Todd Golden previews Wake Forest, updates Micah Handlogten

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After a strong showing in the NIT Season Tip-Off, the Gators are back on the road this week for the inaugural SEC/ACC Challenge. Florida will play at Wake Forest on Wednesday night.

Tipoff is at 7:15 p.m. and the game will be televised by ESPNU. Here is everything Florida coach Todd Golden said about the matchup, his team’s play in Brooklyn, the status of injured starting center Micah Handlogten and more.

Todd Golden Q&A

On the NIT Season Tip-Off tourney:

Golden: “It kind of validates what we thought before; that we have a pretty good team and can play with anybody on any given night. I was really pleased with the way we played, especially in the second half against Pitt to extend that lead like we did and not let it get down past 10. And, obviously, playing a different style against Baylor. Kind of did some different things. Didn’t defend nearly as well as we wanted to, especially on the 3-point, which is something we have to get right quick. But all in all, a positive week for sure.” 

On the challenge of defending Wake Forest:

Golden: “They’re pretty standard. They do play two bigs a lot. One of them, Andrew Carr, can make some 3s, so he’s a guy we have to mindful of. A lot of good perimeter scorers. They have three guys who can really put it on the deck and score, with catch and shoot 3s and make shots, so we have to be super mindful of those guys as well. But it’s a good offensive team and they’re going to challenge us for sure.” 

On Florida continuing to rally against Baylor:

Golden: “Yeah. We have to. Nothing else is acceptable. I think as we continue building this team and get more comfortable, my hope is that’s a big part of our DNA; our competitive spirit., I think these guys are really good that way. They were up for the challenge, for sure. We kept that game pretty close — even got it tied — through that second half, but then they hit some big 3s when we were making our run. But to your point, we kept finding a way to keep it at one or two possessions. There are some positives we can pull from that game, for sure.” 

On breakdowns defending the 3 vs. Baylor:

Golden: “A couple different things. Bridges obviously got us early. We scouted him like a 3-point shooter, but he got some off he shouldn’t have early. Then he made some quick-trigger ones and a couple off the bounce. You gotta live with those, I think those are mostly low-percentage shots. At the end of the day I think you have to tip your cap a little bit. Their third-string center hit a pick-and-pop 3, which was a huge shot. And RayJ Dennis hit a couple off the bounce in the second half, which were huge, huge plays. It was kind of balance of our breakdowns as well as their stepping up and making big shots. I think that’s really the only way we can land against a team that is shooting 56 from 3 against you. We just have to tip our cap a little that way.”

On the play of Tyrese Samuel:

Golden: “I thought he played great, obviously. SEC Player of the Week. He has shown the ability to play at a high, high level with great efficiency, really, since he got down here. I was really happy with our freshman in that Pitt game as well. Micah goes out in the first minute. We play big for maybe about 37 or 38 of those minutes in that game. So those guys did a good job competing and defending and staying out of foul trouble. Obviously, we played smaller in that Baylor game and didn’t guard as well. But Baylor is a really good offensive team. That had something to do with it. We’re going to have to see what we can do tomorrow. Hopefully, Micah can give it a go, but if he can’t it’s next man up and we’ll see if these young guys can keep delivering for us.”

On Micah Handlogten’s status:

Golden: “He’s getting there. Obviously, an ankle deal. He’s working hard to get back. Anticipate him giving it a go at practice today and see what it looks like and we’ll kind of make it a game-time decision tomorrow.”

On the balance of going big vs. small:

Golden: “It’s an ongoing equation to try to figure out. Like I said, we didn’t have to do it, go to small, in that Pitt game but it felt like we had to in that Baylor game knowing we were going into it with only so many frontcourt guys as well as their personnel, they play a lot of four-out so I thought we could match up a little easier with them. Wake is more of a three-out, two-in team. They play Carr, Marsh is just coming back, Keller, obviously, and then their freshman, Marion. Those four guys are playing a lot of those frontcourt minutes so they’re more normal, I would say, than Baylor so I think it’s going to be a little bit of a chess game to mix and match piece and try and figure out when we can go small and when we shouldn’t and seeing who can be more effective doing that.”

