Todd Golden 'thrilled' by Florida's SEC Tourney win over Texas A&M

The Florida Gators are headed to Sunday’s SEC Tournament finals — and second-year coach Todd Golden couldn’t be any happier about it. He made that clear following his team’s 95-90 win Saturday over Texas A&M in the semifinals.

“Obviously I’m thrilled with the way our team performed today,” Gold told the media, per ASAP Sports. “I think this was a great example of the growth of our team and our program over the last couple months. To go down 18 in the first half, find a way to come back and win by five, it was just incredibly resilient.”

Florida, now 24-10, faces No. 12 Auburn in the finals at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.

Here’s what else Golden said Saturday:

More on the Gators’ come-from-behind win …

“I was just really proud of the way that we maintained our composure when things weren’t going our way, and our belief didn’t waver. I think that was something that showed the growth I was speaking about earlier in terms of where we’ve come from earlier in the year.

Will hit free throws down the stretch, did a great job of taking care of the ball against the pressure. Denzel (Aberdeen), a breakout game for him. Will (Richard) can tell you he plays pretty dang well in practice every day, does a great job of being consistent, having a great work ethic and attitude. I’m really proud of Denzel for stepping up in this moment when his teammates needed him the most. We don’t win this game without him.

Good job, Denzel.”

On what it means to make the SEC Tournament finals in Year 2 and facing Auburn in the finals

“Yeah, I mean, I would be lying if I said I would not — would prefer it to be somebody else. But to meet them in the championship, it’s going to be just an awesome game and a great opportunity for us.

Neither side will be taking it easy on each other. Obviously they’ve had a great year. They have a great team. We played very well when we played them the first time. We had them at home. Obviously it’s going to be a tougher challenge now in a neutral court.

Both of our programs, obviously they’ve been established, and now we’re becoming that way. We’re trying to get there and stay there. Both teams playing really well at the right time obviously. I think tomorrow will be a great game.”

On how Todd Golden and the Gators beat Auburn earlier this season

“We had them at home. We played fantastic at home all year. We had a bye that week. They were coming in, I think they beat Alabama by 18 right before they played us. We had some things going our way in regards to just the lead-up to the game.

We played with incredible energy and enthusiasm. I thought our guys did a great job executing against Auburn. We did a really good job defending them, limiting their opportunities, their catch-and-shoot threes. We did a good job on Johni.

Offensively we were playing with great pace and great intent, just getting down the middle of the floor, attacking the rim. We made a lot of shots that night. We played one of our best games.

We should have some confidence in the sense that we’ve performed well against these guys. I know they will have a much better effort tomorrow. They’ll have some different things for us that we’ll have to adjust to.

When you make it to the championship game, you’re going to be playing a really good team. That’s just the way it’s going to go. Just excited to get out there again tomorrow.”

On the adjustments the Gators made Saturday after falling behind by 18

“We might not have been scoring great. I think the issue in the first half was the way we were guarding. We weren’t guarding physically at all. Quick turnaround obviously. I didn’t think we executed very well in terms of what we wanted to do defensively in the first half.

Then credit to A&M, they shot the ball really well. Six threes in the first half. They’ve been playing at an elite level the last five games before this one. A big part of that is their perimeter shooting.

When they make threes, they’re really, really hard to beat. They have those really good attacking guards in Taylor, Radford, with Obaseki stepping up. He’s been playing a lot better lately. That gives them another element, makes them harder to guard.

I this think our defense sparked us in the beginning of the run, get out in transition, get easier baskets. In the second half I thought we did a better job of getting the ball side to side, making them guard the whole floor. Our bigs did a good job of slipping out of the ball screens, caused confusion, let us get downhill.

We did a great job of playing off two feet, not over-penetrating and then looking out, and then obviously we shot the ball really, really well today as well, which was the difference in the game.”

On the play of forward Tyrese Samuel

“Yeah, I thought a little bit slow start. He was close to dominant in the second half, just the way he was able to play in the paint physically. He did a great job passing. They trap a lot in the post. I think he’s one of the better passing bigs in America and composed. Double-teams don’t really bother him. He’s able to stay calm and look out. He did a great job finding (Aberdeen) for three, Walt for three, skipped one to Will early on.

Those plays are backbreakers. When they’re trying to run a specific style defensively, you’re able to get open shots against it.

Again, him and ZP, being the senior leaders of this group, I thought both stepped up in a big way to help us win tonight.”

How rewarding it was for Todd Golden to see Aberdeen shine Saturday

“Very. He’s a guy that we have a lot of belief in. But his practice production just hadn’t translated to games the way we expected it to. Big part of what we believe is that practice matters a lot. Guys that perform every day and do their jobs and perform well, which he does, that eventually you gain good belief and good confidence from that, start showing up in games.

We probably expected this to show up closer to January for him. Again, he didn’t get discouraged, he didn’t change his approach. He’s been coming on the last couple weeks. He played really well against ‘Bama at home. I thought he played great last night in short minutes.

Today I just felt like he earned the opportunity to be the first guard off the bench, see what he was able to do. He obviously took advantage of that opportunity today.”

Where the Gators have made the most progress this season

“I felt like we would have a pretty good team. Obviously we had some kind of fluky situations in non-conference, with (Zyon Pullin) missing the first three games, because he played in Portsmouth. Micah (Handlogten) sprained his ankle in the first play, in the Pitt game. We don’t have him against Pitt, Baylor or Wake Forest. We had guys in and out of the lineup a little bit.

We were good, but we just weren’t super connected yet. We knew we weren’t playing to our ceiling. Obviously started 1-3. Not exactly a great start. When we won at Missouri, then came back and won those two against Mississippi State and Georgia, we started to get some confidence.

I think we went to Kentucky and won right after that. When we got that win at Rupp, I think that was kind of the moment where everybody in the program, specifically the players, were like, We feel like we can play with anybody anywhere, beat anybody anywhere.

The reality since then is we’ve played really dang well. We’ve lost a couple, but had leads in every game. Obviously coming here, winning three so far speaks to that.

Continuing to be more connected. We have a lot of new guys. Riley (Kugel) and Will are the only guys that really played for us last year that are still here. Denzel obviously was in the program. It’s not that easy to just assemble a group and expect to play at a really high level right away.

I feel like we’ve done a good job of continually getting better as the year’s gone on. This is the right time to be playing our best basketball.”