The Florida Gators improved to 16-6 (7-2 SEC) on the 2025-26 season after a dominant 100-77 victory over Alabama on Sunday afternoon.
Head coach Todd Golden met with the media to recaps Florida’s win. Here’s everything Golden had to say.
Opening statement:
“Yeah, just obviously a great win for our program. I thought our players did an incredible job just playing with the great mentality from start to finish. I thought Carlin Hartman did a great, you know, he’s had the scout for the last couple years, and has done a wonderful job kind of understanding how they take and kind of what makes them go. And I thought we had a really, really good game-plan to limit their catch-and-shoot threes and try to make them beat us otherwise, and, again, when we’re at our best, our defense and our rebounding is leading to our offense, and I thought we did a really good job. One of our coaches said we got 11-straight stops coming out of halftime, which against that team is absolutely fantastic, and really just proud of the effort that our players displayed today.”
On if it feels good when you put yourself out there, saying we’re going to beat them anyways, and then you do it:
“Well, I mean, I was thinking about that a lot last night actually. And as this was a big one-off ABC game, they were going to try to find different ways to stir it up. And, I thought when one of the Alabama beat writers talked to Nate about it on Friday, I thought his response, we’re very similar. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I understand where he’s coming from, like, he’s trying to kick our ass and we’re going to try to kick his ass. I don’t think that’s news to anybody.’ But with that being said, yeah, absolutely. To come out and impose our will the way we did and beat them on the glass. We scored 72 points in the paint. I thought our guys were in there for one second, two seconds, then we scored, so taking advantage of our catches down there. The bigs were really, really good today.”
On that 12-0 stretch to start the second half, if that’s as good as Florida can play:
“Yeah, 16-0 I’m pretty sure. But with that being said, 11 stops, and yes, we’re at our best when we’re able to get clean rebounds, get out in transition, and play that way. And I think that was a very valuable lesson we learned last week against Auburn, that when we don’t play with the fire and intensity on the defensive end that allows us to play that way, we’re not as good. So we got to make sure that we continue to focus on that, and I think our players have a great understanding and I thought they showed that today.”
On Condon’s performance compared to how he fared against Auburn:
“Yeah, you know, I think he just had one bad game against Auburn. I think he was awesome before that when we won five in a row. We were playing really well, and this team, it’s been a learning experience for all of us because of our expectations early in the year. Anytime something negative happens, whether it’s a loss or somebody doesn’t play well or doesn’t shoot well, that’s going to be the focal point. And so we talked to Alex about ‘Hey, listen, you’ve been awesome all year. Don’t let one game affect your mentality. I thought you played a great floor game against South Carolina. You had eight assists in that game, and it was really, really good.’ And today, he looked like a First-Team All-American, 25, 7, six assists, no turnovers, two blocks, two steals. That’s a hell of a ball game, man. I’m not sure you can ask for anything more out of him, and I thought he was aggressive. I thought he was decisive and played with great physicality.”
On the 20-second defensive stretch Rueben Chinyelu had at the end of the first half, what it shows NBA scouts:
“Yeah I think he’s arguably the best defender in America right now. He’s a great paint protector, great on the ball screen. And, listen, like, our game plan. I thought our coaches, as I said, Carlin, we did a great job coming up with a game plan, but the game plan is only as good if the players can execute, right? If we didn’t have bigs that were agile, smart, mobile – you’re not going to switch them on Philon and Hallaway. Those guys are great players, and they’re going to take advantage of that. So the way in which Rue, Condo, Tommy specifically can move their feet allows us more growth as coaches to think about how to defend teams, and so it just allows us to expand our arsenal and how we guard teams. And I think that, although that possession just turns into a shot-clock violation or whatever, it really is more valuable than that. It gets the crowd in the game, it gets the momentum, and it was just a huge, huge play for us.”
On UF committing a season-low two turnovers and scoring 25 off 18:
“Huge. I mean, it’s huge. I think the funny thing I told our team, like I thought we were sloppy with the ball in transition. That’s how it felt. And then after the game, looking down and only two turnovers, like, that’s hyper critical I would say. But we’re later in the season. now. We got 22 games under our belt. Like, we’re finally getting comfortable playing together and understanding our offense and not to settle for solid shots and try to work to get great shots. And, we need to be a team that wins in the margins, in ball control, whether that’s rebounding or turnovers. We were plus 11 on glass. We were plus 16 on the turnover battle. Like, that’s 27 additional possessions right there that we’re able to take advantage of.”
