What head coach Todd Golden said after No. 5 Florida's 64-44 loss at No. 8 Tennessee

What Florida coach Todd Golden said after his fifth-ranked Gators lost 64-44 at No. 8 Tennessee on Saturday afternoon at Food City Center in Knoxville:

Opening Statement

“Disappointed. We did not play very well today. I was expecting a better effort from our group. A lot of credit to Tennessee, I thought they dictated the game from start to finish. Their physicality really, really bothered us all night. Couldn’t seem to get catches where we wanted. We couldn’t seem to get downhill the way we normally do offensively. We’ve been amazing offensively all year, and we looked terrible today, and I think a lot of that had to do with the way they guarded us – clearly – and they deserve a lot of credit for that. Again, they dictated from start to finish, and we just weren’t able to adjust with the way they played.”

What was different against Tennessee compared to the first meeting in Gainesville 

“It was all about the physicality. They’re incredibly physical. First half, I thought was a sign of the way the game was going, right? The score is 24-21 at halftime, just horrifically ugly basketball both ways with not a lot of fouls being called. We weren’t able to adjust well enough to the way the game is being played. I think that’s really it. They’re obviously an elite defensive team – very prideful, very physical. They can do that to you. Again, we’re generally able to attack a little better, and we just weren’t able to today.”

The status of Walter Clayton Jr. following his injury

“Obviously tweaked his ankle. He threw off his back foot in the first half off that ball screen and he landed on a Tennessee guy. He was off his back foot, faded away, the guy came — not maliciously — but into him under his body and he landed his foot. Sprained it, taped it up and gave it a good effort in the second half. Obviously, he wasn’t himself with his explosiveness. We’ll just have to take it day-by-day. I don’t think it’s crazy, crazy serious, but I’m sure he’s pretty sore.”

If Walter Clayton’s injury affected the psyche of his teammates

“I would imagine, yes. Obviously, he’s a great player, one of our leaders and you lose him in the middle of a game. And he was fighting for us, tried to come back and compete for his teammates. But he was obviously not himself all the way when he did come back. But I appreciate him trying and I know his teammates did as well.”

Facing Tennessee without Zakai Zeigler

“In a weird way — Zakai’s an amazing player, they’re definitely not better without him — but today it seemed like they kind of rallied around not having him or Igor (Milicic Jr.) out there. And the guys that got the opportunity and got the minutes took full advantage of it. And they were collectively, again, they were very tough, they were very physical and they set the tone from start to finish. I thought (Jordan) Gainey did a really good job. I thought he stepped up, really bothered us with that little curl pin action, get to the middle, hit a couple of mid-ranges, hit the bigs on the roll a little bit. And obviously with Zakai being out, he becomes an even more important cover. And he wasn’t necessarily crazy efficient. He was 5-for-13, but I thought his floor game was really good. He only had one turnover, and to be able to step into a role of such an outstanding player with Zakai being out, I tip my cap to him. I thought he was a huge reason as to why they were so successful today.”

How Tennessee adjusted offensively with two starters out

“It was pretty much the same. To their credit, I thought they broke us down late with the kind of the baseline runner action for Lanier. We gave up probably 8 to 10 points on that in the last 10 minutes of the game. But honestly, defensively wasn’t really our issue today. I mean, they shot 40 from the field, 27 from 3. I would like to turn them over a little more, but if you had told me we held them to 64, I would have thought we had a decent chance to win this game and we were not close. So, it was less about the offensive end (for Tennessee). Again, I thought we guarded well enough to win. We were just atrocious offensively.”

Will Richard only attempting two field goals

“I assume they were coached to limit his catches and limit his touches on the perimeter. And we just weren’t able to play out of our early game very much. And Will gets a lot of shots and a lot of drives out of our early game. And again, we just weren’t able to execute and play the way we normally do. It’s a credit to Tennessee.”