'We're gonna be us': What Florida's Todd Golden said about facing No. 1 Tennessee

What Florida head coach Todd Golden said Monday while previewing his eighth-ranked Gators hosting No. 1 Tennessee on Tuesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN2) at Exactech Arena in Gainesville:

If he can think of a tougher start to SEC play than at Kentucky and home against Tennessee

“Not through the first two games at least. I think this is probably as difficult as it gets. But listen, it’s part of the challenge and just the opportunity of playing in this league. It really is an absolute war every single game. Tomorrow night’s going to be no different. And then when we go to Arkansas on Saturday, and it’s going to be no different. I think we saw only one road team win on Saturday, right? I think Vanderbilt won at LSU. Everybody else took care of the home floor. You saw some pretty crooked results. You look at Alabama and the way they played against Oklahoma, who was undefeated going into that game. It’s going to be really hard to win on the road. So getting Tennessee at home, awesome opportunity. I think our whole program is really excited for it. And we got about 24 more hours to prepare.” 

The importance of beating Tennessee to avoid an 0-2 start in SEC play

“They’re not necessarily related to me, but yeah going 0-2 would definitely be disappointing for conference play. We’re in a good spot. Whether we win or lose tomorrow night’s not going to make or break our season. I think to your point, though, if we can get this thing done, it gives us really good momentum throughout the rest of the conference slate, and gives us a really good chance to be competitive in the top fourth of the league. If we don’t win tomorrow night, that might get difficult. I just look at it more like an incredible opportunity. And the great thing about our non- conference is we’re not in a position like last year where we felt so much pressure going into every one of these conference games. Because last year we were kind of bubbly, outside, looking in, probably going into conference play, whereas this year that’s not the case. So we feel like we’re gonna have plenty of opportunities the rest of the way. But yes, obviously all we got, and we’re looking forward to this opportunity against Tennessee.”

How Tennessee has improved this season

“Coach Barnes is pretty consistent, with the way his program runs, and what they’re good at — they’re fantastic defensively. I think they’re No. 1 KenPom right now defensively, they’re so physical. They make it very hard on you. They’re physical on the ball, but they also get in the gaps and so you kind of finally get around your man, then somebody’s raking at your ball – and they’re disciplined. They do a good job covering each other up. Got good rim protection on the backside with (Felix) Okpara and (Cade) Phillips.

“So they’re just very good team. But I think coming into our place, we just have to dictate, whether it’s defensively, whether it’s a tempo. We just got to take advantage of the opportunity of having them in here. And yes, they’re a very good team. I don’t think there’s a ton of difference in terms of the quality from Tennessee to Kentucky, necessarily, or from us to Kentucky to Tennessee, I think we’re all pretty close, a couple points over 100 possessions. So, yeah, I’m just looking forward to having No. 1 in here tomorrow night.”

Defending Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier 

“They’re perimeter is really hard to guard, with Zeigler – he’s one of the best point guards in America, obviously – and Lanier has done a great job of coming in and assuming that role as a high-usage, efficient scorer for them. And Gainey is playing well off the bench. He doesn’t start, but he’s playing like a starter. Whey they play Mashack at the four, they’ll put (Gainey) in there and now they have a lot of shooting and you have to be mindful of that. But yeah, they’ve got really good, talented players, so we have to do a good job of defending them.”

Tennessee having the No. 1 3-point defense, if that will stop Florida from shooting as many threes

“No. It’s interesting, though. They are a statistical anomaly and we were just talking about it a little bit ago. They give up a ton of threes. In my opinion, there are very few teams that can afford to give up a ton of threes and still be able to guard the line well. I was talking to Coach Andrijek and Coach Hovde about it. Houston kind of does it. They give up a lot of threes, but you work to get them. Tennessee has been pretty good at it, as well. But it’s a tough way to live, for me, at least. I’ve never been a big fan of giving up a bunch of threes. … So, no. Listen. We’re pretty good offensively. I’m not going to tell my guys, ‘Hey, we’re going to go out there and play. We just scored a hundred at Rupp.’ This team is pretty good offensively. So, yeah, Tennessee is a fantastic defensive team, but they have to guard us too, right? It’s going to be a challenge for them to come in here and stop us also. I just think it’s going to be a little like Saturday. It’s going to be an awesome game tomorrow night.”

Tennessee’s use of Igor Milcic Jr.

“He’s unique, they start him at the four, they’ll play him a little bit at the small ball five, play him a lot in the middle of the floor, and they’ll have him set a lot of ball screens, hasn’t shot it great this year but he’s more than capable, he’s shot it well over his career at Charlotte, and just to your point a unique cover, someone that we have to be aware of, I think we’ve got to be mindful of his ability to shoot, but we can’t sell out to take that away and allow them to get in lanes because we’re so hugged up and attached on him, but he is very, very important to their deal along with Zeigler and Lanier, and I think Gainey is a tricky one, too, because he comes off the bench but he’s a double-figure scorer, he’s a guy that we can’t let come in here tomorrow, and get a bunch of threes up, I think Brea’s performance on Saturday is a great example of what I’d say a lot in here, is the best 3-point defense is when you don’t allow these guys the opportunity to get these shots up, because he had a couple of open ones that we had breakdowns on but I think three or four of his makes were crazily contested, and he still was able to knock them down, so gotta find a way to not let him get it up, so we gotta do that with Lanier tomorrow and got to do that with Gainey when he gets into the game, and we’ve got to make sure we’re keeping good ball pressure on Milicic and not let him kind of be a good decision maker out on the perimeter.”

The importance of matching Tennessee’s physicality

“It’s everything. I think we, knock on wood, we’re getting to the point in our program where we are, even with, we’re respecting Tennessee obviously, we have great respect for them as a program, but we’re not changing what we do. We’re gonna be us, to Walt and Will’s point we gotta be physical, we’ve got to attack and we’ve got to get second chances, they run a lot of floppy action, they run off a lot of pin downs, like, we can’t allow ourselves to get screened, we’ve got to find a way to get through and take away those curls and take away those threes, and again, just excited to get back home and playing in front of our crowd here. It should be an incredible environment and I think our guys, we should be ready for the moment.”

Exactech Arena being sold out for the Tennessee game 

“Our crowd has been great all year. I thought it said a lot about where our program is at when we were hosting Stetson who obviously had struggled at the beginning of the year, and we sold that game out on a weekend of break, that’s awesome and we appreciate the support. I know our guys are grateful for it and love it and you know, we expect them to bring the noise tomorrow night for sure. It should be an incredible environment.”