Todd Golden previews 2024-25 Florida Gators: ‘I like our team’

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Basketball is back. Florida men’s hoops opened preseason camp on Tuesday with the first official practice for Todd Golden’s 2024-25 team. UF opens the season on Nov. 4 against USF and the first home game will be Nov. 7 versus Jacksonville.

The Gators enter Year 3 under coach Golden after a 24-win season in 2023-24, the team’s most since 2016-17, and their first NCAA Tournament in three years. UF also made a run to the SEC Tournament championship game for the first time since 2014.

After losing graduate transfer starters Zyon Pullin and Tyrese Samuel, Golden and his staff reloaded in the offseason by adding six scholarship players to the roster with a trio of transfers and three freshmen, including a pair of international signees.

“I think we’re really mature. I think we play really hard. And I think we’re really unselfish. Those three things, specifically, are kind of the identity of this group,” Golden said Tuesday when asked about the strengths of this team. “People who have been in our gym see the level of competitiveness on a day-to-day basis. I think we’re really consistent that way. As I said before, we have a lot of work to do, but the bones of our foundation are strong that way. We shoot the ball well. We’re athletic, we run, we play hard. At the end of the day, as long as our guys complete, I’ll be OK to live with whatever happens, but we’re off to a good start.”

Here’s video from Golden’s postgame press conference Monday and everything he said below.

Todd Golden Q&A

On how summer workouts went:

Golden: “I think productive. Obviously being able to bring back at a lot of the same guys was beneficial for us. Got a good seven weeks in the summer. Feel like we’ve had a lot of productive last few weeks to start the fall. Obviously, 41 days now until our first game. We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of things we have to get better at, but I think the foundation is solid.”

On Walter Clayton as a distributor and facilitator: 

Golden: “Honestly, the biggest progress made so far by Walt have been his consistency and leadership. I think that’s something, as we were working together to find a path for him to come back to Florida last year, and make sure it was the right situation for everybody, that was something that was important to me; to move into that role where his leadership, both vocally and by example, had to be really, really consistent, and I think he’s done a great job that way. He’s shown a lot of improvement of taking on more. Obviously as the primary ball-handler early in our offense will be a challenge, but he’s done a great job of accepting that. He’s gotten himself in really good shape, given the way we intend to play. And, listen, he’s a mature guy. He understands this is kind of his last rip to show what he’s got and he’s been really, really good so far. I anticipate him doing that moving forward.”

On how he feels about the point guard position as a whole:

Golden: “I like our team. The one thing that gets lost a little bit — and ZP was amazing, he did a great job for us — is that your team is not going to be the same every year. You’re going to have one year where maybe you have a more ball-dominant point guard. You’re going to have one year where you have more of a team where maybe you’re going to spread it out more. This collection of players works really well together. Walt is going to have a lion’s share of it, but again, like you said, Denzel is a guy we expect a lot of this year. He’s going to be playing on the ball quite a bit. Whether it’s Kajus, Urban, a lot of those guys are capable. Alijah and Will will have some ball-handling responsibilities. We’re going to do it by committee that way. Another benefit is our front court is really good at handling the ball. So, if there’s time where we feel like we’re getting pressured or need a little bit of help, when you have guys like Tommy and Condo, and now Rueben and Sam, all four of those guys can make good decisions. So, I anticipate this team being good with the ball and being a good offensive team.” 

On the next step in his third season: 

Golden: “We’ve got to maintain the level of offense we played last year; we were a top 15 offense in America, which is a good number that I would take again. Clearly, we need to get better on the defensive side of the ball. That was our Achilles heel last year. We didn’t spend as much time on defense last year as we did on offense and I think you could probably see that by the way we played. This year, we’re doing a better job as a staff kind of allocating time and resources to both sides of the ball. My hope — my hope — is that that will lead up to being a better defensive team. I do think our defensive talent is better this year also, specifically the three guys we brought in from the portal. Alijah Martin is very strong and does a great job of keeping guys in front. Fights through screens and competes. Rueben is rim protector, so I think we have raised the bar there. Sam is also a great rim protector. Good feel. Understands where to be and when to be. If we can maintain our offense and improve our defense, I think that’s where we make our jump. 

On whether his emphasis on offense last year was out of necessary:

Golden: I think we had the pieces to be better that way. Because of the commitment we made to that side of the ball I think it maybe limited our upside on the defensive end as we got really good offensively. This year, I don’t really feel that way about our team defensively. I think we’ve got a pretty good upside defensively. Now I don’t think we have quite as high of a ceiling on that side as offense, but we’ll see. Again, I’m proud of the growth we’ve made. … I think Will and Walt are two guys who the ability to raise the ball on defense compared to last year and they’ve done that at practice. If we can continue to get the out of them — and I’m confident we will — it will be a trickle-down effect to the rest of the players, with just how important it is to us and give us better results on the other end.”

