March Madness: Todd Golden discusses Florida’s NCAA Tournament run ahead of Final Four

What Golden tells his team in crunch time

“Definitely. The under 4 media, I think we were down nine or eight, whatever it was, and we had just missed a block-out and Christian Anderson was getting to the foul line. We have to make every winning play down the stretch to find a way to get this thing done. And, fortunately, we caught a couple breaks with them missing some free throws, but we did make a lot of winning plays those last five minutes, for sure.”

On the rematch with Auburn in the Final Four

“Yeah, it’s awesome that we get to play an SEC team. I think it’s pretty special what the league was able to do this year, and getting a team in Auburn that we’re very familiar with. Obviously competed against them two months ago, a program that we know a lot about; they obviously know a lot about us as well. Both teams have probably changed quite a bit since February 8th, when we played against each other.

“But I do think our first game gives us some confidence going into Saturday’s tilt that we’ve played well against this team before, we understand they’re going to have some tricks up their sleeve and some things they want to do differently this time around. We’ve going to have to adjust as well.

“But going into this game, I think we should have a good balance of confidence going into the matchup.”

On Johni Broome picking Auburn over Florida

“When we got here, we were hoping that we’d be able to add Johni to our program. At the time, I probably had a little misunderstanding of kind of what I thought of myself as a head coach. Comparing Bruce to myself, Bruce was a lot more accomplished at the time.

“And I think it came down to our program or their program. And we had just got here. I think we were like a month and a half into the job, so we didn’t have as much success to sell, and we weren’t fortunate enough to add him. But we’re happy with where we are right now, and I feel pretty good about the players we were able to get.

“They’ve played really well all year for us and now we’re going into a semifinal opportunity against these guys, and whoever wins on Saturday gets to play in the national championship on Monday. It’s pretty incredible.”

Has Golden been in contact with Pearls?

“Bruce and I texted some Saturday night, Sunday morning, and then I Face-timed with Stephen Sunday night after they won. We were just kind of giggling, man. It’s pretty incredible. We’ve come a long way from the 2015-16 season at Auburn, where we were playing in the only game on the men’s side on the first day of the SEC Tournament. It was us against Mississippi State. Kind of at the bottom of the league.

“Fast forward 10 or 11 years and both of us have our teams in the Final Four.”

Who won?

“We won. That’s the year we won like three games and ended up in the semifinals.”

On the competition with the Pearl family

“Moreso than somebody else, for sure. Again, we’re just at the point of the year where … Bruce is consistent, because we don’t necessarily enjoy playing each other. It’s not something that excites us. But at the same time when you’re doing it in the Final Four, it’s a little different,. It’s a little different than a regular-season contest.

“So it is what it is. As I said, one of us will have an opportunity to play for national championship on Monday. One of us will be able to say our program went to the Final Four. I think both teams and programs have a lot to be proud of, and I’m incredibly happy for them that they’re in this position as well.

“I’ve gotten to know Jon Scheyer really well also. I’m really happy for them, and obviously Houston has a great team. It’s just a pretty unique situation and I think both sides are excited about the opportunity.”

On perception that they can play better than they have

“I think we still can get better, for sure. I don’t think we’ve played a perfect game, by any stretch of the imagination. We’ve had some really good moments, obviously – we’ve won 10 in a row. So we’ve done some things pretty well, but we definitely haven’t played like a perfect game. We’ve had some slippage in some areas that I think is not super unique this time of year, because you got to balance practice with staying healthy and certain things like that. But, yeah we get back from this past weekend, and we’re breaking the games down, watching our film, and there’s plenty of things that we can do better. So I think that excites us. We’re gonna challenge the guys today, as we get back on the practice floor, with cleaning up some things that we think don’t necessarily require a lot of talent – like blocking out and being strong with the ball, different things that have kind of maybe slipped a little bit. The idea is we got three or four days to improve before this game on Saturday. We got to be at our best, if we want to stay alive.”

