Florida State’s basketball head coach praised his team after Saturday’s 91-67 home victory over the Tennessee Volunteers, focusing on Boogie Friend’s breakout performance, Reuben Chinyele’s development into a dominant frontcourt player and the victory with home court advantage.
Golden said the goal heading into the game was to prove they could physically outperform a team like Tennessee, adding that an early-season loss to a non-conference program helped prepare the Gators for this moment. All season long, Golden has preached that once the shots start shooting, the team looks like an elite team, and Florida’s performance in the win proved that. Golden wasn’t shy about doubling down on the idea.
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The strong defense is another hot topic, whether it’s Florida’s ability to stop 3-pointers or the guards stepping up on that side of the ball. Switching from defense to offense is a big reason why Florida won by so many points. Our plan is to continue this trend in conference play.
Here’s what Golden said after the game.
opening statement
“We’re really, really happy and really proud of our team that we played our best game of the year. We talked a lot after Tuesday’s win over Georgia about this game being another step for this team, especially because we admire Tennessee for everything they’ve done with the program since Coach Barnes.
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“I think they’re probably the toughest program in the league and we’ve been competing for this title. We’ve had a lot of discussions with our clubs over the past few days and it’s been a big challenge to see who can be the stronger team mentally and physically. Tennessee is great, but we played really well today and I thought our guys, from one to eight minutes, did a great job mentally and physically.
“It starts on the defensive end. I thought we did a good job of limiting them around the rim. We did a good job taking care of the ball. Only had 10 turnovers, and we rebounded. We were +11 on the glass, and those are the things we talk about all the time. Like I said to you, when we start shooting, we’re going to be able to get away from some guys, and we were able to do that today.”
About winning turnover profits
“We just focused on basketball. Other than a few silly things — we had one backcourt turnover, maybe two — but other than that, I thought, especially in our half, we did a really good job of getting really good shots.
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“We talked about how good Tennessee’s defense is, they don’t give you a lot of chances early in the half and you have to work side by side to break them down. We do a good job of that. So that’s a big reason why we take care of the ball.
“And then our team, our defense, has to bring offense to us at times, and I thought we did a good job of that, especially our baseline out-of-bounds D, which was awesome. That led to some layups and we did a good job after the first four minutes of the game where we tried to feel that out and execute our game plan and keep them out of the middle.”
About Tennessee limiting three-pointers
“Yeah. I mean, that’s a major part of how we defend and something that’s important for us. Especially when we get a little lead, we make sure our guys understand how important it is for them to operate within the three. We don’t want to give them a chance to get back into the game.
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“Ament hit a couple of shots. I thought Gillespie hit a couple tough shots off the bounce in the first half, but other than that, we did a really good job of defending the three-point line.”
About Boogie Furlan’s Hairstyle
“I thought he looked great. I thought he looked great before, but I thought he looked clean. For him, sometimes these things can be mental and it just gives him a chance to start over. He played great from start to finish. He defended well. In the mid-20 of the game, he took over the offense and scored most of the points.
“It gave the other guys a lot of confidence. To see him play with freedom, hit two 3s in the first half, start off, and then go downhill in transition — it took a lot of pressure off the other guys and took some pressure off. Once he started playing like that, we really took off.”
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Regarding Chinyelu’s ability to get to his spots, physically set the tone
“Yeah, I mean, it’s critical. I think he’s developing into one of the best frontcourt players in the land. Especially in this game, we talk a lot about winning the battle in the paint. They’re playing two bigs. We’re playing two bigs. Both teams like to set up screens in the paint. Both teams use their bigs as screeners a lot, and then both teams are relentless in trying to create second chances.
“So we challenged those guys and hoped they could win that battle. Ruben had 16 rebounds and Okpala had one. And he did. He dominated the game. There was a stretch in the second half where we were able to get him the ball deep in the right zone — just his patience and his ability to get to his left shoulder and find a way to finish — and it was like a backstop that gave us an insurmountable lead.”
On early-season challenges affecting SEC play
“The value of playing a non-conference schedule this week is that when you play a team like Georgia, which is very good and plays like a top-30 team, you don’t get surprised. You think, OK, well, we play Arizona, we play UConn, we play Duke. We’ve seen really good teams. So this isn’t necessarily anything new.
