The Florida Gators improved to 24–6 (15–2 SEC) with a 108–74 victory over Mississippi State on Tuesday night.
Here’s everything head coach Todd Golden had to say postgame.
Opening statement:
“Just thought it was great Senior Night for us tonight, and obviously you guys just spoke to X and Micah, but, you know, it’s hard to play well with a lot of emotions, you got family in town. And both of those guys, I thought brought great effort. X was phenomenal. I mean, he’s been playing great, but 19, 6, 5, of course, four steals, only one turnover. His turnover was like on his last possession also on an interesting play. And then I thought Micah did a great job in a tough spot. Without Tommy, we had to play him a lot at the four tonight. And he obviously doesn’t get a lot of reps that way, but part of what makes Micah such a great player is he’s malleable and he’s able to figure it out and make his teammates better, and he did that. I thought his defense was good tonight, got 8 offensive rebounds. you know, just creating second-chance opportunities for us. But we had multiple great efforts. Condo, you know, I mean, you can’t say enough about him. I thought the tenaciousness and toughness that he played with, the tenacity and toughness that he played with, working the paint and the rim was just special. Boog did what he does, just ran the team fantastically well. Three assists, no turnovers, goes on and on. Zay Brown was solid, CJ, I’m really proud of CJ Ingram, you know, a guy that hasn’t gotten a lot of time this year. We told him he had to be ready tonight with Tommy not being able to play, and I think we put him in when we were down either 8 or 10 in the 1st half and he was a plus, I think he was +21 in the 1st half or something like that, which was absolutely fantastic, and really proud of him getting ready the way he was. But just a great last game for us here in the O’Dome. You know, special year for us here. Still pissed about the Auburn game, but other than that, we had a great run in here. And I’m just really proud of the way our guys have continued to play at the level. And listen, Mississippi State’s a good team, they’re a good team. They have a great player in Josh Hubbard. They got great size. They’re very well-coached. And for us, to win by 34, I think it just says a lot about how well our team’s playing right now.”
On if the lineup and Senior Day factors contributed to the slow start, how they locked back in:
“I do. I think we were just a little caught in the moment. We started a very unique lineup we probably won’t see again ever with those guys, and Mississippi State was hot, you know, they came out and made shots and made us pay for defense that wasn’t elite. And I think once we got kind of back to our regular rotations and got kind of comfortable with who was out there, we settled. I think they were 10-for-13 from the field to start the game, if I remember correctly, and then they were 5 for the next 19. So, really settled in on the defensive end, got stops, and as we discussed about nearly every time I’m up here, when we guard and we get clean rebounds, we’re really tough to keep out of transition.”
On if he desired to get Micah in the starting lineup regardless of Haugh’s absence:
“Yeah, if Tommy was playing, Micah would have been in the starting lineup anyways, so yes.”
On what he was most proud of tonight:
“Just the overall effort of the team. As I said, you know, we were missing one of our best players that usually gobbles up about 35 minutes a night, and so we come into a game this late in the season and guys have to step up, maybe play out of position a little bit, shoulder more responsibility, and more possessions. And obviously with the score that we were able to finish with, like, we didn’t really seem to miss a beat. And so, as I said, you know, CJ, Isaiah, X, like, multiple guys stepped up and played really, really well tonight. So just a collective effort, you know, in Tommy’s absence is what I was most proud of.”
On Xaivian Lee’s steady improvement:
“He’s been really, really good all conference play, really, and it started with the Vanderbilt game. I can’t remember what the date was in that game, but he was exceptional, hit a huge three that helped us win that game. Over the last month, he’s just been special. I mean, I think we all saw it tonight, just the ball control he has, the quickness, his ability to penetrate and keep his dribble alive, and now he’s just so confident and comfortable out there. You know, he kind of gets to his spots and does what he wants. So he’s, what was he, 5-for-7 from two tonight? He’s shooting like 65 percent from two in conference play, something insane like that. He’s playing fantastically well. And obviously him and Boogie emerging the way they have has allowed us to really take off and become a really good team.”
On the decision to go to CJ Ingram:
“He was the next guy up. CJ is a guy that’s really capable of playing at a lot of places.. But right now with the level our program is at there’s just not a lot of opportunities for him. He’s had great moments earlier in the year. He’s had great moments in practice. He’s a guy that we hope to be a key cog in our program for an extended period of time. I talked to him this afternoon before shootaround just told him to be ready. That you are going to play. That’s one of CJ’s greatest attributes. He’s not afraid of the moment. He stepped up. We were down eight when he got in there. When he came back out we were winning. That was a great moment for him and to step up and be there for his teammates.”
How does it feel that when a team that is focused on defense scores 100 points in back-to-back games?
“We score well when we guard. It’s a complementary game. We’re not going to be the most exceptional halftime court team all the time. Although I actually think we did relatively well. We need to guard for our offense to be elite because we need to get out in transition. Early on we weren’t guarding as well. We obviously weren’t scoring as well. Once we started getting some stops and getting out in transition, get some easy baskets, it opened up. That’s something we have to keep in mind over the next couple of weeks.”
