'Great win for our program': Todd Golden discusses Florida's NCAA Tournament win vs UConn

USA Today

23-03-2025

'Great win for our program': Todd Golden discusses Florida's NCAA Tournament win vs UConn
The Gator Nation held its collective breath on Sunday afternoon as Florida fought the UConn Huskies tooth-and-nail down to the final minute. Alas, the Orange and Blue faithful gave a massive sigh of relief as Todd Golden defeated Dan Hurley, 77-75, in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in what was a trademark March Madness affair.
The game was much closer than most pundits and oddsmakers had predicted, but it was also on with a lot of referee input. Florida fans probably feel like their team got the short end of the stick from the zebras while Hurley complained that his squad got jobbed after the loss.
Walter Clayton once again proved why he is a First-Team All-American, leading all scorers — as is the tradition — with 23 points, though he had a sluggish start and did not hit his stride until well into the second half.
After the game, Golden spoke to the media and offered the following responses.
Todd Golden's opening statement
"This is a great win for our program. The time was now for us to take that next step. Again, Florida basketball back where it belongs. Being in the Sweet 16 is a great step in the right direction.
"Incredibly proud of our players, especially, I should say, these two guys next to me, but the whole roster as well. We made winning play after winning play down the stretch in the last six minutes. After about 34 minutes of it not looking like it was going to go our way. That's the benefit of having three great senior leaders in the backcourt and some young hungry frontcourt players that will give their all to compete on every single play.
"It wasn't necessarily pretty for a majority of the game for us, but that 8-0 run down the stretch, I think it finished with about 40 seconds, if this stat sheet is right, was huge. Our players delivered today."
On Walter Clayton's performance over final 10 minutes
"Obviously they were bothering him just with some pressure. I think what he said had some merit in the sense that he was making some uncharacteristic mistakes, some turnovers that we haven't seen for a majority of the year, not as strong with the ball as he usually plays with. But what makes Walter so special, just is his ability to stay even keeled regardless of how he's doing, whether it's great or not so great. His ability to continue to lock in and stay the course.
Obviously, over the last eight minutes I thought he did a great job of just kind of taking what the defense gave him, stepping up. His confidence level never wavers regardless of what's going on and hitting huge shots that allowed us to capitalize and win the game."
On Florida's roster construction
"Backcourt players that can obviously play to the ball screen, good catch-and-shoot guys, good decision-makers in the frontcourt, guys that you can throw the ball to and let them make some good decisions out of DHO games and understand how the defense is playing and try to take advantage of it. Our frontcourt is really, really good with the ball in their hands, making reads, making decisions.
"We're fortunate enough to really have five guys. Sam was a little banged up and he's coming back, and he was able to do that for us most of the year. But all five of those guys are capable of catching the ball in the middle of the floor and making a decent read and a decent decision.
"Our frontcourt is long, they're athletic. They all do a good job. They all play with high motors. All of our guys are really intelligent men who really understand how to play the game."
Did UConn's performance live up to expectations?
"I thought it met what we expected. A team that maybe wasn't at the same level as they had been for the last two years but came into March Madness expecting to win games.
"As we said, they had multiple guys. I think Karaban is an incredible winner, a guy that's won so many games in college. They had a couple of those guys out there. Diarra has won a lot for them. Guys that are used to winning at this time. As we said, they had won 13 games in a row, and they played like it.
"We got off to a good start. It didn't bother them that much. I thought they played really composed. They ran a really good offense. They bothered us a lot that way all the game. But credit to our players because when it was kind of nut-cutting time, they stepped up and made big plays. I think it was more about our guys stepping up and winning the game than UConn not pushing through. Our guys made big-time winning plays down the stretch."
On Golden embracing Dan Hurley afterward
"Coach Hurley and I have great respect for each other. Obviously he sees me as kind of an up-and-coming coach and probably sees a lot of himself in me in terms of being a fiery competitor and someone who runs a great program and does it the right way. He was very gracious and very respectful and gave a great message of, hey, congratulations. I'm pulling for you guys.
"Let me know if you need anything moving forward. But it meant a lot. The way that he handled the ending of the game with such graciousness, such grace, I should say, I probably appreciate it."
On Golden's thought process as the game went on
"Just to stay the course. We were -- a lot of it had to do with UConn, but we were doing some uncharacteristic things that we simply haven't done for a long time. We were loose with the ball in the first half. We didn't rebound great. Those are kind of the hallmarks of our program that make us consistent and raise our floor.
"Again, I thought UConn did a good job bothering us that way. Second half, we got off to a decent start and then they pull away. I think it got up to seven and six, I guess. That was their biggest lead. They kept it (at) four... and we couldn't seem to push through and get on top of them. We were down by two to three at the under-4 media.
"It's now or never, man, if we can't find a way to pull back out in front these next few minutes, then we're going home. We just had some guys step up and making some huge winning plays down the stretch. Obviously what Walter did out of the ball screen hitting the 3.
"But the free throw and offensive rebounds, I think Alijah poked one out to Tommy and Tommy poked one to Alijah where he got that dunk. Those are the two big winning plays, when we go back and break down the film, we'll say, all right, these are the two instances that kind of allowed us to steal that victory."
Does game improve Florida's championship pedigree?
"I hope so. We stepped up and won a big game when it wasn't necessarily going our way. Our guys have been pretty mentally tough all year. They've done a good job of staying the course and kind of staying levelheaded. We all know the reality, if you're going to make a deep run in March, you've got to catch some breaks, and you've got to win some games like this to be able to push through and stay alive.
Theoretically, beating a team like UConn, that's used to winning this time of year, in the fashion that we did should be really good for us moving forward."
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