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“I think that’s where that experience comes from. It was the same today because you can talk about the physicality that Tennessee brings, you can talk about their size, but you can’t really experience it until you get on the field unless you play against other teams like this.
“I think Arizona is a very physical team with a very strong frontcourt. Duke has some really physical frontcourt players. UConn as well. So, earlier in the year, we were struggling against those teams and it was tough mentally, and that allowed us to overcome some adversity and continue to come together. That was definitely a positive for us today.”
Ended the first half with a 10-0 surge
“It was huge. I think we were tied at 26 or so before and we got three points. I think we came back, made a field goal, and then we went on a 10-0 run. It was a lot more comfortable going into the half up 13 than up 3. It gave us a little bit of good energy and confidence and belief that if we could keep playing defense in the second half, we’d be in good shape.”
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Friend had four steals
“Yeah, I thought he was incredibly disruptive. You could tell in real time after the first media (timeout) of the game, after the first shot, the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders. And then his steal turned into a tough finish when the baseline went out of bounds. You could see (it).
“We all feel like, man, we’re all happy for him that he can start to have more success individually and be able to play with the freedom that allows him to do that. When he’s at his best, he’s disruptive defensively. He’s a pest on the ball. He creates opportunities in transition through defense and I thought he had a great game today from start to finish.”
On Urban Klavzar’s development as a defender
“One thing I’ll tell you about Urb is that he’s very strong mentally and physically, and he wants to be challenged. The great thing about him is he’s going to get beat, but he’s never going to run away from it. He’s going to continue to step up and accept challenges. I thought he was great in ‘Gillespie.’
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“Gillespie is a mentally tough screener in the sense that you can’t let up. You can’t have one second where you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m good,’ because when you do, he’s going to blow the screen or find a shot. Irby’s defensive toughness and being able to stay in his body and stay focused and not get beat by the screen — that was huge for us. I thought it was his best defensive game all year.”
“The results showed he scored +23 in 28 minutes.”
Turn Florida into a tough home team
“Yeah, it’s great, man. That’s how you look at big-time college basketball and a successful program. I think we’ve won 37 of our last 39 games. And that’s a credit to the fans and our supporters. I mean, it’s unbelievable home-field advantage. We started off on a little run. I think we were up 36-28. They called a timeout and the sound here was deafening.
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“It makes the guys play better. It gives us more confidence and we have a lot of respect and appreciation for the support we get at home. It’s part of a great plan. You need your home court to be an advantage. You have to be here and expect to win games and play really well. Having 11,000 fans behind you is a big part of that.”
On having former players come back for a visit
“I think it says a lot about the players we have in our program and the success we’ve had because the reality is these guys are not going to come back unless they’re excited to watch the team play and excited to be a part of the field. I mean, that’s the reality.
“They have their own lives and what they’re capable of doing, but it means a lot to us. It’s great to have Vernon (Maxwell) back. He was in the locker room with us after the game. Just for our guys to see, the level of respect he had on his face for their effort was equal to or greater than anything we could say.”
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“This guy did it. He was in an NBA championship game. He won a championship. He was part of a great team and he was out there talking to the players about how much he admired how hard they played and how hard they fought.
“Mike Miller is here too – same idea. We want our great guys to be back, back and we want to be able to play and make a product that they’re excited about. So, it’s definitely a very, very good day for our program today.”
How do you replicate this on the road?
“It’s the same formula for us. It starts with defense, rebounding and ball-handling. At Missouri, we didn’t defend and rebound well enough. We didn’t score well enough. Our offense wasn’t great, but we scored 1.1 points per possession. We just didn’t defend well enough and didn’t finish the ball well enough.”
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“So, we come back and really focus on that and we’re going to do it again for Oklahoma. They’re a really good offensive team. We’ve got to defend well. We’ve got to rebound and let our defense help our offense. Hopefully we can continue to get some chances from the outside like we did today. If we do that, we’ll be tough the rest of the game.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida State basketball HC Todd Golden’s postgame quotes against Tennessee Vols