Florida HC Todd Golden Breaks Down What Went Wrong for Gators in Loss to Arizona

It did not take long for the Florida Gators to take a hit in its title-defense 2025-26 campaign.

Despite a career-high 27 points from forward Thomas Haugh and an early double-digit lead, the third-ranked Gators on Monday fell to No. 13 Arizona, 93-87, as the Wildcats used a combined 57 points from freshman Koa Peat and senior Jaden Bradley.

While the defeat is disappointing, Florida fourth-year head coach Todd Golden sees a silver lining in the loss.

"I think the great thing for us, and the big reason why we schedule that game against Arizona, is we wanted to be tested early and kind of see the thing where we were excelling and what some of our warts were and be able to address it in early November, as opposed to last year," he said on Wednesday. "We didn’t play a competitive opponent like Arizona up until league last year - took until January to get a game like that. So, we get it on November 3rd this year."

Florida Gators forward Thomas Haugh had 27 points in the loss. | Candice Ward-Imagn Images

Yet, Golden and the Gators cannot help but see how far below expectations they played against Arizona.

Guard duo Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee, both of whom made their UF debuts, combined to shoot just 8-for-26 from the field with both missing wide-open 3-pointers late. Starting bigs Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon both struggled to defend with both fouling out, while Condon led all players with six turnovers.

"I think we had some guys that play a lot below what they’re capable of. I think part of it is first-night jitters - that was a big game," Golden said, adding that he believes Chinyelu and Condon "will play a lot better moving forward."

"I know our guys are great players, so I'm not worried about that," he said.

Florida's biggest shortcoming was its defensive performance despite a fast start offensively. Holding a 32-20 lead in the first half, Arizona went on a large run to tie the game, 39-39, before takeing a 50-46 lead in the first half.

Arizona Wildcats forward Koa Peat had 30 points. | Candice Ward-Imagn Images

The Gators would not have another lead for the rest of the game but tied the game twice in the second half before ultimately falling short. Golden said it came down to letting Arizona get comfortable offensively while the Gators had poor shot selection.

"We were a little bit disorganized offensively," he said. "I thought when we were organized we executed a lot better - so shot selection in one thing. I think some guys just weren’t able to keep us in our offense the way we want to play. And that’s just maybe slipping screens when maybe we should be setting them or not ducking in and coming high, just little things that might not make sense when I said it that way, but just little intricacies of how we play that make us who we are."

So, while Florida suffered a tough loss and did not play up to standard, Golden is not hitting the panic button one game into the season, saying that most of the Gators' issues are "correctable errors."

"Listen, you have to turn it into a positive," he said. "We had a lot of things that we could do better and we had a chance to win the game. So, whether it happens now or January 3rd, yeah I'm happy it's happening now. You get an opportunity to correct things early on in the season. And it's a long year that way. And the good thing is we have 30 more opportunities to go out and win and see what happens."

The Gators return to the floor on Thursday at 8 p.m. for its home opener against North Florida.

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