On the loss Tyrese Samuel and Micah Handlogten on the offensive glass:

Golden: “Yeah, Micah is really the one that I worry about not having. Tyrese is a good offensive rebounder, for sure, but Micah was I think, top five or six in America on the offensive glass. So not having him, we got to make that up somehow. I think Ruben is a fantastic offensive rebounder in his own right, and then Sam again, and Condo and Tommy should be a little better than last year. We need our three to rebound a little bit better, but I think we will be a very good offensive rebounding team again. We got to be better defensively. I think we’re a little inconsistent on that end on the glass. But without those guys, big holes to fill, but I’d be disappointed if we take, like, a big step back that way.”

On a freshman to sophomore jump for Alex Condon and Thomas Condon:

Golden: “They’re making a jump, real time. Feel like we probably got a little more out of them last year than we thought we would. We talked about that quite a bit last season, but it also kind of gave us this foundation of understanding what they’re capable of and just the type of people they are. They’re incredible competitors, really smart guys and really driven. They both have high aspirations in terms of where they want their careers to go, and they spent a lot of time in the gym. Condo played with his Australian national team a little bit this summer, got back here like the day after they finished playing and started working out with our guys. Tommy’s one of the best workers we’ve had since I started coaching. I think both those guys you know, are geared to really, really help us this year.”

On Will Richard playing with ball in his hand a little bit more:

Golden: “I think Will he kind of has the answer key in terms of what the coaching staff wants. He’s been with us long enough now that he knows me very well, he knows our staff really well. I think we can do a better job of finding him some different looks in the offense that we weren’t as aggressive doing last year, which I think will help, and then also trying to put him in situations where he’s using spread ball screens. I think he was pretty good that way when he had an opportunity last year. But again, now it’s his third year in the SEC. I think he’s incredibly comfortable. He’s another guy that after getting some good feedback from the NBA had a great summer. His body’s the best it’s ever been. He’s more explosive than he’s ever been. He’s just maturing and getting bigger, stronger, more athletic. And I think naturally he’ll make a jump, and I anticipate his 3-point percentage going up quite a bit from last year, kind of back to where was the sophomore. I think he shot 40 from 3 on the year in conference play. But again, I shouldn’t say I take them for granted, but guys like Walt and Will, who’ve been in our program now for any sort of period of time, I anticipate them kind of growing naturally along the way.”

On the non-conference schedule:

Golden: “I think it’s a really good schedule. We’re gonna have good opportunities, whether it’s Virginia in here, North Carolina at the Jumpman, at Florida State, our MTE (multiple team event) down in Orlando we’re gonna play Wake Forest, which will more likely than not be a Quad 1 opportunity. So we’re gonna have some good opportunities, and then we have some tricky home games and neutrals. USF to start the season is gonna be a really tough game. They’re a really good program. They showed that at the end of last year. And Southern Illinois is another team that is better than you would think coming in here in the non-conference. So challenging. I think will definitely prepare us for SEC play, and that’s going to be a whole another bear in its own right. So, I think we’ve put ourselves in position now that we’ve kind of made it to where we are as a program, where we can take on a more challenging non-conference and try to prepare ourselves for conference play that way.”

On Reuben Chinyelu’s play as a freshman and getting expanded minutes this year:

Golden: “He had incredible offense rebounding rate, defensive rebounding rate, block rate, and then 2-point field-percentage. With those filters and the numbers that he was able to achieve, I think there was like 15 guys over the last 15 years or something that did that, and I think 13 of them played in the NBA. So the foundation’s there. I think the biggest thing with Ruben will be defending without fouling. Can he defend without fouling? And it’s a tricky one because he plays so hard that you don’t want to turn him down or slow him down – part of what makes him who he is is how aggressive he is. But if he’s on the floor he’ll be productive. He’s proven that. If he can get to the point where he’s playing 20, 25 minutes a night, then I think he’s going to be really, really good. But that’s gonna be up to him a little bit and seeing if he can contain himself and not take cheapies that lead him to the bench before anybody wants him off the floor.”

On Rueben’s story:

Golden: “He’s an incredible young man, like incredible. Just who he is now, he’s an incredibly mature young man who speaks a number of languages. Incredible student. He has the potential to play in the NBA. He also has the potential to be way smarter than anybody in our building by a lot and does great in the classroom. Prideful about it, works hard academically as well. And again, he’s just a high achieving guy. He’s not ever going to do anything half hearted. He’s going to be disappointed if he’s not winning. And again, like you stack enough of those competitive guys in a program, good things are gonna happen.”

On Rueben riding an electric bike:

Golden: “Did he have a helmet on?”

No. 

Golden: “I think he just got his driver’s license, so he’ll be behind the wheel a little more.”