On Alex Condon:
“He’s done a great job of taking what the defense gives up, playing poised. It’s no secret he was pressing about his shot for a while. What’s been great is his growth and ability to eat that space and what the defense gives him in the paint. Either score it or make a good decision and find his teammates. He was fantastic tonight. We knew without Tommy being out there that we needed to lean on Condo to keep us organized and to make sure our competitive spirit was in the right place. He got into some foul trouble and he was able to play through that and not let it affect different parts of his game. His offense is elite. He just put the ball in and no turnovers, very poised. Over the last few weeks he’s played like a First-team All-American.”
Thomas Haugh was messing with his left foot? What it his left or right foot?
“I don’t know what foot it was, but it was not the leg he had a little ankle deal last week.”
Could Haugh have played?
“It was precautionary. We expect him to play on Saturday.”
Todd, fastest coach to 100 wins. What’s that mean to you and your staff?
“I think it’s more of a reflection of the guys that have been in program and the job our staff has done over the first four years. We have a great staff. We lost Kevin and John after last year’s national championship run, but having guys like Carlin, Jonathan and Korey and obviously Taurean and Dave I feel really fortunate to have the staff I have. We give guys a lot of responsibility. We have got a lot of talented guys. They do a really good job taking care of the business. They are sure that their side of the street is clean for our team to be successful. As you all know we need to have really good players in our program to be successful and we’ve done a really good job of finding the type of guys that are successful at Florida. Really talented that are smart, that unselfish and just really good competitors. Guys that might not have been ranked really high but really love to compete to and don’t care about the credit. For me, it’s my job to take that we keep on recruiting the right guys and do what we can to retain our staff and when we lose them to head jobs make sure we find other talented guys that can come take their place. I’m proud of the organization that we have. What we’re doing and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
On the players lifting him up at the end of the game:
“That was incredible. They were messing with my hair a little too much. But we have really good relationships with our players. I think what’s unique is we get after them pretty good. We coach them hard, but our guys know that we care about them. Our coaches do a great job of forging relationships with them. And it means a lot to me that they were so excited for that milestone for me, but it’s really more of a program milestone than anything else. We haven’t finished our fourth year. We’re at 100 wins. We’re on the right track.”
On Cooper Josefsberg’s 3-pointer:
“It was really neat, you know? Coop’s a guy that’s worked hard. He’s a good practice guy, a good teammate. And obviously he doesn’t get a lot of opportunity to compete, and tonight was an opportunity to get him out there. I definitely knew he was going to try to shoot. That was without a doubt. He was gonna try to get one up. But when he let it go, I was kind of surprised how good it looked out of his hand. And it was bottoms. It was a beautiful shot and it was kind of the cherry on top of a great evening for our team for him to give that love and respect from the crowd. We were able to get Ollie out there. It was kind of a full circle moment for our team this year on our home floor. And just talked to the guys after the game, just how much better we’ve gotten over the course of the year. I think that’s something that kind of gets lost in this day and age. LIke, if you’re not super successful early, people don’t think you’re any good. Our team’s gotten a lot better. We were good early, we were OK. But we are not anywhere near the same team we were in November, December. And I feel like we’re playing some really good basketball right now.”
On if he’ll be in Cooper’s TikTok:
“Am I gonna be in his TikTok? No. It was being made in the locker room as I was leaving.”
On if Cooper asked Golden to do a challenge:
“I think he was hoping that he would maybe get a whistle on that drive he had when he got flattened into the basket. I did not think we were going to get that call at that point.”
On what has changed offensively:
“It probably took me a little longer than expected to kind of figure out what the best way for us to play was. And again, we have a lot of talented guys that are trying to figure each other out. That have kind of been alphas at other places and trying to find the shot diet and who should be finishing possessions. And what guys should be shooting 3s, what guys shouldn’t be shooting 3s. It just takes awhile, especially when you have some new pieces and returners playing new roles. And I felt like we started clicking early in conference play. That Tennessee game was big, and then we got on the road and started winning some games by double figures. And we’ve been really consistent that way since then. We shot it well again tonight, you know, 8-for-22. Great stat, after last game, through 15 league games, we were shooting a better percentage from 3 than our opponents were in league play. So, tired of hearing all you guys talk about our 3-point shooting and ask about that. We’re actually better than our opponents. We definitely didn’t shoot well from the line tonight, though, so I can’t I can’t be too excited. But no, I think it’s all of the above. Comfort, role, guys like Urby stepping up. I could make a case for Urby to be sixth man of the year in the league. Isaiah Brown has given us a huge lift the second half of the conference play. And we’re just getting some really good performances, but it took us a little bit to figure out our rotation, took us a little bit to figure out the best way to play offensively. But I’m happy with where we’re at right now.”