Todd Golden previews Florida rematch with rival Kentucky at Rupp

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida enters Wednesday’s game on a three-game winning streak and looks to continue its upward trajectory with three straight Quad 1 opportunities on deck.

Up first is a rematch against No. 10 Kentucky at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats defeated UF, 87-85, in the SEC opener. Florida led for the majority of the game, but UK pulled ahead in the final 1:30.

The Gators are 5-65 all-time on the road against AP Top-10 opponents and are looking for their first such win since a 2003 victory at No. 7 Mississippi State. Three of those five victories have come at Kentucky.

Here’s everything UF coach Todd Golden said about the matchup with the Wildcats.

Todd Golden Q&A

On Micah Handlogten’s play vs. Georgia:

Golden: “I think it was a really big game for him, obviously. The production was fantastic and probably his most complete game since he’s been here. And doing it against a physical 5-man like Georgia has, No. 54, was impressive. The great thing about Micah is you don’t need to run play calls for him for him to be productive. He’s a guy who can find a way to fill the state sheet, whether it’s points off rebounds, without being the focal point, offensively, which is a really hard thing to evaluate and an ever better talent. He’s a guy that you can clearly see the progress that he’s made, from the beginning of the year, which is really exciting for us.”

On what UF needs to improve to beat UK:

Golden: “A lot of the same things, in terms of as far as this game, specifically, our transition defense is going to be the first thing, the first box we have to check to give ourselves a chance to win. If we’re letting them play in transition on their home floor it’s going to be a bad formula for us. They’re a fantastic offense and they’re even better in transition. So making them run against a set defense, and the first time we played them that was our big advantage. We were able to execute offensively in the halfcourt. We actually scored more efficiently in the halfcourt more so than in transition, which is not something that happens a lot. I think that was more of an aberration than anything else. But on the defensive end, they kind of carved us in transition, but we did a good job against them in halfcourt. We held them to under a point per possession, which is hardly hard to do against them. So I think pace and whoever is dictating that is going to be a big part of this game.” 

On avoiding UK playing great transition defense:

Golden: “Fast breaks, dunks, those are the kind of swing plays that get a little more momentum and gets the crowd involved, so if we can find a way to limit those swing plays we’ll give ourselves a better chance. 

On what he learned from his first trip to Rupp Arena:

Golden: “Obviously, it’s a great venue and historic in our game, but I feel like every road venue in our league is tough to play in, whether it’s Kentucky or Missouri or any different school. The crowds in this league is fantastic and there’s a just of great support in these places. The thing about Kentucky, it’s just really big. What I remember from last year, we did a decent job of keeping the crowd out of it, but at certain moments when they’d make plays it would get pretty loud in there. So just trying to dictate tempo, dictate pace and do a really good job of slowing them down those are kind of things I would point to try and keep the crowd out of the game.”

On his approach to resume-building opportunities:

Golden: “It’s not something that we worry a lot about. The reality is every game is a resume game one way or the other. If you lose to a team that you’re supposed to beat, that hurts your resume and when you win those games helps you stack up your quality. For us to get to the tournament, we’re going to have to win some of these games as we all know so I’m not necessarily stressing the importance of one over another in particular. A big part of what we do is process over result and being consistent in our approach and this is more about a good road opportunity against a team that we played pretty well against here and we feel we let slip away. I think they realize that as well and they’re going to be ready for us. We should go in with a little confidence knowing that we can play with these guys if we stay true to who we are.”

On the lessons from Florida’s last two games:

Golden: “We’ve done a really good job getting leads these last three games. We were up double figures on the road against Missouri, we were up 17 in the second half against Mississippi State and up big in the second half against Georgia and that’s hard to do. And I think that’s one thing, focusing on some of the positives when we’re talking with the team. This team a month and a half, two months ago, we weren’t getting leads like this against really quality opponents like we’ve been facing and now the big challenge is, and it’s really hard to do to get over the hump, is playing with leads when teams have their back up against the wall and don’t have as much fear of failure and they go out and play with freedom and start making some shots and they’re pressing you and taking more chances defensively, those are harder circumstances to play under and I think for us, just continuing to get more comfortable in those situations and the only way you can do that is by being in those situations. The disappointing thing on Saturday is we just didn’t take care of the ball well in the second half. We beat the press OK but in the halfcourt we had some careless turnovers that allowed them to get all the way back whereas against Mississippi State, they made a run but we didn’t turn it over and we kept them at six and it didn’t really get so tight. Obviously Saturday got really tight.”

