Todd Golden Is Primed To Chase Another Title At Florida

“We’re pretty hungry,’’ said Golden, who has been on a meteoric rise since he was an out-of-region hire plucked from the University of San Francisco in March of 2022. 

“We felt like we were kind of drinking out of a fire hose after the championship, trying to build rosters,’’ said Golden. “I do think we fatigued a bit towards the end of the season and we weren’t playing our best basketball in the SEC Tournament. But we’re more prepared this year since we didn’t have to focus as much on the roster this summer. I think we’re fresh and ready to go after it again.’’

Golden said breaks have to go your way, and of course, matchups matter. The Gators were a bit flummoxed by Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament semifinal and then lost to Iowa on a three-pointer in the final seconds of the NCAA Tournament’s second round. 

If this were normal times in men’s college basketball, the roster would have been gutted and Golden would have been facing a complete rebuild. 

But alas, nothing in the roster management world makes sense. And keeping lottery and first-round picks in the frontcourt was hardly the plan. 

But it happened. 

The Gators bring back their entire frontcourt in likely preseason first-team All-American and leading scorer Thomas Haugh (17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds), second-leading scorer Alex Condon (15.1 points, 7.5 rebounds) and the reigning National Defensive Player of the Year Rueben Chinyelu. 

Florida also has lead guard Boogie Fland back for year two, and returning depth in the backcourt with Isaiah Brown, CJ Ingram, Urban Klavzar, Alex Lloyd and a healthy AJ Brown. 

The Gators got good news on Tuesday when a Florida judge granted a temporary injunction declaring senior guard Denzel Aberdeen to be eligible for this season. Aberdeen transferred back to Florida from Kentucky. He was on the national-title team and could provide plenty of spark at both ends of the court (7.7 points per game two seasons ago at Florida and 13.5 last season at Kentucky). As it has in other cases, the NCAA is likely to ask an appellate court to stay the injunction, which would sideline Aberdeen pending a further appeal. 

“We believe Denzel Aberdeen will be back to play,’’ said Golden. “We signed a few freshmen and would have 10 or 11 players from our program back that really enjoy playing together. A few had the opportunity to go pro but they wanted to come back and compete for a national championship. 

“We have a little bit of a sour taste in our mouths with the way last season ended — to a good Iowa team in the second round,’’ said Golden. “These guys want to go deeper in the NCAA Tournament.’’

The return of a frontcourt — or at least a core of key players — is akin to Purdue in 2023 and 2024 (the Boilers played for the title in ’24), and then of course UConn doing it in back-to-back title years in 2023 and 2024. Florida isn’t foreign to bringing back a core group, just maybe not separated by a year in between titles. 

The 2007 title team was essentially the same as the 2006 championship team with Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey. Billy Donovan didn’t have to do much convincing since they all wanted to win another championship. Of course, that was prior to the era of players getting paid and the transfer portal causing havoc with rosters — even championship groups. 

Golden said Haugh and Condon would have been lottery picks and Chinyelu was flirting with a first-round spot before he withdrew from the NBA Draft. Haugh and Condon didn’t cause Golden to sweat out their decisions. They were all-in back to Gainesville. 

The X-factor could end up being Fland, who was highly touted out of high school and a perceived one-and-done as a freshman at Arkansas. But he wasn’t able to have a banner season for the Hogs and transferred to Florida. Teaming up with Xaivian Lee had some bumps but ultimately they were able to lead Florida to an SEC title. 

Fland enters his junior season with a bit of a chip on his shoulder to prove he is elite (11.6 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 44.7 FG%, 24.0 3FG%). 

“He’s a great example of the craziness of this day and age in college sports and social media and expectations,’’ said Golden. “He was one of the youngest players coming into college at Arkansas. He starts at point for coach (John) Calipari, has an up and down year and gets hurt, and then a lot of people wrote him off. 

“They were wondering, ‘How good is he? What’s his ceiling?’ Well, for us, we never lost faith in his abilities,’’ said Golden. “We understood how hard it is for young guys to come into the SEC. We knew he was coming in to replace Walter (Clayton Jr.), Will Richard and Alijah Martin (with Lee). He played some good ball for us and started to shoot the ball really well. He was also probably the best-on-the-ball defender in the SEC. And that’s why we played so well in the SEC and won by three games. 

“I’m really excited for him and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people with the way he plays this year.’’

Golden has always been big on analytics and the data says that rebounding will be key for this team — again. Having this frontcourt returning is a good sign those numbers can rise. They will have to shoot well, but defending shouldn’t be as much of an issue on the ball or certainly in the interior. 

Making threes and keeping the turnovers down will be key if the Gators are going to win their second title in three seasons. The talent and experience is in place. 

The schedule is right for a team to be No. 1 and possibly hold the position with a neutral-site opener against Miami, the loaded Players Era in Las Vegas, and an SEC-ACC Challenge home game against Duke. And that’s all before the rugged SEC. 

“Our guys didn’t come back to play a light nonconference schedule,’’ said Golden. “They want to play the best of the best. They want to prepare ourselves for not only SEC play, but the NCAA Tournament once March rolls around.’’