Florida basketball scored a 85-68 win over the Stetson Hatters in preseason exhibition play, in a game that was a bit closer than the final score may suggest.
The Gators showed a great deal of improvement in a few aspects of their game that were lacking in the overtime loss to the Baylor Bears. Among them was their efficiency from the floor — particularly beyond the arc — which demonstrated robust growth.
However, some nagging issues remain, such as poor free-throw shooting and turnovers. Head coach Todd Golden has plenty to work on before the team opens up their regular-season schedule next Monday against Miami.
After the game, Golden talked to the media about his team's performance as well as discussions about individual players. Take a look
below at everything he had to say after the win.
Todd Golden's opening statement
First of all: credit to Stetson. I thought they are a fun team, man, and I thought their point guard play was really good. Sucatzky did a really good job of just playing in that middle pick-and-roll and keeping us in jail, made some really tough 2s in the first half; he was 6-for-6 for 2 in the first half on us and bothered us for a lot of the night.
And then, obviously, hat tip to Doyle — came out and just did a really good job shooting the basketball. Quick release, quick trigger, and we didn't do a good enough job taking him off his spots and making him drive and turn him into a two-point shooter.
So those two guys, I thought, really stuck out and allowed them to stay in the game. Kuhl is a good player. I thought ours bigs did a good job making it hard for him to finish. Not a super efficient night for him, but you can tell he's a good player, and I think that team's gonna have a really good year, especially in their league.
I can't imagine too many teams have that many playmakers and they have real size, to Coach Jones' credit. They've recruited well and did a really good job putting that roster together. The Kent State transfer (Magnus Entenmann) didn't play great tonight, but he was 6-for-6 from three and had 28 points against FAU in their last exhibition.
So they have some guys that can number and play well. I thought our starting group was pretty good, not perfect. A lot of things that we can kind of nitpick at, watch in film, and clearly I don't think our bench is anywhere near good enough, and when we had a majority of those starting guys out there, I thought we played pretty well.
And when we kind of got into the bench and had some lineups with some younger players in there, the score didn't go the right way. And you can, you guys can see that from the plus-minus — so second half (I) was pleased. Thought we did a better job defensively, limited them to 32% from the field. Defending without fouling, thought we did a pretty good job that way. We did not rebound well enough.
And offensively, some really good nights from Urb (Urban Klavžar) and 'Zel (Denzel Aberdeen). Thought those guys did a good job of kind of handling the point guard role with Boog being under the weather. We got to take care of the basketball — we had eight turnovers tonight.
Golden's biggest takeaway from the defensive performance
The exhibition season's unique because we're trying to balance preparing the right way for Stetson, but at the same time making sure we're ready to go for the beginning of the year, so I didn't do a great job of spending a lot of time preparing for the way they play offensively tonight.
And so, we tried to switch a little bit; we tried to do some things, but you can tell just fundamentally that we hadn't practiced it quite enough and I thought our communication was really poor in those situations. And so you kick yourself a little bit, like, you want to play better and we probably didn't prepare as well as we should have.
But again, as I said, we're worried about next Monday a lot, just getting ready for that game so... They played well and I think some of our defensive issues were because of the lack of communication and not switching urgently enough in those situations.
On the lack of bench production
Obviously, Urb's our sixth man, so I also think of him as a little bit of a sixth starter, somewhat. But yeah, below his line, those guys need to step up and play better. All three: Lloyd, Brown, Isaiah and Domen got a good opportunity. And again, just not playing with enough confidence or whatever term you might want to use, but we just need to see a little more juice out of them.
And the message that I talked to the team about in the locker room is we had some struggles early in the year last year. But we got really good when our bench started playing better and when we went to the bench, there was no drop-off. And Urban, Isaiah and Micah, who's obviously no longer with us, were a big part of that.
So getting two of those three back, we felt like we'd be in really good shape with our bench and just hope that one of these other guys would step up. Urby's gonna be fine. I feel like I was pretty consistent about that after the Baylor game. I think he showed it tonight. We don't have to worry about that shooting effort being the issue.
But we need Isaiah to play better. I think that's very clear to see. The message that I'm talking to you guys about, I talked to him about in the locker room. And then we need somebody else to step up too. We need eight or nine guys to get through the season.
On Arturas Butajevas' performance
I thought he played well. Probably should have given him a little more time. But it just so happened that we went with Domen a little bit. Because again, they were hard to guard. They had those shooters everywhere. They were running different ball screens and Spain actions, and we wanted someone that could communicate a little bit better in those opportunities.
But as a staff, just talking out there, Arty's one that we think could really come on and really give us some good minutes as the season goes on.
How did Boogie's absence affect you guys, especially defensively?
Well, from a depth standpoint, it hurts us because you're going to play 25 to 30 minutes. So those minutes went elsewhere. I think at the point of attack, his length and his size really bothers smaller guards, and we just didn't have that same pressure at the point in that ball screen action. When we have Boog and Rueben as the two defenders that are involved in ball screens, we're pretty hard to score against.
And I think you saw tonight a little bit of a drop- off in that situation. But obviously, Boogie's a great player. So not having him out there hurt us. And I think offensively, even though our numbers were pretty good in terms of our efficiency and we shot the ball well — not from the foul line but from the three — I still feel like we missed him on the offensive end as well, from an organization standpoint and a transition offense standpoint.
On the team's better ball movement in the second half
Well, I thought we moved it pretty well in the first half, too. But we started banging some shots in the second half when we were moving it. That was a big area of emphasis for us coming off the Baylor game. I think I was pretty honest in our media earlier in the week about our decision-making in that game not being good enough and not sharing the ball quick enough.
And tonight, I think our guys played with really good purpose on that end, in terms of being unselfish and making the one more or driving with the intention to kick as the help arrived and things of that nature. So, again, intentionally, offensively, I thought we did a pretty good job.
What's going on with Isaiah Brown, given how good he's been in practice?
I say this to you all the time: it's really hard to be good. And I think we have a lot of expectation and pressure on us this year, being the preseason No. 1 team in America. I think he's just struggling with that a little bit. I think it's that simple. I think he's working the right way. He's a great dude, reliable teammate.
But he's obviously not playing with the same confidence or explosiveness that we're used to seeing. And I told him and told the team we need him to step up. Like we need, we were counting on him being a big part of this team. With him coming back, playing 12 to 15 minutes a game in league play last year, and being one of the most efficient bench players in the whole SEC.
So I still have great confidence in him. I think he's going to turn it around, but we need it to happen sooner than later.
Golden's thoughts on Domen Petrovic's play today
I thought Domen was fine. Want to be probably a little more aggressive on the offensive end, just in terms of looking for his 3-point shot. Cleaned up the glass a little bit, which helped us defensively — I thought it was okay. I thought he was solid; good night for him.
What went wrong with the rebounding and what needs to be corrected before Miami?
I thought we lost some one-on-one battles that we usually win, and rebounding is going to be something that we got to monitor really closely all year. Losing Micah is going to impact that a lot. When Rueben — I would argue, is the best rebounder in the country — and last year when he was out of the game, we had Micah in there. He was an incredible rebounder, and obviously we don't have him in there.
We're playing a little smaller. So we need our guards to step up. I think we had good guard rebounding last year with (Xaivian Lee), and we need 'Zel and Urby to go in there and get the nose dirtier. 'Zel had four tonight, so I thought he did a better job that way. But yeah, I think our guards have to step up and then do a better job on the one-on-one battles."
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida's Todd Golden talks after preseason exhibition win vs Stetson
