Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center | Gainesville, Fla.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2024/2/10/UF_81__AU_65.pdf> | Season Stats<https://floridagators.com/documents/2023/11/17/2023-24_UFStats.pdf> | Media Resources<https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iv6cc1nl98a49pv/AAD_LkZm6hKvVz7FpyboOUR1a?dl=0>
Records: Florida 16-7, 6-4 SEC; Auburn 19-5, 8-3 SEC
Next up for Florida: LSU, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m., SEC Network
Notable
* Riley Kugel’s 22 points off the bench led the Gators, while Walter Clayton Jr. scored 20 and Zyon Pullin added 19 in the Gators’ second top-25 win in as many weeks (at #10 Kentucky).
* Florida has won five of its last six games and improves to 10-1 this season on its home floor.
* The victory marked the Gators’ 15th consecutive home win against Auburn, the last four all coming against top-25 Tigers teams.
* Pullin has become the fifth Gator since 1996-97 to score double figures in 20 straight games, joining Anthony Roberson (29), Colin Castleton (24), Kenny Boynton (23) and Udonis Haslem (23).
* Micah Handlogten blocked four shots and recorded three steals – both season highs – in addition to grabbing a team-leading nine rebounds.
* Todd Golden picked up his fourth top-25 win as Florida’s coach, doing so in his 56th game at the helm, the second-fastest of any coach in UF history and the fastest of any Gator coach in the past 50 years.
* Games to reach fourth top-25 win (year of hire):
* 30 games, Tommy Bartlett (1966)
* 56 games, Todd Golden (2022)
* 66 games, John Lotz (1973)
* 71 games, Mike White (2015)
* 98 games, Lon Kruger (1990)
* 103 games, Norm Sloan (1980)
* 105 games, Billy Donovan (1996)
Head Coach Todd Golden
On Auburn and the win…
“I thought we played great. Just start to finish our best effort of the year, obviously. Auburn, for more reasons obviously than simply my relationship with Bruce [Pearl] and Steven [Pearl] and guys like Chad Prewett that I worked with for a couple of years, going into this game, especially the way they’ve been playing off the back of that win at home against Alabama where they controlled the game for 40 minutes. If you would have asked me, ‘Is Auburn in the mix of teams that could win a National Championship?’ I would have said, ‘Hell, yeah.’ They’re playing as well as anybody, top ten offense, top three defense. A lot of continuity on their roster. A lot of really, really good players. Then we come out and we play our best game of the year against them. Obviously, it’s in the same bucket as the Kentucky win. Just a great program. I’m really proud of our team and our program. As you all know, we’ve been playing really well, but we were having trouble maintaining leads in the second half. We were having trouble keeping our foot on the pedal. At halftime, the message was simple to the guys. I said, ‘Hey, it’s time for us to grow up a little bit.’ We had a 16-point lead against a great team, but we are not going to just try to get this thing to the finish line. We got to come out and be aggressive. I think we scored like 20 points in the first six or seven minutes of the second half to really set the tone that way. Obviously, I was really pleased with our effort today and I feel like our guys are starting to gain some confidence right now.”
On quick start and the home crowd…
“Our starting group did a great job that way. It’s a mentality. That’s the best way I could describe it. I thought our guys did a great job of coming out and being aggressive early. Again, just an incredible crowd. It was an incredible crowd. Every time we scored a basket, the place was erupting. That gives you a huge advantage. It’s a huge home court advantage and our guys really enjoy playing in this environment. This is what college basketball is all about, a game like today.”
On coming off the bye…
“Our disadvantage last week was our advantage this week. We went into A&M, they had a bye, so they are waiting on us. Obviously, we had a bye this week, so we are waiting on Auburn. They had a very emotional game on Wednesday. It was very similar to our situation winning at Kentucky then going on the road. They beat a rival in a game that they considered somewhat of a must-win in terms of continuing to build their profile. We had an advantage, but we took advantage of it and that’s the way the schedule broke for us. When it’s in your favor, you got to do it and we had more time to prep for them. I thought we had a game plan. I thought we were very physical and we did a good job today.”
Junior G Walter Clayton Jr.
On what this win means for team confidence…
“I think this was very critical. We were able to spread them out, bring their bigs out of the paint, they had to worry about us hitting threes, so that opened us up, so I think that was very critical.”
Sophomore G Riley Kugel
On playing in front of Florida’s home crowd…
“It’s amazing. Each and every game we play, they just get more and more electric. We’re here for it. We’re blessed to play in front of them.”
Grad G Zyon Pullin
On the team’s big opening minutes…
“I think that was a big key, we wanted to come out to a fast start this game, I think we fed off of the crowd and we got off to a pretty good run to start.”
