Todd Golden reacts to Florida Gators' comeback win over Merrimack

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Gators snapped a two-game skid Tuesday night with their 77-57 win over Merrimack College. Todd Golden‘s team used a season-high 20-0 run to turn a 37-34 second-half deficit into a 54-37 lead with 9:43 to play. 

Here’s what Golden had to say after Florida’s victory over the Warriors.

Todd Golden Q&A

On the timeout with the game tied at 37:

Golden: “It’s a tricky one man. We try to be super, super consistent with our effort and our intent regardless of our opponent. I didn’t think we were good enough that way for the first 25 minutes of the game or whatever it was. So, we talked about that and making sure that regardless of the opponent. I think Merrimack’s a pretty good team, in terms of what they do, and they have an identity, they’re well coached, they have a plan, and we obviously didn’t execute very well at all in the first half, and they outplayed us. I thought second half rolled around I thought we did a better job playing with more motion, playing with more effort, getting on the glass, controlling what we could control. We did a better job taking care of the ball, imposing our will on them and just kind of reminding our team that hey, we have the capacity to be good, but we ain’t there yet. We got a lot of growth to do. The last 15 minutes of the game is more a representation of what I want our team to be obviously as opposed to the first 25 minutes.”

On what his message was:

Golden: “We need to do a better job rebounding, we need to do a better job taking care of basketball, we need to put the ball in the basket.”

On the defense clamping down:

Golden: “Again, they only made three 3s on the night. I think they made all three within the first 10 or 12 minutes of the game and we fouled a 3-point shooter in that stretch. That was a big key of ours tonight. They still got up probably a few too many. And they missed some open ones in the second half that I’m sure they normally make. We finally got a little 3-point luck to go our way in the second half.

“I thought we just dictated the tempo of the game a little better. In the first half, they were controlling it, it was a little slow-paced, back and forth, they were able to run good stuff against us in the halfcourt because we’re really organized. But once we started to get stops it allowed us to get out and transition get some easier baskets. Once we started to build a little bit of a lead I thought that made them tighten up a little bit and then they missed a couple shots and we got however many stops in a row that allowed us to get that thing over 10. Once that happened, I thought we kind of settled in and played pretty well from that point forward.”

On the zone causing UF frustration:

Golden: “Yeah, that’s a really tough zone to go against. If you look at their numbers, they’re really really good at turning teams over. They do a great job taking away the 3 and for a team that doesn’t have a lot of size they do a really good job defending the 2, as well. The one area that they’re really deficient is obviously on the glass and I think we did a good job of exploiting that in the second half. But it’s not a comfortable zone to go against, whether you’re taking from the high post and do a good job digging into your bigs and do a really good job sorting out once you get catches there. Usually against zones there’s kind of like hotspots or different things that you can do to attack and get open shots. They do a really good job of covering up the 3-point line, which in turn makes it pretty tricky to compete against.”

On Micah Handlogten only playing 4 minutes:

Golden: “He didn’t really reaggravate anything. I just thought he was a little tentative out there. It was obviously great to have him back out there and get him on the floor. But it didn’t go well when he was in the game. I don’t think that was specifically his fault. I think that was a little bit of the lineup that we had out there. But I felt like we needed a little more and I felt like he was not like … he looked good. But he  didn’t have that same kind of burst that he normally has and instead of risking rolling them out there again I figured let’s let these other guys go and see if we can if we can manage tonight. “

On the performance of Alex Condon:

Golden: “He’s one of the hardest-playing dudes you’re gonna find. He struggled in the first half finishing as well. Bt to his credit to get nine offensive rebounds for the game. I thought he did a better job slowing down, made his free throws tonight, no turnovers, which has been an issue for him over the course of the year. Listen, this guy is going to be a really good player in our program for a long time. Just really proud of him ,and Thomas [Haugh] for that matter. Both freshmen they combined for 27 rebounds tonight. That was a big part of our victory.”

On Walter Clayton Jr. sparking a run in the second half:

Golden: “It was huge. He hit some big shots, some big shots. Again, in these tight games, you’re down at halftime and you get a little four-point run to start the second half then go down four or whatever it was. It’s always nice when someone steps up and becomes a little bit of a separator and I thought he did a really good job of putting the ball in the basket early in the second half then hitting some big 3s to separate from them.”

On Will Richard:

Golden: “I think the three things that we talk about all the time are defending, rebounding and taking care of the ball. He did a very good job, I thought, in all of those areas tonight. Guarding the 3-point line, he had (Devon) Savage for most of the night when he was out there and he was 1-for-5. He had nine rebounds, five on the offensive glass, 2-1 assist-to-turnover. He was 2-for-11 from the field but he’s a guy who gets hot and I think he’ll rebound very easily from this. His effort was really good.”

On UF’s free-throw shooting:

Golden: “I mean, Tommy’s a guy I look at. He’s a good shooter. I think he’s going to break out of this. A little mental for him at this point. He’s a tough kid and someone who will find a way to work out of it. He was the only one tonight that really stuck out with the exception of Will missing those two technical free throws, which I thought was a little fluky more than anything else. Take away Tommy’s 1-for-5 and it’s a little better. Our bigs get fouled a lot and they’re not elite free throw shooters. Condo will settle in and be a really good free throw shooter. Rese did a good job knocking his down. Tommy was the one tonight who kind of held us back that way.”

On Riley Kugel:

Golden: “I just didn’t think he had the same level of enthusiasm that we needed to compete at a high level. I thought he was a little casual. But that’s part of growing up and part of becoming a really good player regardless of the opponent. The effort and energy need to be consistent. It’s as simple as that.”

On playing games away from home:

Golden: “It doesn’t really change based on where the game is for us. Obviously, we go down and have Richmond on Saturday. Trying to take this thing day-by-day and find a little more joy. We’re a little fatigued mentally right now. We’ve been on the road a lot early in the year and we had a really good way about us going through New York but once we took that L against Wake, it knocked us down a little bit and we have to come back and build ourselves up a little bit. My hope is that the second half is a good start that way. I felt like we were kind of lingering from that last game until about the second half. It’s a long season. We’ve been on the road a lot. A lot of ups and downs but I’m really bullish on this team becoming really good over the course of the rest of the year and I thought the way we played in the second half was a good start that way.”

On Zyon Pullin:

Golden: “Couple of them were late. I did a poor job preparing us for their base-line out of bounds defense. I think two of them were against the base-line out of bounds defense so I’ll take a couple of those. Other than that, a little fluky. I’m not too worried about him. He’s done a great job of taking care of the ball all year.”

On big-man decision making:

Golden: “The big thing is they didn’t turn it over. We talked a lot about that in our preparation for this game. Any shot against this team, we thought would be a good shot simply because whatever percent chance you have then you have a chance to go get it off the offensive glass. The first half we had nine turnovers and we were only out-rebounding them by two. It was a really, really lackluster effort that way. Then in the second half, we outrebounded them by plus 22 and we only had four turnovers so that formula worked once we were able to execute it. Scored 47 points in the second half.”