Next up for Florida: vs. Texas A&M; SEC Tournament at Nashville, Tenn.; Saturday, March 16, approx. 3:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN
Notable
* Florida posted its highest-scoring SEC Tournament game in program history as Walter Clayton Jr.’s 23 points led five Gators in double figures.
* The Gators have reached the SEC Tournament semifinals for the 19th time in program history and the first since 2019. UF holds a 10-8 record in the semifinal round and last advanced to the championship game in 2014.
* Florida picked up its fourth top-25 win of the season, most since recording six in 2017-18. Todd Golden is just the second coach in Florida history to lead UF to six ranked wins within his first two seasons (Tommy Bartlett, 1966-68).
* The 102 points scored marked UF’s second 100-point performance in regulation against a top-25 team in Florida history. The first was the Gators’ 105-point outing against Alabama last week.
* Clayton was joined in double figures by Zyon Pullin (19), Tyrese Samuel (18), Alex Condon (12) and Will Richard (10). The Gators are 9-2 this season when five players score in double figures.
* Clayton moved into Florida’s all-time top-10 single-season scoring list, now at 571 points and passing Anthony Roberson’s 561 points in 2004-05 for 10th all-time at UF.
* Clayton also moved into UF’s top-10 single-season 3-point field goals leaders, knocking down two to reach 83 on the season, passing Taurean Green’s 82 in 2006-07 for 10th.
* His 14th 20-point game marks the most by a Gator since Anthony Roberson’s 14 in 2003-04.
* Clayton has hit at least one 3-pointer in 20 consecutive games.
* Tyrese Samuel scored 10 points within the first 5:02 of the second half to help extend Florida’s lead to more than 20 as the Gators stretched the game to 24 with 10:35 to play.
* Florida played elite 3-point defense against Alabama, limiting the Tide to 19-for-80 from 3-point range in the three meetings: .250 (8/32) in Tuscaloosa, .217 (5/23) in Gainesville, .240 in Nashville (6/25).
* Florida’s 17-0 run in the first half marked the team’s largest vs. an SEC team this season and second-largest overall, only behind a 20-0 run vs. Merrimack on Dec. 5.
* After falling in a quick 8-0 hole to start the game, the Gators took a timeout and outscored Alabama 48-25 over the final 18 minutes of the first half.
* Florida matched its season-low with seven turnovers.
Southeastern Conference
Men’s Basketball Tournament
Friday, March 15, 2024
Florida Gators
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Bridgestone Arena
Coach Todd Golden
Will Richard
Zyon Pullin
Postgame Press Conference
Florida 102, Alabama 88
THE MODERATOR: We’re ready to begin with Florida.
We’ll ask Coach for some general thoughts on the game,
then take questions.
Coach.
TODD GOLDEN: Incredibly proud of these guys and their
teammates for the effort we had tonight. Obviously
concerning start going down 8-0 in the first two minutes.
After that I thought we played fantastic the rest of the way.
A combination of these guys executing our defensive game
plan and limiting their three-point attempts and makes,
then just offensively the way we played for each other,
sharing the ball, getting downhill.
I think we went on a 17-0 run to end the first half,
something along those lines. Great job finishing
possessions and making our free throws to never allow the
game to get tight.
Alabama is a great team, but we beat them pretty
comfortably tonight, and I thought it was a great effort from
our group.
Q. What got going? What happened positive in the
21-2 run, besides that, what got you going?
WILL RICHARD: Yeah, for us it was just defending,
getting clean rebounding, getting out in transition. We got
comfortable once we defended their first shot. Once we
got clean rebounds, we were out running. That’s what we
like to do.
ZYON PULLIN: Yeah, piggyback on what he said.
Limiting them to one shot, then run them off the three-point
line. Like he said, get clean rebounds, push the pace.
Q. Zyon, after the night you had last night, being in
foul trouble in the second half, how important was it
for you to get going in this one?
ZYON PULLIN: I think it was just letting it come to me. I
think just fixing those correctible things, limit the bad fouls.
Even got one today.
I think it was just let the game come to me. Don’t try to
force anything. Not playing as much the other game.
That’s it.
Q. Can you speak to the lift that Tommy and Alex gave
you guys. What was the message after the first
timeout.