On the process of identifying Urban Klavzar:

Golden: “Honestly, we’ve known about him for a long time. We tried to get him over here when we first got to Florida, and just a very productive player at a high level in Europe. Played second division in Spain last year, did a very nice job. I think he was like over 50 (percent) from two, over 40 from three. Scored about 8.5 points over 17 minutes a game, and then had an incredible U 20 tournament with Slovenia, lost to France in the title game. I think Slovenia was like the 12th ranked team going into it. And he played at such a high level. If they would have beat France, he would have been the tournament MVP. I think he averaged like 17 a game, really good, efficient shooting percentages. And again, he’s 20, so he’ll be an older freshman but a guy that’s been through it a little bit and should be a little more prepared than most freshmen to help. He’s just a mature guy, again, another hard worker. A lot of our guys are this way. And, I think he’ll help us this year for sure.”

On adding Olivier Rioux:

Golden: “He is a great kid. Love his parents, and when they showed interest in coming here as a preferred walk-on, it was kind of a no-brainer for us. In the sense of, it’s a low risk, high reward opportunity for everybody. I think we have great resources, facilities. We feed our guys really well, you know, him being 7-9, just having all those resources, I think was really important to him. And you know, we’ve seen guys like Zach Edey, Tacko Fall, have really, really good success at some point in their career. Obviously, it takes a while, though, and so because of his mindset and his willingness to come in and work, we felt like it was a worthwhile investment on both sides. So, I’m not sure how much he’ll play for us this year. If he’s helping us this year, he’s gotten really, really good. But he’s a guy that I anticipate will continue to grow and at some point help move the needle for us.”

On how Clayton playing PG affects his game:

Golden: “Honestly, I don’t think it’ll affect his scoring much at all. You know, similar to ZP, you know. ZP was a high scoring point guard, right? Averaged like 17 a game, or whatever. I think Walt will keep scoring. That’s just his talent, one of his many talents. He’s a great scorer. And I don’t want him to not be aggressive, trying to score. I want him trying to score and then making plays. We need him to take care of the ball, but I want him to be super, super aggressive. I want everybody on our team to be that way. So, like I said, we’ll look a little different. But he’s not going to be a slow down, kind of pass-first facilitating point guard. So if that’s the image that you have, get that out of your head. He’s going to be an attacking point guard that’s making plays, trying to score. And the great thing about Walt is he always naturally makes the right play. He’s trying to score, he’s trying to be aggressive, but if he sees a help defender there, he’s going to find his teammate, and that’s something that he’s consistent in doing. So, I just think it should allow him to expand his game a little bit, and I have confidence in his ability to do it for us.”

On Alijah Martin’s fit:

Golden: “He’s been great. One of the benefits of this new era is he had one year left and Alijah is a very smart and very mature dude and he was able to really try to find what he was looking for and so he and his group had a good understanding of what he wanted and I think we showed that we had a really good opportunity for him that way. Him and I got along really well and I thought we built a really good connection to be able to trust each other and work together in a short period of time. We were a little inconsistent on the wing last year in terms of being able to execute and having a great level of energy and enthusiasm. He is elite that way. He competes every day. He brings fire and energy to our practices and he brings a vocal leader to our practices. The things that we were hoping he’d bring, he’s doing. I think what he was hoping he’d be able to find here, he’s figuring out and finding here and I think he’s going to have a really good year for us.”

On Aberdeen’s progress and how it enables Florida’s PG by committee approach:

Golden: “I think if it weren’t for his progress, we would not be as comfortable doing it. He’s a guy that we thought would break out a lot sooner and it took until the SEC Tournament for him to really get comfortable and do it but we had been seeing it in practice for a long time and our staff made the conscious decision as soon as the season was over that we were going with him and we just believe in him to be a big part of that backcourt. He can play point guard, which is helpful for the other guys, and he’s a guy that’s a little bit of an unsung guy. Maybe not getting a lot of notoriety compared to some of our more proven players but just up in our office, he’s a guy that we rely on just as much as some of those other guys that we talk about a lot.”

On Taurean Green:

Golden: “He plays a huge part. TG had a great year for us last year. I feel like he’s getting better as a coach like every day. He was obviously a very good player, he played for 15 years or whatever it was and was able to go work with Billy for a year and get an understanding of the player development piece and he continues to evolve into a really complete coach. He spends a lot of time with our guys and is more influential in practice now. He’s earned the right to do that and to take on that role and I feel like we have a gem in him on our staff. He’s a guy that’s incredibly loyal to me, to our staff, to the Gators, wants this program to get back to where it was when he was playing and is a guy that started his coaching career as a good, young talent and is evolving into a really good coach in real time. There’s a reason why we’ve gotten better and a big part of that is our ability to retain our staff through the first couple years. We have great continuity and I think our staff has a really good understanding of how to work with each other and it bleeds into the team, obviously.”

