The Florida Gators held their first organized summer workout on Tuesday afternoon. Head coach Todd Golden met with the media to discuss their first day, new additions, and the outlook for next season. Here’s everything Golden had to say.
On first day of summer workouts:
“Good first day. Still missing a couple guys, a couple Euros. Mikic and Ollie are playing with their international teams, but we’ve got everybody else back and it was great to have them out there on the floor at the same time, for sure.”
What do you look to get out of it:
“In the summer, individual development is a huge part of it, but we have an opportunity, with these six or seven weeks together, to try to build a little bit of team. I think there’s a great foundation with the guys coming back, but Xavian and Boogie, AJ and CJ and Alex, those young guys, it gives us a great opportunity to try to catch them up to speed before the school year starts. That’s the main thing we’re trying to do right now.”
On having two play making point guards:
“You can never have too much ball-handling. If you have guys who can dribble, pass and shoot you’re going to be really hard to guard. With the way we play – obviously, you have to have continuous ball-screen motion – you have to have two or three guys out there that can make a play, can attack the defense, read the ball-screen scenario. So it’s a very good issue that we have and I’m excited to see these guys play together and see how teams are going to try to guard them.”
How can you capitalize on that ball-handling?
“Yeah, we’re not going to change a whole lot in terms of what we do. I think these guys will be very good in that. I think you’ll just see more times where we have multiple guys initiating offense or making plays in the middle of the possession out of the ball screen. I think it will make us harder to guard.”
On Xaivian Lee’s transition from Ivy League to SEC:
“Just practicing every day. The Ivy League was actually better this past year than it had been, which puts him in a good spot. The good thing is, whether he’s scrimmaging against Boogie or Zay Brown, we have some really good athletes. We have guys who have been a part of the program and won a national championship. First of all, he’s very mature. He came here for a reason and he’s excited about that. I think our guys will help him get comfortable and playing within our program before the season starts.”
What skill of Lee’s translates best to SEC?
“He’s just a phenomenally skilled offensive player, his dribbling, his passing, his shooting, his IQ. I think all those things will translate incredibly well to our league.”
A year ago, you had three alpha males on the perimeter as leaders, who’s taking over that role now in terms of just team leadership and that guy everybody gravitates toward?
“That’s another thing that the summer’s for. We’ll kind of see who kind of absorbs that leadership opportunity. I think we have a lot of guys that are capable. I think it might come from our front court a little more this year, guys that have been in the program for a couple years and just have a great understanding of what we do. I think Condo’s a guy that might want to take that responsibility. I think Tommy’s a guy that’s more than capable. Rueben, obviously, with the way he shows up and plays his tail off every day. I think we have a number of guys that will be able to. We’ll be different that way, but I think we have a couple guys that will be willing to assume that role.”
Boogie’s high school coach mentioned physical strength is something that he wants to him to work on. Where do you see him at now, and where do you want to get him to before the season starts?
“For him, and honestly for all the guys on our team, the summer is a great opportunity to get your body right. And I think Victor Lopez has done an incredible job that way since we’ve been here.If you looked at our team last year and just how physically imposing we were strong we were. I think He does a great job with these guys in the summer, getting them ready. And I think that was one of the reasons why Boogie wanted to come down here. He looked at how Walter’s body changed, how Will’s body changed and even Urby’s in a short period of time. And I think he’s a guy that has a really good canvas, but needs to put some time in the weight room and continue to get stronger. But he’s done a great job kind of attacking it so far, and I think he’ll do a great job at it the rest of the summer.”
Thoughts on the House Settlement, competitiveness of the SEC compared to maybe a school like the Big East that doesn’t have big-time football …
“I think that’s a valid concern. At this point, I think it’s a little too early in the game to really understand how exactly it’s going to all play out. But that’s a fair concern, because they don’t have football, and rev share obviously, deservingly so a majority of it goes to football, and that’s something that they don’t have to deal with. And so there’s a chance that they have more resources than we do in the rev share model, and that’s something that we’ll have to adjust for. But I think we got to let it see how it operates for a little bit. I know there’s already a Title IX lawsuit. I assume there’s going to be other lawsuits that come up in a short period of time. Holistically, I think the rev share model makes sense. I think our guys definitely deserve a piece of the pie. I think the intent behind the House Settlement and the rules are good, and I’m hopeful that they’re able to be executed.”
What have you seen so far from your freshmen, Alex Lloyd and CJ Ingram?
“I think they’re ahead of the curve because their work ethic is really good and they’re mature. A lot of times with highly rated or touted freshmen you get guys who are talented but don’t really understand the work ethic part. Or come in a little pampered or have big expectations for what they’re going to get. And the great thing with both is Alex and CJ have come in with their head down, working, grateful to be a part of the program and putting the time in outside of our work hours to gain the respect of their teammates. And they’ve been awesome that way. Our guys love them, and I think they’re going to be great in our program. I really do.”
How do you approach a new team with talk of repeating?
“I think it’s a middle ground a little bit. I’m not going to sit here and reference last year’s team all the time. I’m not going to do that with this group, but the standard. We have a standard in our program now, and we have enough guys back that they know what it is. I think they have enough ownership to have the desire to hold other guys to it. So, no, we’re not going to say, ‘Hey, last year we won the championship. We did it this way.’ But if guys aren’t going hard, you know, that’s not OK in our program. So trying to balance it where our guys understand what the expectation is without referencing guys that you know have moved on, so to speak.”