On ball-screen coverage:

Golden: “I thought we were really good in the Pitt game in ball-screen coverage after the first four minutes. I thought we were a little jumbled early but then I thought we did a really good job on Carrington, forcing him into tough shots. He had a pretty inefficient game, keeping him left a lot. Obviously the Baylor game, not very good. But you have to tip your cap, I thought we did a pretty good job against Dennis in the first half, held him to two points but obviously didn’t do a very good job on him in the second half when he had 22 or 24 or whatever it was. They’re going to put you in rotations. Baylor is one of the best ball-screen teams in America so they’re going to shift the pieces around to try to put you in some rotations and make you execute things. I thought we had moments where we did a good job but over the course of 40, not quite good enough to beat a top-10 team.”

On how much frontcourt fatigue impacted ball-screen coverage:

Golden: “I think not having Micah affects your defense. He’s a very good defender and just long and rebounds well and protects the rim. In terms of executing the coverages a little bit, we haven’t had to play with a small-ball lineup a whole lot and that switches things up on you. I think we have the personnel that can make those things happen. We’ve worked on it the last couple days and we’ll be more prepared going into this game to have to try to execute that if we need to. We’ll be better prepared after playing in that tournament as well.”

On how much the NBA Global Academy helped Alex Condon:

Golden: “I think it’s helped him a lot. He’s only been playing basketball for four years so to go there and get there late and cover as much ground as he has in a short period of time, a lot of it’s natural as well. He has great feel, great IQ, some of the things that you can’t teach, he has, as well as the skill in the coaching and the competitiveness, I think the do a really good job there of growing their players.”

On ball distribution:

Golden: “I think that’s been something that we’ve talked about quite a bit as a strength of the team, our ability to share it and take care of it. We had moments — I mean, the Florida State game to me was a little bit of an outlier because we allowed their pressure to speed us up a little bit, especially in the second half once we had a 30-point lead. We allowed it to kind of slow us down and we turned it over and got a little sloppy but for the majority of games, especially with ZP in the lineup, we’ve been a very good ball-handling team and I anticipate that being one of our calling cards. In the Pitt game, 24 assists, eight turnovers, really hard to do. I think Baylor, we were 17-to-11 or 17-to-12 against a team like that, a top team in the Big 12, hard to do. If we can continue to be that type of team that plays unselfishly that tries to play for each other, I think we’re going to continue to be really good offensively.”

On Riley Kugel‘s greatest area of growth defensively:

Golden: “Consistency. His ability to lock in and really take pride in the matchup. He’s just a very, very, very good defender. You can put him on a guy and say, ‘Hey, go take away 3s, don’t give em up,’ and he’ll snuff it out. You can tell him, ‘Hey, go defend the paint,’ and he has the physicality, the strength and the ability to be able to move side to side to do that and just that consistency to do it every possession. You know, we’ve had an issue guarding the 3-point line and he’s been very good at it. He’s doing a lot of the different things that we ask him to do at a high level right now.”

On whether or not he played this well defensively last year:

Golden: “I think early on when he was trying to get himself in there, he was really turned up and he was a little inconsistent and that’s where you see the growth. The growth is the consistency. He’s doing it every possession. When he gets scored on, it sticks out because the other times he’s doing such a good job preventing them from scoring. He’s a fantastic wing defender for sure.”