ZYON PULLIN: Yeah, those guys played huge. I think
they’ve been playing huge all season when the minutes
come. Made a lot of big plays. Second chance and all that
stuff. Some big finishes down the stretch and stuff like
that.
What was the other? The 8-0 run, it was just staying
together. I think we got some looks we liked. Trying to get
stops.
WILL RICHARD: Yeah, those guys have been huge for us.
They’re very talented. They play so hard. We’re not
surprised at all to see them come in there and have that
kind of impact on the game.
The 8-0 run, our message was stay tough, stay together.
Alabama is a good team, they’re going to make their runs.
We’re a good team, as well. We’re going to make ours.
For us, it’s just staying together.
Q. Coming into this tournament, it seemed like
something you were focused on was getting back to
your old self. How important was tonight for
momentum?
141994-1-1222 2024-03-16 04:46:00 GMT Page 1 of 2
WILL RICHARD: Yeah, tonight was very important. Just
getting back to what we know we can do for everybody.
Playing our role, playing hard, playing together, having fun
out there, trying to win.
ZYON PULLIN: Yeah, I’d say the same thing. Definitely
big to get a win like this in this fashion. I think it’s just
staying together and do what we’re supposed to do.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll excuse the student-athletes and
continue with questions for Coach.
Q. You signed an extension before this tournament.
How good does it feel coming off that to not only win
yesterday but confidently beat Alabama like this, show
what Florida basketball could be and is right now?
TODD GOLDEN: Obviously it feels great. Appreciate the
trust and belief that our administration has in myself and
our staff, what we’ve built in a short period of time.
Obviously last night was a tricky game. It went back and
forth. But to push through was a little bit after relief.
This game, to be honest, just less pressure coming into
this game. Not saying complete house money, but
obviously a really good opponent, a loss doesn’t hurt you
and a win helps you in a big way.
I felt like our guys played like that after the first couple
minutes, felt like it was about us, staying the course.
Obviously it feel good to have a couple wins after that sign
of belief in what we’re building here.
Q. You got great vet play from Walter and from Zyon,
especially at the free-throw line. Can you speak to
what those two young kids did energy-wise during the
run.
TODD GOLDEN: Yeah, I think ZP hit it on the head a little
bit, they’ve been doing it all year. I go back to maybe the
Virginia game as the one time where they didn’t have a
great effort out there.
Since then, I think one of the biggest strengths of our team
is the fact that we have a great starting front core with
Tyrese and Micah. And then when we bring in Tommy and
Condo, there’s really no drop-off. We’re able to continue
our stuff. They put great pressure on both backboards,
especially on the offensive glass. They play so hard, it’s
infectious. I think they raise the bar for the older guys at
times in terms of setting the tone with how hard they play.
They have been doing this for us all year. It’s a big reason
why we’ve been so successful.
Q. You were up 15 points at the first half. With that
lead, it’s easy to take your foot off the gas. What was
the message at halftime?
TODD GOLDEN: Listen, Alabama is not the type of team
that you can ever take a breath. When you play them,
regardless of whether we had the 15-point lead or not, we
knew we were going to have to keep scoring, staying
aggressive and playing hard for the remainder of the game
if we wanted to win.
Alabama, they scored 55 in the second half. Fortunately
we scored 54. It doesn’t really affect us much. But we
knew we couldn’t go into the second half and think about
starting to bleed clock or slow it down. We wanted to stay
super, super aggressive, which I think we did a really good
job of doing over the last 20 minutes.
Q. You’ve talked about Nashville being an opportunity
to return to yourself as a team, wash away the
Vanderbilt loss. How important was tonight?
TODD GOLDEN: All these games are really important,
you know? I feel like last night we were getting back to it,
but we weren’t all the way there. A little shaky first half.
Better in the second half.
Once we started asserting our will on the glass in the
second half, that felt like the team we’d had for the first 30
games of the regular season.
Tonight, after the first two minutes, I felt like we were the
team who we’ve been for the last 30 games. Really the
last month and a half of conference play where we really
stepped it up.
Just a physical team that plays hard, with no fear of failure.
I think our guys did a really good job of that tonight. Even
when we got the big lead in the second half, we never
relaxed. We kept pushing it, kept staying aggressive, kept
getting to the foul line, never really allowed them to make it
a game.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
TODD GOLDEN: Thank y’all.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
