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‘Not where we need to be yet’: Todd Golden reacts to Florida's win vs. GW

On3 imageby: Zach Abolverdi4 hours agoZachAbolverdi

The No. 18 Florida Gators got back in the win column Saturday with their 80-70 win over George Washington. Three UF players scored in double figures, led by Xaivian Lee with a season-high 24 points.

The Gators (6-4) improve to 20-4 all-time in the Orange Bowl Classic, including a 2-0 record under head coach Todd Golden. Florida now sits at 3-2 in the all-time series against the Revolutionaries (8-4).

Here’s everything Golden said after the win in his postgame interview with Sean Kelley.

Todd Golden Q&A

Opening statement:

TODD GOLDEN: “As I just told the guys in the locker room, we’re never gonna be upset about a double-digit victory against a very respectable team in George Washington. So, we’re happy about that, but there’s a lot of areas that we gotta continue to improve, and we’re not where we need to be yet.”

On what they cleaned up from the first half:

TODD GOLDEN: “Just not shooting the ball very well. I thought we allowed some of our misses to affect our competitiveness in the first half. And again, George Washington’s a very good team. They’re going to compete; they’re going to battle. They kept it within three at halftime. I thought we did a good job coming out in the second half and really getting after it defensively. We got five or six stops in a row that led to transition, some good runouts, and that’s the team that we need to be. Our talent is on the defensive side of the ball. Our talent’s physical, our talent is our size. And if we want to be the best team we’re capable of, we gotta defend and rebound at an elite level, no matter what the situation is on the offensive end.

“I think, you know, occasionally, guys, they don’t want to hear it, that defensively is where it’s at. And that’s part of getting good. And I think, again, we have a competitive team. Our guys want to win. They want to play the right way, but we have to continue to strive to be a team that plays better and more consistent over 40 minutes.”

On Xavian Lee’s performance the last two games:

TODD GOLDEN: “I think he’s playing a lot better. I think he’s playing a lot better. You know, three out of his last four games have been pretty dang good. I thought today he did a great job balancing scoring and playmaking for others. And really was a huge spark for us in the first half when we were struggling getting it going a little bit. But he’s really coming on for us, and it’s what we expected from him at the beginning of the season.”

On what he wants work on with his team before Wednesday:

TODD GOLDEN: “Just continuing to build and get a really good competitive mindset. We talked about the fact that we traveled a lot. We can make excuses for ourselves, why we might be a little fatigued at this point in the season, but nobody cares about that. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us, and nobody’s going to give us more points because of that. So, we gotta get back, get rested, and make sure we’re ready to compete really, really hard on Wednesday night.”

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