On Florida’s defense against Labaron Philon Jr.:
“Boog, he’s a guy that people want to poke at when he’s not shooting the ball well, but the disruption that he creates on the defensive side is just incredible. Eight steals. Like, I mean, this is an awesome team. Like, this isn’t a November buy game. And he was just taking the ball and in the right places at the right time. And he’s a gritty basketball player, man. I feel like he’s defending way more consistently and physically than he did early in the year. And he’s an old school point guard, man. Eight assists, one turnover. It’s really, really valuable.”
On UF having no midweek game this week:
“We were able to manage playing time the other night. And any time we keep our guys under 35, I think we’ll be alright. There’s a lot of media timeouts. These guys are young. They’re in good shape. They’re only playing two games a week. And so now we get into this midpoint of the season and get a week. The two things that we really need to work on is making sure our bodies are ready to go for the back half and making sure we get better at practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Because we’re obviously going into A&M, who’s playing fantastically well. They’re a unique team, and we gotta make sure we’re prepared for them. And I think a good time for this to happen. We should be able to get refreshed and on our game for next Saturday.”
On the G League dropout chants:
“You know, I think our crowd was amazing, per usual. I don’t think about that specifically, but I think they gave us a huge lift. And when we went on a little bit of a run, they did a great job of supporting us. And as we talked about, I feel and I know guys in our program feel terrible when we lose in here. It’s an incredible homecourt advantage, 39 out of 42. And I think last Saturday left a bad taste in our mouth that hopefully we won’t have an experience anytime soon.”
On Alabama being a very good press team and you broke the press so easily:
“I think Condo’s ability to get catches is huge for our press break because you have to get it in bounds. And then we have great ball-handlers. Irby, X and Boog are all really, really good about valuing the basketball and making sure that we stay in our offense. Pressure is something that we have to account for, but not something that we’re necessarily worried about going into games.”
On if it’s the most complete performance by you guys this season:
“I agree. I think we played really well against Tennessee here also. But today was more of what it looks like for us. We shot the ball well, if I remember correctly, in that game. Today, we only made three 3s. Only took 13 of them. It was an Arizona-like box score. When I say that, Arizona doesn’t shoot a lot of 3s, but they score a lot of points. Again, focusing on taking care of the basketball, winning the rebounding battle and defending. We had eight kills in this game, which is three stops in a row against Alabama. That’s really, really hard to do. That was huge accomplishment for us. And 13 for 28 from 2, held them under 50% from the two-point range, which, again, is fantastic.”
On Fland’s comment they haven’t played your best:
“Until we start shooting the ball better in a game like this, I think that’s accurate because I think we got some good looks and we shot 23% from the 3. Like, if we would have gone, 6 for 13 in this game, yeah, maybe that’s probably what we got. But I think we’re going to look back on this tape and feel like we missed some opportunities to score in transition and we didn’t make some open 3s. So I agree with that statement.”
On Jon Sumrall’s intensity:
“I think him and I are going to get along really well. We seem to have a similar mentality about competing, and I think we enjoy it similarly. But he’s a great guy, man, and I’m really excited for him to lead our football program. As I’ve said before, he’s the type of guy that that we need. He has great energy. He’s really happy to be here. He thinks this is a great place where you can win championships. And as I said, I see a lot of similarities into his mentality when he got the opportunity as mine. He was much more accomplished than I was when I got this opportunity. But I think he will take advantage of it in a similar way.”
On if he had Olivier Rioux scoring on your bingo card against Alabama on the final day he’s a teenager:
“No, I do not. But when he got his catch and I saw he was on balance and he was taking his time, I thought a good thing was going to happen. So it was really neat that he missed the first one, but stayed on balance, got the rebound and then put it in for the 100th point. Pretty, pretty neat moment on this Sunday.”
On five straight over Alabama, Carlin Hartman’s role in that streak:
“Obviously, we lost Kevin (Hovde) and John (Andrzejek), and anytime we have opportunities for our coaches to get head jobs, that’s something that we’re all really proud of and that we want to happen. I think for Carlin (Hartman), specifically. Everybody in here that knows Carlin knows he’s capable and more than ready to get a D1 job, but it’s got to be a really good one to leave here (given) the opportunity that our administration has been able to provide to him. But having him, Korey (McCray), Jonathan (Safir), Tauren (Green), even though we lost some guys, we still had a lot of continuity on our staff. Our staff, the way we operate, they have a lot of responsibility in our program and they have a lot of responsibility from a player-development standpoint. They have a lot of responsibility from a game-planning standpoint. We have a really good working relationship in regards to accomplishing what we want. But Carlin has been here from Day 1, and there’s no doubt that we, myself, our players, everybody in our program benefits from him being a part of this.”