Todd Golden reveals how Florida weathered the storm vs. Auburn

Florida went into a game against No. 1 Auburn as big underdogs and Todd Golden knew it. But that didn’t affect his faith in the team to come out with a win.

At first, the Gators just had to settle into the game. This is one of the best teams in college basketball for a reason.

But in order to come out victorious, Golden needed his squad to douse the fire in the first five to six minutes.

“I said to the staff first was like, man, I just hope these guys start missing some shots eventually,” Golden said on Sirius XM. “It felt like they were making everything. I thought we were guarding pretty well. And so I talked to the team about staying the course. You know, we knew they’re number one. We knew they were going to come out, you know, fired up, ready to go. They came out, hit some what I thought were tough contested shots early. And they were kind of, you know, in the coaching world, we say beating the scout a little bit, and we just kind of had to hang on to it and settle ourselves.”

In the 90-81 win, Walter Clayton Jr. led the way with 19 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Alex Condon added 17 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

“(We hit a) deep three (and it) kind of settled us offensively,” Golden said. “And then we finally put a couple stops back to back, and got some layups and got some interior baskets, and kind of stopped their push. 

“And it just seemed like we settled down after the first five to six minutes. And, you know, again, we talked about being the mentally and physically tougher team all week, and we knew being mentally tough early in the game would be to be an important piece of that.”

For Golden, it was quite the full-circle moment. He served as an assistant coach on The Plains under Bruce Pearl from 2014-16, and the two remain close. In fact, Golden considers Stephen Pearl, Bruce’s son, his best friend, ESPN’s Jess Sims said on Saturday’s broadcast. Stephen Pearl says the same thing about Golden.

Florida is now  20-3 overall and 7-3 in SEC play. The Gators will look to carry the momentum into Tuesday’s game, which will be another road tilt at Mississippi State. Auburn, meanwhile, will get ready for Tuesday’s matchup in Nashville against Vanderbilt – which is coming off a big win of its own.