Everything Todd Golden said after Florida’s senior night victory over Ole Miss
Florida head basketball coach Todd Golden met with the media after their 90-71 win over Ole Miss on senior night. Walter Clayton Jr. led the Gators with 23 points and eight assists while Alex Condon added 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Just incredibly proud of our program. Obviously a great regular season, 27 wins. To go 14-4 in this league and to finish the regular season the way we did today, you know, just can’t say enough about the job that our players did this year and that my staff was able to do from start to finish. And, you know, as we just talked about with our players in the locker room, I want them to be very proud of the effort and the success that we’ve had to this point. But we have a lot of work left to do and a lot of things left to still accomplish, and we’ll get back together Monday, have a great week of practice and get ready to play next Friday in Nashville.”
On going 14-4 in this league:
“Yeah, we just have a really good team. I think our guys did a really nice job all year of, you know, our four losses obviously came within SEC play and not allowing one to turn into two. You know, we did a very good job after losses, kind of getting back on track and, you know, playing well and not having any lulls. Our guys did a really good job of preparing, being coachable, allowing our coaches to scout well and hold them accountable all throughout the season. And, you know, I think our success is a direct result of the players in our program and the staff that we have here.”
On the 14-0 run in the second half after it’s a one-possession game, if that was a turning point:
“Yeah I mean, that’s when we got away from them, you know, we had some chances in the first half. You know, we got out to a 10 point lead, and thought we had some good momentum. And credit to them, to Ole Miss, they hit a big three, and then we got lost in transition, gave up a and-1 lay-up, they cut it to four, and we just allowed them to get back in the game. And then to start the second half, they made two threes, you know, we didn’t have enough urgency guarding the line at that point. And at that point, we picked it up, made a basket, started getting some stops, got some clean rebounds, some run-outs. Obviously, Walter had a stretch there where he was unguardable, and really kind of took the top off the defense. And, you know, once we were able to get out to that run, you know, we felt pretty good about it the rest of the way.”