On when he’ll know that Fland and Lee are a good fit:
“From a personality standpoint, I’m very confident about that. I think they’re both awesome young men, mature. And I think one thing, knock on wood, that we’ve done a good job of with transfers is we get on the same page before we bring them in to make sure that there’s as little issue in that process as possible. So we recruited them both pretty intently and I say with intention for specific roles in understanding what they’re going to do and their attitudes and their personalities, the people they have around them, you know, we’re all good in our books. So I think from that cultural standpoint, it should be a pretty easy transition. And I think basketball wise, it might take some time for them to get comfortable in a new system, but I think they will do a really good job for us.”
On going from the hunter to the hunted next season:
“Honestly, I think we as a program had that happen as soon as we won the SEC tournament a little bit. We win the SEC tournament and we went from a team that nobody. I don’t want to say respected, but we were always kind of like, is Florida for real? Then we end up winning our last three regular season games, win the SEC tournament and then every ESPN personality was projecting us to win the national championship. And that changed over the course of like two weeks really. And so we kind of had that pressure on us to start the NCAA tournament. I thought we played that way the first weekend and then we kind of got through it and turned back to ourselves. So we kind of had that in real time. Now this team will have it for the whole year. And it’s a different challenge, for sure, but one you have to embrace. When you’re targeted every day, it’s a compliment and we got to really kind of take pride in being in that position.”
On the non-conference schedule:
“Well, a lot of people talked about us not having it strong enough out of conference last year. That won’t be this year. And again, like, I think you get these opportunities when somebody calls and wants your team to come play on opening night against Arizona in a showcase game in Vegas, that’s a compliment. You gotta really evaluate that, so we want to do that. Same thing with the opportunity to play UConn. We’re not going to turn down an opportunity to play in Madison Square Garden on ESPN against one of the best programs in America. And we took it as a huge compliment that they put us against Duke in the SEC/ACC challenge. Obviously, Duke is the marquee program in the ACC right now. It’s not close. And for us to be picked to go play there, we take that as another huge compliment. So it’s a challenge, all three of those games are going to be incredibly difficult. We have other really challenging non-conference games as well. But there’s different ways to do it. Last year, we went 13-0 in non-conference. I’m not sure we’ll be able to do that this year. But we can still have a really, really successful non-conference because of the level of opponents that we have.”
How did Xaivian’s history with Thomas Haugh affect his recruitment:
“It definitely helped. They were both underrated players coming out of high school, and Tommy came here and did what he does and now is the guy that’s going to be on mock drafts as soon as this draft is over. I think Tommy’s experience in our program and the fun he’s had on campus was huge, because obviously ‘X’ was calling him like, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about it. What do you think?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, come on.’ So, anytime you have someone that can help you recruit that’s in your program – obviously our words are important, our staff’s words are important – but when you have their peers that can help a little bit, that makes a big difference. So I think it was a big part of it.”
How much will Lee and Haugh’s chemistry help the moving pieces in the backcourt:
“Yeah, [it’s] huge. But again, with ‘X’ and Boogie, they’re both like ‘in’ guys. Their personalities are not like cats, they’re not standoffish. They want to be a part of it. They’re coachable, they’re doing what we’re asking to do. So, it’ll definitely help. But I think on their own, those guys will get there for sure.”
On Boogie Fland’s flashiness and competitiveness:
“He’s confident, very talented, and he’s been working really hard. So I want him to be himself on the court and play with that flair, with that confidence, obviously, within the framework of what we do, and putting the team first. But just like Walter, I think everybody can agree Walter was pretty confident when he was on the court last year. That’s how we want our guards to be, and I expect Boogie to be no different that way.”
On Walter Clayton’s draft stock:
“I’ve gotten great reports from different NBA teams that have worked out Walt. Obviously, I don’t know where he’ll end up going. Personally, I think he should be close to, like, 10, you know, 12, if I was a NBA GM, but I’m not. We’ll see. But whoever picks him is going to get an incredible value, and then in two years, people are gonna be, ‘How did Walter Clayton drop to that. Why did he go there?’ I’m just telling you right now that’s what’s gonna happen. Because you look at guys like Fred VanVleet, Damian Lillard, like he’s in that bucket. I’m not saying he’s gonna get there right away. But, the guy just had the most incredible senior season tournament run, whatever you want to say. He’s got real size, [is an] incredible athlete, elite shooter. I mean, what doesn’t he do? And he just wins all the games, and that matters to some teams, and a team will pick him, and he’ll end up killing it, and people will be like, ‘Why wasn’t higher?’ I’m just telling you right now that’s going to happen.”
On Alijah Martin and Will Richard’s draft stock:
“I’m incredibly confident that both will be on NBA rosters. Whether that’s a two-way [contract], or whether it’s getting second-round picked, I don’t know exactly. But, we’ve won enough, and those guys, Will and Alijah have done enough in those workouts where we’re getting incredible reviews. Guys are really happy in what they see. So I think both of those guys will end up in great situations after next week.”