GAINESVILLE — Todd Golden hoped his Florida basketball team’s challenging non-conference schedule had them ready for their Jan. 3 SEC opener at Missouri. Prepared to play on the road and grind out a win.
Instead, the Gators lost 76-74.
What was going through Golden’s mind on the late-night flight from Columbia to Gainesville, nine months removed from a national championship and two months removed from starting the season with the same expectations?
“I was just thinking we hadn’t been able to display what needed to on the road to win one of those close games,” Golden told me earlier this week. “Coming back, my thought was, ‘We need to be OK being identified as a physical, defensive team that rebounds well and is kind of a junkyard dog-type team.’ And if we could take on that identify, we would be OK.”
The Gators adopted that persona and are playing OK. Check that, they’re playing more than OK — they’re playing dynamite entering their Saturday, Jan. 24, home against Auburn (4 p.m.).
Five straight wins, including a victory at No. 10 Vanderbilt, and four by double-digits.
And, combined with the end of the non-conference season, nine wins in 10 games to from 5-4 to 14-5 and from unranked on Jan. 5 to No. 16 in this week’s poll (and climbing).
The Gators, who are tied for first in the SEC with Texas A&M (5-1), are starting to have that national title look.
“Now we’re getting praised, but it’s not that relevant,” Golden said.
Correct. The buzz back on the Gators won’t help them against Auburn or Alabama or Arkansas or Kentucky.
But what is relevant is the lessons Florida learned in November-December.
Finding identity took time
Golden was confident the non-conference schedule would ultimately benefit his team in SEC play. But that didn’t make any more enjoyable to experience. A 6-point loss to Arizona in Las Vegas. A 1-point loss at Duke. And a 4-point loss to Connecticut in New York.
In the current poll, Arizona, Connecticut and Duke are ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 5, respectively and are a combined 53-2.
Yes, 53-and-dang-2.
Golden was going with the philosophy of “iron sharpens iron.” The Gators would be calloused up for SEC play.
The Gators returned big men Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu, but had to replace their top three scorers (Walter Clayton, Jr., Alijah Martin and Wil Richard, who averaged a combined 46 points per game).
Florida added guards Boogie Fland (Arkansas) and Xaivian Lee (Princeton) from the transfer portal and the sledding was treacherous early. Through nine games, Fland was shooting 23.8% from 3-point territory and Lee 20.3%. Only Haugh and Condon were averaging more than 10 points per game.
This era of college basketball is not a flip-the-switch-and-dominate sport. The rosters turn over. Returning players need to play larger roles. Sometimes, well, it just takes some time.
And Golden knew it.
“This team is really coachable, they want to be good and they’re about the right stuff,” he said. “Early in the year, it was a confidence thing more than anything else.”
I asked Golden if this group of Gators is one that requires pats on the back or kicks in the butt.
“(Early in the season), it might have been a pat-on-the-back (team),” he said. “After the Missouri game, it was more a kick-in-the-butt (team).”
In the two days between the Missouri and Georgia games, the Gators re-grouped and re-focused. Sure, everybody wants to hit 3s and dunk in transition, but this had to be a nuts-and-bolts team that defended, rebounded and made the opponent work.
UF outscored Georgia 58-38 in the paint. They outscored Tennessee 30-8 in points off turnovers. They outscored Oklahoma 60-22 (whoa) in the paint. They scored 22 second-chance points at Vanderbilt. And they outrebounded LSU 50-30.
“Our guys are good about doing whatever it takes to win,” Golden said.
Seeing dividends of work
Look all over the stat sheet and Florida fans should be encouraged.
Haugh leads the team in minutes (34.1) and scoring (16.9). Condon can have the offense go through him and is shooting 50.9% from the field. The Gators lead Division I in rebounds (46.5), offensive rebounds (17.2) and rebound margin (plus-15).
But it’s the other three starters who have raised their game to a new level.
The destruction device known as Rueben Chinyelu is averaging 12 points and 11.2 rebounds, up from 6.0 and 6.5 last season. His streak of four consecutive double-doubles is the longest by a Florida player since David Lee in 2005.
And Fland and Lee have found their niche. Fland scored 23 against Tennessee and Lee 20 against Vanderbilt.
The Vanderbilt game in particular will be one Florida might remember if this season goes into April and the Final Four. The Gators and Commodores changed the lead 17 times and were tied 14 times. It was one of those league games that goes to the wire and every bucket and rebound is earned.
Florida won because it lost to Arizona, Duke and Connecticut. Believe it. Golden does.
“It benefited us because we had been in those (close-game) moments,” he said. “That’s what I told the team. You look back and realize that’s why you played those games, because if that was our first moment of the year against a tough team on the road, I’m not sure we get it done.”
Games in November-December will continue to serve as the foundation for wins in January and beyond.
“The biggest thing that I can praise this team about is when we were 5-4, nobody was losing hope, nobody was losing focus, nobody was blaming others,” Golden said. “They continued to show up and work hard and now that we’re on the (other) side of it, we’re starting to receive the dividends of that work.”
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: How Todd Golden’s Florida Gators returned to winning ways
Reporting by Ryan O’Halloran, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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