Condon’s status Saturday in terms of his ankle

“I’m incredibly proud of him, you know, just his resolve and the way he’s just battled through, obviously having a little bit of a sore ankle at times. He kind of twisted it again against Maryland, and we were fortunate to get him back for the second half. I thought he gave us some really gritty minutes in the second half of that game. The one play where he dove on the loose ball and kind of threw the lob of Micah, tipped it in like – that was a back-breaking play. Just kind of shows and embodies who he is as a competitor. Thursday night we were happy that there wasn’t a lot of swelling, still a little sore. But Friday, he was off his feet the whole day, and we were pretty mindful, knowing that. We needed him for Saturday. Obviously, I thought he was a huge reason why we won. Maybe didn’t produce to the level that he had over the last couple weeks. But, he’s playing in an incredibly physical, incredibly emotional game going to, winner goes to the Final Four, and he’s playing his tail off for us. He’s a beast. He’s a stud. And I anticipate him being much healthier this week going into the Final Four.”

How big were Condon’s plays down stretch vs Texas Tech?

“Awesome. Incredible. I mean, the way that (Condon) and Tommy uh, you know, got on the offensive glass, laid it on the line for us late in the game was remarkable. I think one of those was the possession right before Tommy (Haugh) hit the three, Condon got two offensive rebounds himself. I mean, that’s just a guy refusing to let us lose, you know? Obviously, we try to put these guys in position, but they’re the ones out there making these plays. The specific ones you mentioned were huge in terms of us being able to get back on top of that game. But yeah, they are winning players. I’m glad they are getting that recognition. They deserve it.”

On Condon’s tenacity, impact of those plays

“We needed a stop and a rebound and we didn’t have a great defensive coverage on that play. But a shot goes up, they miss it. You feel good about your chances when you have Reuben, Tommy, and Condon all flying in there to go get the basketball at the end there and that rebound and another jump ball that we just wanted to get a stop and rebound and, you know, we we didn’t have a great defensive coverage on that play, but you know, a shot goes up, they miss it. You feel good about your chances when you have Re Ruben Tommy and Condo all flying in there to go get the basketball.”

How many possessions have those 3 played together all year?

“The only other time they played together was at Auburn down the stretch. It was more of just a defensive lineup, to make sure we cleaned up the glass a little bit.”

What did you tell Chinyelu before he went in late vs. Tech?

“He knew why he was going in. (Laughter) He knew he was going in there to get a stop and a rebound and he was appreciative of the opportunity after the game, which is what I love about him, man. He’ll do whatever it takes for the team to be successful.”

On multiple players beside Haugh, Clayton making critical plays

“Yeah, I think that goes for any team still playing, in my opinion, where in March, you’re not winning those games unless everybody contributes in some form or fashion. You know, A Mart (Alijah Martin) had a huge winning play on a loose ball where pops it out over the defender and gets a runout for himself for a dunk. Will (Richard) did a great job all weekend chasing guys over and off screens. I thought he defended really, really well, just competed his tail off and made big free throws down the stretch to ice it. I could go guy by guy. Every player contributed to winning, that’s for sure.”

On how Auburn is different from last meeting

“Yeah, the short answer is Pettiford has continued to take a bigger and bigger role on their team. He’s become a great scorer for them. You know, they had to play without Johni (Broome) being fully healthy. Chaney Johnson continues to step up and play good basketball. They have had some issues coming in and out of their lineups with injuries. Chad (Baker-Mazara) is another guy who has played better of late. They’ve been banged up. The one thing I’ll say about them and I think Bruce (Pearl) would agree with this is that they weren’t necessarily playing their best basketball after they clinched going into the SEC Tournament. They were competing well, but I think now they are back to playing really, really good ball. I thought they played really well in the second half on Friday night and they played great on Sunday against Michigan State. It was never really close. They got off to a great lead. They were up 23-8 or whatever it was, and never really looked back. All of the teams in the SEC have dealt with that a little bit. You’re going through some peaks and valleys throughout the course of a really long season and to their credit, I think they are back to playing at a really high level at the right time. So, you know, we’ll dig in these next two days and watch their last 5 games and see what we can pull. But you know they have had some guys really step up.”

Do they intend to lean on Alijah Martin’s Final Four experience?

“Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that’s probably more impactful or the guys and that’s been more of a bigger picture thing for us all year is just his experience and what it poured into us as a program. Buty you know, there’s very few people in our program that have experience at this level before. It’s really just Alijah and Taurean (Green). That’s it. I also think there’s a part of it where you gotta enjoy the newness of it and the experience for the first time yourself as well. But yeah, his experience, his résumé, what he’s been able to accomplish has been huge for us all year.”

Is 3 players returning to Final Four with 3 different teams a sign of times?

“It’s definitely a sign of the times, for sure. You don’t see something like that happen very often. But you know, as you guys know, sometimes people talk about NIL NIL NIL when they talk about all this but to me, it’s way less about NIL and more about the transfer portal situation. Like, if NIL was dependent on transfer legislation, if you were not able to transfer every year, no one would be able to blame this stuff on NIL. To me, it’s really the transfer rules that have created this groundswell of talent where everyone is complaining about the chalky NCAA Tournament and all 1 seeds making the Final Four and whatever, but it’s less about NIL and more about the transfer rules and guys being able to move every single year. So, anyways, yes, it’s 100 percent a sign of the times where guys are able to go from program to program and play deep into March now into April, like these four programs have.”

On having two SEC teams competing in Final Four

“It just speaks to the growth of SEC basketball. It’s been coming on for a while now, and you’ve seen teams getting better and better, but this year was just remarkable from start to finish. Everything that the members institutions were able to do in the nonconference, kind of putting our programs and our league in this position. And people were questioning just how good it really was after the conference tournaments and the SEC definitely showed up and showed up in the tournament, you know, having as many Sweet Sixteen teams, Elite Eight teams and obviously having two Final Four teams. I think it speaks volumes about the progress of the league.”

On Final Four being an exclamation point for SEC

“Yeah, absolutely. I do believe, obviously I’m biased, that the SEC is the best league in America and now I think you can say that for both football and basketball.”

How Martin will be motivated by his Final Four loss

“The good thing is I don’t think he needs much motivation to compete. He’s pretty good that way regardless. Just like a lot of us used last year’s game against Colorado as motivation to get back, I’m sure he thinks about Lamont Butler hitting a pull up jumper at the buzzer to send him home. Whatever it takes, Alijah’s really really good about keeping that chip on his shoulder and being a great competitor. So I know he will do whatever he needs to prepare himself well for this weekend.”

On adjusting to dome atmosphere

“Not super experienced yet playing in domes, but number one this weekend. It is what it is. We’ll get plenty of time in there, I assume, prior to the game to get shots up and try to get acclimated and comfortable. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s just one of those variables. To your point, everybody I guess with the exception of Houston. They maybe get a little bit of a head start advantage on everybody else, but fortunately that’ll be John and Duke’s problem on Saturday and not ours. Us and Auburn will have the same circumstances, so we’ll just go in there and do the best we can with it.”

On assistants Kevin Hovde, John Andrzejek

“Kevin obviously deserves a lot of credit for the success our program’s had. He’s been with us since day one here at Florida. He’s been a big part of who we recruit and just how we build out our program on a day to day basis and has coordinated our offense all three years and right now I think we’re the No. 2 KenPom offense in America. Hov and I have a very, very good relationship both on and off the court. A guy that I think is gonna become a great head coach, and I’m really happy for him that he’s had this opportunity presented to him at a place like Columbia that’s really special, not only to him but to his wife, Jackie and their family. And he’s gonna crush it. And we kind of joked once we found out he was gonna get this opportunity, I just told him like we’re not gonna let you for a while. We’ll see how far we’re gonna go. And I think he stayed even longer than he thought he would. So I’m really happy and proud of him. And then for John, really the same. He came here later, has done a really good job kind of building out the foundation of our defense and holding us to a higher standard on that side of the ball this year. Tireless worker, does a great job of raising the bar in terms of just basically the amount of time and effort he puts into our program on a day to day basis, specifically from an execution standpoint on the floor. And we’re gonna miss both those guys a lot, you know? We’re gonna promote Jonathan Safir to an assistant coaching spot. We’ll go out and hire somebody else, but the good thing is we still have a lot of retention on our staff, but we’re gonna miss those guys a lot.”

