Todd Golden, Riley Kugel react to Florida's 95-91 loss to Baylor

Florida battled against the No. 13 Baylor Bears on Friday night but couldn’t overcome their 3-point shooting in a 95-91 loss.

Riley Kugel led the Gators with career highs of 25 points and nine rebounds, shooting 4-for-6 from 3-point range.

The 3-point line proved the difference as Baylor shot 14-for-25 from long range and the Gators finished 8-for-26.

UF owned a 38-33 advantage on the boards, including 19 offensive rebounds, despite playing without starting center Micah Handlogten (ankle).

Here’s everything Florida coach Todd Golden and Kugel had to say after the loss in the NIT Season Tip-Off Championship.

Head coach Todd Golden

Opening statement:

Golden: “Obviously a tough loss. I thought our guys played really hard, played really well for a majority of the game. As I examine the box score, even game all the way around with the exception of the 3-point line. They obviously shot incredibly well, 56 percent. There were plenty of things we could’ve done a little better defensively, in terms of guarding the 3. Like I told our guys in the locker room, we need to limit attempts better. But once that ball is in the air there is only so much you can do about controlling the outcome and 56 percent is going to be tough to overcome, 14 made 3s for them. Obviously, we only made eight out of our 26. We out-rebounded them, turned it over less than they did, shot a better percentage from 2 than they did, but they won the game today because they shot the ball better from 3 than we did.”

On the depth and number of weapons Baylor has:

Golden: “[Jalen] Bridges was really the one I felt got us today. RayJ [Dennis] used a lot of possessions, played well, but we knew we wanted to force him to beat us in the mid-range and beat us with those floaters. I thought we did a poor job on Bridges, obviously. Six for nine, 23 points, five for seven from the line, didn’t defend his shot well enough. Obviously, they’re a really talented team. I think they’re the best team in the Big 12. It’s not surprising all the depth they have and the talent they can bring in. Obviously, they hit big, big shots at big moments. I think we had it tied and then No. 23, their third-string center [Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua], hit that big pick-and-pop 3 in the middle of the floor. They hit like two or three in a row as a team, that was the separation. Similar to us, when you have really good depth and multiple weapons, you can’t rely on cutting one guy out because multiple guys will be able to beat you.”

On Florida’s 3-point defense:

Golden: “We were really bad at it early. I thought they did a good job of exploiting our weak coverage in the middle of the floor, kind of were manipulating the pieces of where they were to put us in a bind in terms of, were we going to tag on the roll or stick with the shooters? I thought we did a better job once we started kind of going underneath that little ball screen and being able to avoid tagging rollers, which allowed us to stay closer to shooters in the second half, but they stepped up and hit some big shots.”

On playing without Micah Handlogten:

Golden: “I think it affected our depth in terms of just having one less guy that had been playing a lot of minutes out there. Obviously, Walter [Clayton] was a little under the weather and that affected him a little bit. I thought Denzel [Aberdeen] did a really nice job in his minutes and stepped up in a big game. Our two freshmen didn’t number as well as they’d been going. These are big moments for them, learning experiences. But you take away your starting center, to Riley’s point, it didn’t affect us on the offensive end. We still scored 91. It was more on the defensive end, I think, where it affected us in terms of putting Tyrese [Samuel] and [Alex] Condon in these middle ball-screen coverages all game long where they’re getting fatigued a little bit. We didn’t have one more guy to rest them or give them a little more time. Offensively, I thought we did a great job, especially this guy next to me.”

On Riley Kugel:

Golden: “I want to say one thing about his comment. I don’t think he’s been playing selfishly, to be honest, I think this team is a lot better, right, than we were last year. And Riley is a big part of that, and he’s done a good job, specifically over the last couple weeks trying to find his way in terms of not having to shoulder the whole load like he did last year. But what we all know on this team is that in a game like this where we need somebody to step up and take the team on their back, this guy can do it. And I think his attitude’s been great. I think he’s continued to put the team first. Early on in the year, he was a little concerned about scoring, but he’s one of the best defenders in the country, one of the best downhill drivers in the country and obviously can make shots off the bounce like he did tonight. He’s a great player, so I appreciate everything he’s doing for us.”

On Florida’s 12 turnovers:

Golden: “I don’t think we handled their physicality on the perimeter well early. I think that was the biggest thing. They’re doing a good job of getting into our ball handlers and it was kind of knocking us off balance and put us in some different spots. Once we addressed it, obviously at halftime, we had nine turnovers and only three in the second half. I thought we did a much better job with that. But it was kind of like a boxing match, kind of feeling them out early. They got us a little bit, but once we got settled and kind of understood where the pressure was coming from and how to handle it, we did a much better job taking care of all.”

Gators guard Riley Kugel

On how missing Handlogten affected the offense:

Kugel: “He’s definitely a big piece in our offensive set. He can fill up a ton of space. I wouldn’t say it affected us that much because we still have a lot of people coming off the rotation who can do what he does. Really, it’s just comes down to how bad do we want it? He’s a good piece, though. We definitely missed him.”

On whether he was feeling it tonight:

Kugel: “Yeah, I would say so. I just really needed to. I owed it to my teammates and the whole organization. Kind of played selfish a little bit at the start of the season. I was thinking about all about me at the start. So, now I’m just trying to have fun and win with the guys.”

On playing with four guards:

Kugel: “We definitely do that a lot in practice, so we definitely have a little chemistry going there already. All four of those guards can hoop, so we kind of got a good feel.”