On whether human nature with his team or opponents being more aggressive has hurt UF late in games:

Golden: “I think it’s both, I really do. Georgia obviously played a lot more aggressive in the last 10 minutes of that game than they did in the first 30 and offensively, for us. We broke the press, but we were still a little stagnant in the halfcourt and the ball security issues popped up for us. I think a lot of those were unforced. It wasn’t necessarily something Georgia did just us being a little lackadaisical with the ball and we have to improve that way and become more of a 40-minute team and that’s part of growing and getting better as a program and building. You’re in these positions to finish a team off and we did a good job with that against Arkansas a couple weeks ago whereas these past couple games — Mississippi State is a great opponent, they’re a top-35 team or whatever, Georgia has played everybody well in our league. We got over that first hump of being able to build those leads and now the second I think will be when we do (build a lead) to not even let it be tight, to not let it be a game. The great thing is, it’s always easier to teach those wins after wins so we’ll hang onto that and still focus on areas to improve but that’s going to be the next step for us.”

On freshman forward Zvonimir Ivisic:

Golden: “It’s not going to change a lot. He’s a guy that in his first game against Georgia played really, really well and then the last two hasn’t been as effective. They only played him three minutes against Arkansas so I think he’s trying to find himself as well and they have (Tre) Mitchell, (Ugonna) Onyenso and (Aaron) Bradshaw and then Z so we’re going to have to be prepared for all of those guys and the different looks they give us. The difference with Z compared to — even though Bradshaw hit a back-breaking 3 against us, he’s really only made one or two 3s on the year and Onyeso doesn’t shoot them so the difference is if they’re playing Z and Mitchell we would have to guard guys that can shoot or at least have the capacity to make some shots from outside. It’s something we’re mindful of and we’ll be ready.”

On if he changes his approach after breaking the press:

Golden: “I think that’s part of it because when you break it, you’re not gonna have as much advantage / disadvantage numbers in transition. You’re not getting downhill. But I would still like it to be a little more aggressive Once we break the press, especially dependent on time and score. And again, Saturday was a little funky. We were up nine at the line with three and a half to go and ZP misses the front end and then they bang a couple shots just like that. One possession in those games can kind of change complexion either way. With all that being said, not allowing Georgia to get back in it but for us to kind of regather ourselves after the end of regulation and perform the way we did in overtime I thought was a really big step for us.”

On the mental component once things start spinning:

Golden: “Honestly, I’m probably a little too confident in those scenarios. I wasn’t super worried until about the last two minutes because I was like, ‘We’ll be alright. Just take care of the ball, be solid.’ You don’t want to overreact. Our team had done a great job playing to get that lead. Again, that thing tighten up — bang, bang, bang — we didn’t score the last three minutes of regulation. So mindset, if you tighten up and then your team feels, it’s not going to be better.”

On Florida’s three-game winning streak:

Golden: “I’ve been very happy. Again, every win — it sounds cliché — but they’re really hard in this league to get wins. Obviously, we’re not OK or happy with the way leads have been deteriorating for us over the last 10 minutes of the game. But we are 3-0 in our last three games in this league and we’ve put ourselves in a good position to get three games coming up where we can move the needle a little bit and there’s not as much pressure on us to win these games. To be in position after seven games and have a winning record in this league is good, and I’m proud of our guys for that. Now we can play a little freer and with a little more confidence as we go on the road. That’s kind of how I feel.”

On his approach defensively to UK the second time around:

Golden: “I’m going to blow your mind. We actually guarded them well enough to win the first time we played. We really did. They scored late after fouling a little bit, but we held them to like their third- or fourth-worst offensive performance of the year in here. So it was really our offense, specifically in the second half, that I thought let us down a little bit. Not that we weren’t executing. We did turn it over eight times and we went 1 for 11 from 3 in the second half. They’re too good offensively to do that and give yourself the win. The key is obviously we have to do a good job both halves defensively. We did a good enough job over 40, but not a good enough job in the second half. You’ve got to do a better job away from our bench. And then offensively we just got to play more solid for 40 minutes, but they’re the type of team, especially on their home floor, that’s explosive offensively, so we’re gonna have to do a really good job that way.”