On his development as a coach:

Golden: “I think we’re doing alright. I think last year was a big year for us and it was important to take a jump after year one but winning 24 games, I think we won 14 SEC games if you count the conference tournament, that’s hard to do. I think that really kind of gave us the confidence as a staff that we’re on the right track and everything, I don’t want to say gets easier, but the longer you are somewhere, the more confident you get in your processes. Things start working a little easier together and I thought we had a good offseason. I thought we added the pieces we needed to and retained who we wanted to keep and one area that we’re challenging ourselves as a staff this year is to get better defensively. How can we make a jump? That’s an area where we talk about it now, if we come back as the 100th best defense at the end of the year, I’m not going to be very happy with what we did as a staff. That’s an area I feel like we need to make a big jump but we’re constantly evaluating ourselves and looking at our process and seeing what we need to be doing and seeing how we can get better. It’s just different every year. It’s different with every team you have and you have to figure out the best way to coach that collection of guys. I think we’re on the right track, we’re very competitive in this league right now and our goal is to become a top-four team in this league consistently, which is not easy and would be a heck of an accomplishment if we’re able to do that but that’s kind of the goal and I think we’re getting there.”

On what it’s like to coach at a basketball school: 

Golden: “Yeah, that’s not the case, as we know. It’s an everything school. But yeah, I think I’m excited for this year.”

On getting feedback from fans on anticipation of the season because of the football program’s status: 

Golden: “Yeah, I would say just more exclusively to our program. People are excited about the growth of our team from years one to two, and the fact that we added some good pieces. And again, I think the continuity piece is really exciting to a lot of people in this day and age. You go, you know, I think of some of our biggest supporters and, you know, talking to them about how excited they are that Walt and Will are back, right, like that’s, that’s unique. It’s just unique nowadays for them to come in and see Tommy and Condo and Denzel, you know, and having that continuity and that familiarity with them year over year is something that I think our fans are really excited about. You know, last year was tricky, we had nine new guys, you know. This year it’s less and a lot of the same guys that were successful for us last year will be back on the floor this year, and I think that’s what our fans are most excited about, kind of the idea of building upon that and seeing if we can make good progress this year or not.”

On if it validates his process getting players to return: 

Golden: “A little bit, I also think it speaks to what’s important to us, you know, as a program. We definitely are trying to do that, we’re trying to make sure that we bring the guys that we feel like are the best guys in our program back year after year, you know, if they continue to have a good attitude and continue to play for the team, you know, so, we worked hard to get Walt back, we worked hard to get Will back. Same for Condo, Tommy and Denzel, because that’s what we believe in, that’s how, that’s kind of the program I played in at St. Mary’s. That’s how we got good at Columbia. That’s how we got good at San Francisco. And my idea is, if we can do that same kind of thing at a place like Florida, we should get really, really good, so, that’s kind of the reason behind it. But yes, it is, in a sense, validating when, you know, the guys that you perceive as your best players come back.”

On Isaiah Brown expectations, if U18 helped him:

Golden: “Stud. Honestly, he had a bad tournament, but he wasn’t, he was like, really sick, and so I’m not sure how much he got out of that experience, but Isaiah, he’s fantastic. He’s a great player. You know, we take him for granted a little bit, because he is a guy that’s a freshman, but you watch him play, he’s like a junior out there. Like he knows all the angles, he’s a great team defender, he knows how to cut, get to the glass offensively, he just, he makes a lot of winning plays. And he’s a guy that – I was actually, we were just talking about at lunch – it’s like, you can put him in a game tomorrow, and you feel like, even as a freshman, he’s gonna be fine, he’s gonna be okay. So he’s a guy that I think’s gonna challenge me a lot early in the season, because I think there’s gonna be a lot of times where he’s, you know, earns the right to get out there a little bit. And if he does that, he’ll be playing.”

On Isaiah Brown as a long-range shooter: 

Golden: “He can make shots. But again, I think his best quality is that he has a lot of winning attributes, just little things that don’t necessarily show up in the box score every day. But his teams win a lot. He is, he’s what we hoped he would be when we got him, and really happy he’s here with us.”

On what statistical improvements need to happen on defense to make a jump:

Golden: “Yeah, I think the main things, you know, that we’re going to be thinking about a lot is, like, kind of like a big-picture wise, two-point field-goal percentage, like, we’ve got to be a better rim protecting team. Part of that is protecting the rim better, but also making sure that they don’t get as many rim shots, so that’s one area that we really need to get better at. I think our ball-screen defense needs to be a lot better. And then lastly, we got to be better at defending without fouling. I think those three areas, if we can make, like, a marked improvement in those, like, we’ll do what we need to do. We guarded the three pretty well last year, our transition defense is pretty good, but I think those other three areas will really determine how big of a jump we really do make.”

On what the overall defensive rating was last year: 

Golden: “I think 93.”