you know, we’re not going to change a whole lot of things as we go on into this game.” 

On if the starting lineup and rotations will stay where it’s at:  

Golden: “Yeah, we’re gonna stay with the same group, but obviously Riley’s playing a lot better and Condo’s playing really well, and I think both those guys are basically starters for us as this point as well. So those top seven are gonna get the lion’s share of the minutes, Tommy and Zel are next up. Julian’s a little banged up, so we’ll see if he can go tomorrow, and, I trust Kajus to be able to go and handle the ball in a tough environment as well, and Shimmy’s back, you know, so having him as kind of that fifth big available will be important as well. So, yeah, pretty steadfast with that rotation and those guys getting those minutes.” 

On if he was surprised that not much they did stopped Dalton Knecht:  

Golden: “Yeah, we did, you know, I think it was an interesting kind of game flow. I think he had two points in the first 10 minutes, so we were pretty satisfied with that. Not satisfied with the second minutes in the first half when he kind of went nuclear on us, and I can live with the downhill drives, going left, finishing over our seven-footers at the rim. You’ve got to tip your cap on those. Can’t live with the breakdowns with a strongside help kick-out threes, I can’t live with miscommunicating on switches in the middle of the floor that lead to wide-open threes, you know, those are the ones that we just got to eliminate, you know, and it sounds simple, but it’s just, you know, when you play good teams, it’s a lot harder than it sounds, and, you know, I think that’s the jump that this team has to make. Our talent’s there, I think our intent is there. Our heart is there, but we got to clean up some self-inflicted errors, specifically away from home, that show up a lot more.” 

On if that’s the nature of having 10 new players: 

Golden: “I think that’s part of it, for sure, you know, I think we probably took for granted, because we got a lot of the guys that we wanted to add, but just how new our team really was, again, you know, with only Riley and Will being guys that got any minutes last year that are returning. It’s kind of that process again, you know, and so, getting back to the bare bones of what’s really important in terms of defending, rebounding, taking care of the ball, doing those things and letting the offense kind of fall into place, we’ll be good, and we really, again, emphasize and focused on those things that require no talent.” 

On the team’s 3-point shooting: 

Golden: “I think we’re a little better than that probably at the end of the day. We’ve been really steady, consistent, right around that range all year. We’ve been, in our better games, hitting about nine 3s, shooting right around 33%. We shot the ball really well in some first halves that have given us some big leads, whether it be Kentucky, even Arkansas. I thought we made some shots early that but extended that. But going on the road is something where that needs to show up a lot more. I though we got some really good looks in the Tennessee game in the beginning of the second half where if we knock those a couple of those down I think it tightens up a little bit. A formula for success on the road is shooting the ball well. That way there’s not going to be anything affected by the officiating or affected around the rim that you can’t control. When you bang shots, it takes a lot of the extracurriculars out of it. If you go and make 10 3s on the road., you’re going to give yourself a good chance to win. So we’re still waiting for one of those performances. Hopefully it will be tomorrow night.” 

On if the low shooting percentage at Tennessee was an outlier: 

Golden: “I didn’t think we finished with enough physicality. I thought around the rim they did a good job of fouling us with their chest, is a good way to describe it, which is legal to an extent. You know, going up and just bodying you and not letting your hands come down, not giving the refs anything to see inside that they’ll bang. And the reality is, this league is super difficult to officiate because of the physicality. If you go up there vertical and take it in the chest, they’re not going to make that call. They’re going to let you play like that and I think we need to do more of that on the perimeter, guarding the ball. I think we need to do a better job of it than at the rim as we go on and play these opponents. But Tennessee, I mean, listen, they’re a physical team. They’re old, they’re tough, they win a lot. And they play a physical style that every time you’re going to get contact when you’re on offense, when you drive, when you get to the rim. You gotta understand that. And one of the things that one of the refs said during the game, which I thought was valid, was, ‘Hey, you guys are driving, kind of trying to absorb the contact as opposed to just going and finishing the basketball.’ And you know, I thought there were a few that maybe were more our way than that. But overall, I think that’s a fair thing to say, especially at a place like Tennessee. You gotta go in there, you can’t hope for the foul call. You gotta go try to put that ball in the basket and put some pressure on the refs to make that call. So, you know, obviously Missouri is a little different than Tennessee, but I expect the same kind of rim protection from [Aidan] Shaw, from [Jordan] Butler, from those guys that are doing a good job cleaning up. We gotta go finish with some force in the paint.”

On facing another 7-foot-5 big in Connor Vanover:

Golden: “We just gotta do a good job. Again, it’s kind of the consistent same thing. When you see big bodies around the rim, you gotta play off two, you gotta be strong, you gotta go through them as opposed to try and go around them soft. And again, we did a much better job against Tennessee. Like, they’re a good job blocking team. They have a good room presence, and we didn’t go in there soft. We didn’t allow bad finishes to turn into transition for them. We played off two, we went what I thought was stronger, we just didn’t finish well enough, and I think we’ll do a good job that tomorrow.”

On what he wants to see from his team at Missouri:

Golden: “Great defensive effort, playing with incredible physicality. Our effort defensively has to be a little better. We gotta be willing to make multiple efforts on that end and then offensively, to be honest, I just want to make sure we take care of the ball. You know, I’m not as concerned about our execution offensively or being perfect in the right spots in every play, but they’re a team that really thrives defensively on turning people over. And if we just take care of the ball and make sure we get shots every time down, we’ll give ourselves a really good chance.”

On how Walter Clayton Jr. and Tyrese Samuel have adjusted to SEC play:

Golden: “Well. I think they’re getting there. Obviously, Tyrese had a little bit of a slower start, but he’s played better, had a great game against Arkansas and I thought his physicality was much better against Tennessee. And Walt’s a fantastic offensive player. He’s been really good offensively all year for us and has some breakdowns defensively, but I think his effort and his intent on that end, it’s improving every week for sure.”