On their ability to juggle both jobs

“It’s definitely not easy, but they’re both great competitors. And I think for them, they realize you can’t take these opportunities for granted. And yes, I know they’re doing what they need to do to make sure their next positions are gonna be in a good spot when it’s time. But at the same time, they know we’re competing to go to the national championship on Saturday. So they’re gonna make sure that we do everything we can and at this point, what’s a few more days, you know. What’s a few more days. We can wait till Tuesday to go to Morningside Heights and go to Bowie’s Creek. So they’ve done a really good job. I’m just grateful, man. And the guys, they know it. They feel it. They’re still incredibly invested and they’re doing everything they can to make sure our guys are positioned well to compete this weekend.”

On assistant coaching compartmentalizing

“Definitely not easy but they are both great competitors and I think for them, they realize you can’t take these opportunities for granted and yes I know they are doing what they need to do to make sure their next positions are going to be in a good spot when it’s time but at the same time they know we’re competing to to go to the national championship on Saturday, so they’re going to make sure we do everything we can and at this point, what’s a few more days, we could wait for Tuesday for them to go to Morningside Heights and to go to Buies Creek so they definitely do a good, I’m just grateful man, they do a good job and the guys know it, they feel it, they know they are still incredibly invested and they are doing everything they can to make sure our guys are positioned well to compete this weekend.”

How has Golden personally grown as a coach this year?

“For me I just try to be as consistent as possible on a day-to-day basis with the way I lead my staff, they way I lead our players and our program is obviously in a much better position now than it was last year at this time and I don’t think there’s anything more to it than that. We’re not doing anything unique. We not doing anything magical. We’re just working really hard and trying to make sure we have the right people in our program to do that. But I think we’re seeing the benefits of a lot of the hard work we did in years one or two this year, seeing our younger guys mature, seeing our staff really come together being on a same page and have a great understanding of how each other works. I really just kind of think it’s a product more of that than anything else.”

On dome being a tough place to shoot

“To be honest. I think our guys will have enough opportunity to get in there and just, it’s basketball man. I don’t know what else to say, like, I think Walter Clayton can shoot, good in a high school gym or dome, same for Will, same for Zel, our guys are gonna be fine, it’s a unique experience but it’s really kind of at the bottom of my list of worries in terms of how we’re going to prepare for this. I’m way more worried about keeping Johni Broome from his right shoulder. I’m more worried about guarding their flex actions, things of that nature, I think will determine the game a lot more than the building we play in.”

On pulling a Norman Dale from Hoosiers

“Maybe get Kajus on Ollie’s shoulders and we will have him measure that before practice.”

On Walter Clayton Jr. being one of the stars of tournament

“He is one of the big starts. I’ve been incredibly impressed with the way he’s handled himself, you know, throughout this whole journey. You know he’s had an incredibly rewarding year from a basketball standpoint and from a human standpoint, obviously has a beautiful baby girl now. He’s done a great job being a good father and balancing basketball, being a father and his books, like, he never gets too high or too low and I don’t anticipate that changing before this weekend. I think he’s gonna absorb it. I think he’s gonna take it all in and continue to compete at a really, really good level and not let it detour him from his focus of trying to lead us to a national championship.”

How excited is Golden that it’s paying off for Clayton like this?

“I would hope so, who wouldn’t want that guy on their team, right? On a micro level I’m definitely incredibly happy for him because he bought into our vision two years ago we were coming off a .500 season and decided to come back and be a part of this and you know, it doesn’t always go perfect. It’s gone pretty well for him being an all-league guy last year now coming back and being AP all-first team (All-American) leading us to the Final Four and it’s going to help him moving forward for sure because now he’s positioned himself to get drafted and be a big part of an NBA team moving forward and it’s going to help us as we recruit because we have good proof of concept that we could find guys whether they are quote-unqoute undervalued or at different places that come into our program and have great success. So it’s a situation where everybody wins but I’m really happy for him.”