Golden Focusing on Improving Gators’ Defense As He Begins Year 3

Florida men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden spent his first two seasons revamping the Gators’ offense. But as he enters his third year at the helm, he is now focusing on the team’s defensive effort.

UF ranked 327th out of 351 Division I teams last season in scoring defense, allowing 79.2 points per game. The Gators allowed opponents to score 85 or more points 13 times last season, capped by their excruciating 102-100 loss at the buzzer to Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in March.

“We’re working on it a lot more,” Golden said. “I think last year we really wanted to set the tone offensively.”

Golden made quick improvements to UF’s offense. In Golden’s first season, the Gators scored 71.2 points per game. That improved to 85.6 points per game in Year 2, a 20 percent increase that was facilitated by the arrivals of Walter Clayton Jr. and Zyon Pullin in the backcourt. 

Florida ranked in the top 10 in the nation in possessions per game last season. Golden emphasized that having one of the fastest-paced offenses is the most efficient way for the team to play.

“I would say it’s our goal to be top 10 in pace,” Golden said. “We will play similarly, trying to hunt easy baskets in transition.”

However, while the offensive performance and tempo improved, it was often at the expense of defensive efficiency. According to Golden, better two-point field-goal defense and rim protection, along with working through ball screens and defending without fouling are the main places where the team needs to make adjustments.

Golden shouldered the responsibility, saying it was a “coaching emphasis issue” as the team went from allowing 68.8 points per game in his first season to 79.2 last season. Despite the defensive performance, Florida still finished with a 24-12 record – its most wins since 2016-17 – and made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.

“I didn’t do a good enough job making sure we emphasized the defensive end enough to be good at both,” Golden said.

That has changed in preseason practice as No. 21 Florida works to get ready for its season opener Nov. 4 against South Florida in Jacksonville.

“[Golden] let the team know what we need to work on and what we need to be better at,” Clayton said Tuesday during his SEC Media Days appearance. ”We need to be better on defense every day and we’ve been working on it a lot in practice.”

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As he looks at the way the Gators have developed under his leadership, Golden is optimistic about the direction of the program.

“Honestly, I think it’s part of just a natural progression of our program improving,” Golden said. “We’ve gotten better offensively, and we have got to maintain that standard but also now we can really focus on getting the defense level up.”

A main priority for Golden and his staff when looking to fix their weaknesses is the personnel and makeup of the team. He noted that in order to be elite in college basketball today, you must be able to recruit both high school players and portal players.

Golden said his staff’s goal is to recruit the nucleus of the team through high school and then bring in portal players to fill in where they need extra talent and experience.

The Gators needed to replace starting power forward Tyrese Samuel, the team’s leading in rebounds (7.4 per game) and was second in blocks (1.4). They’ll also be without junior center Micah Handlogten, who will redshirt as he continues to recover from the broken leg he suffered in the SEC Tournament final last March.

Trying to improve on the defensive end, the Gators added two frontcourt transfers this cycle who have proven to be effective defensive rebounders and shot-blockers. Rueben Chinyelu, a 6-foot-10 transfer center from Washington State, and Chattanooga forward Sam Alexis each had 25.4% defensive rebound rates last season.

Alexis, meanwhile, ranked 26th in the country in blocks, averaging 2.1 per game. Chinyelu also led the Cougars in rejections (45) despite playing limited minutes as a freshman. 

As a team, the Gators excelled in shot blocking last season, ranking 13th at 5.2 per game. Golden feels Chinyelu and Alexis will fit right in, complementing sophomores Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. Condon, 6-11 forward/center from Perth, Australia, led the Gators in blocks last season despite only playing 20.3 minutes per game in a reserve role. 

“We think we have another deep frontcourt this year with Alex, Tommy [Haugh], Rueben Chinyelu and Sam Alexis,” Golden said. “Those four guys, we feel like they’ll be able to play all the minutes. And that was probably one of our biggest strengths last year, was having four frontcourt players that were almost interchangeable.”

By continuing to evaluate personnel and focus on defense during fall practice, Golden looks to heal what he referred to as the “Achilles heel” of the team.