On Kugel’s comment about playing him selfish early on:

Golden: “I mean obviously I think for all of us, in our different situations there’s times when we feel a lot of pressure, and obviously with the kind of accolades and the different things he had going into the season of course like any human you are going to feel the pressure to produce and to go out there and make sure that he shows he’s the guy that everybody else expects him to be. The biggest challenge and I think what he’s doing a really job of understanding is as long as we’re winning, than everything is going to work out and so early on I think he was pressing more than being selfish, hey you know, I need to score, you really don’t if we win you continue to guard your yard do a great job on the ball, show how explosive you are in transition, make your catch and shoot 3s, you don’t need to average what you did last year and you can still be a super high pick, come next spring, next summer. So and it’s not unusual for someone to kind of have to take a little to figure that out. To his credit I think he goes up to New York and I think he had a real good mentality the whole trip and obviously played really, really well against Baylor on the offensive side of the ball while continuing to be really good defensively where he’s been all year so that was going to be a challenge for him coming back and now you have a lot better personnel around you, guys that can carry the weight, guys that can put the ball in the basket, and so less is being required of him in terms of being a scorer, more is required of him everywhere else on the floor and I think that’s the one thing that the people, whether the media, whether it be the public, have to understand is he’s doing a great job making us a better team in all these other areas even when the scoring isn’t there.” 

On Kugel showing up in other places when he’s not scoring:

Golden: “Absolutely and he has to, along with everybody else like if you’re not scoring, you better be defending, rebounding, taking care of the ball, or we have a lot of talented guys on this roster and guys that we’re just trying to find ways to get some minutes so I think our guys have a good understanding of that and what’s expected and required in terms of the little things that go into winning.” 

On the status of Walter Clayton Jr., who was sick on Friday:

Golden: “He’s getting better. We’ve been fighting a little stomach bug in our program for about 10 days now. I got through it last week, and I’m good. It’s been consistent and obviously he was super under the weather on Thanksgiving. Didn’t know if he would be able to go on Friday, credit to Duke and our staff for being able to get him the fluids and everything necessary to get on the court, but he wasn’t himself, he wasn’t obviously the same guy that we saw on Wednesday night but to his credit and I know the team really appreciated his grittiness and his willingness to compete even though he wasn’t himself.” 

On UF improving with turnovers in Brooklyn:

Golden: “I think we’re doing a great job. I think we had 19 turnovers in those two games so over 80 minutes against two really good teams, I’d say we had some really good growth on that trip.” 

On whether Clayton was feeling sick yet on Wednesday:

Golden: “No flu game. He had a flu practice on Thursday going into Friday just trying to keep some fluids in his system but yeah it wasn’t great, health-wise that is.” 

On the challenging of Kugel putting less pressure on himself:

Golden: “I think it’s a definite challenge. Sometimes you get in comfort zone and last year he got super comfortable at the end of the year being the guy, in terms of being the one that’s scoring for us and doing all of those things, and now this year we’re asking less of him in terms of having to score the ball but asking a heck of a lot more from him in all the other areas so, like any normal person it just takes a little time to get comfortable and try to get back to that comfort zone but if Friday was any indication I think he’s getting there and I think he should be there for the rest of the season.” 

On getting minutes out of Denzel Aberdeen in both games:

Golden: “Great. I think him and Julian and Kajus are all good enough to play you know and the reality is we don’t have enough minutes for everybody right now and then that’s kind of a challenge, a good problem to have as a coach but a challenge because those guys are working their tail off and doing everything that’s required to be in there, but Denzel is a guy, we expect him to play well when he’s in the game so it’s like, yeah you played well but that’s the expectation for him. When he gets 16 minutes or whatever it is against Baylor we don’t expect there to be any sort of dropoff with him in the game. You know he’s a very good player, he came back for his sophomore year, he’s made a lot of growth in some very big ways so whether it’s him, whether it’s Julian, even Kajus I have faith in all three of those guys to go out there and execute and not let the level of our play drop but it was encouraging he was able to do it first against Pitt in that run he goes in second half cold, we go on an 8-0 run. He gets in the game that was huge he gets some big plays and then Baylor to be in that game for 16 minutes, there’s a lot of good players on that court, a lot of good players on the floor and I didn’t feel like our level dropped off at all with him in the game.”