Todd Golden's Assessment of Gators Heading into SEC Play

The Florida Gators wrapped up their non-conference slate on Monday with a comfortable win over Dartmouth. They finished the 13-game stretch against non-SEC opponents with a 9-4 record, losing only to No. 1 Arizona, No. 4 UConn, No. 6 Duke and TCU all by less than 10 points for a combined 15 points.

Following these 520 minutes of action from his team over the past two months, Gators head coach Todd Golden believes his team is heading in the right direction as SEC play approaches on Saturday.

“Yeah, I think we're ready,” Golden answered when asked if his team is ready for SEC play. “I think we've been getting better…I think we're trending in the right direction.”

Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden has Florida at 9-4 in his fourth season with the program. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

One of the early problems for this rendition of the Gators was their ability to take care of the basketball. Poor turnovers and unforced errors hurt the Gators in all of their losses and even in their victories. However, following the final contest of 2025 for Florida, Golden stated he is seeing more care for the basketball from his team.

“We've started taking better care of the ball. We had four turnovers in the first 36 minutes against Colgate, and we did a good job in the previous games before that,” he said.

Another area he stated improvement in is defending without fouling.

“We've started defending without fouling better, you know, did a good job keeping these teams off the line,” Golden added.

It has not been all sunshine and rainbows for the Gators over the past few games, though. Gators' head coach noted that he has seen the team’s 3-point defense regress over their last four, which needs fixing.

“We regressed, obviously, guarding the three-point line these past four games. So, we got to make sure we get back to that as we get into SEC play,” Golden said.

A quick piece of evidence supporting his claim comes from their last game against Colgate. Colgate made 11 of their 17 3-pointers and had two players finish 4-for-5 from behind the arc in the contest.

One final assessment from Golden after the win on Monday centered around his two new guards, Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland, and their play through the first 13 games. Florida's head coach believes that both are trending upward in their own ways and are doing a much better job now compared to the start of the season.

“Yeah, I think we're trending the right way,” Golden said. “Where we were early to where we are now, you know, those guys are doing a much better job."

Florida Gators guard Xaivian Lee (1) has completely turned things around after a rough start to the season. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

For both players, Golden touched on their improved comfort level within the offense.

“Thought [Lee] played well offensively again tonight, 12 points in 21 minutes, two assists. Does a great job taking care of the ball,” he said. “I thought Boog is getting more comfortable, getting to the rim, driving off those duck-ins, initiating the offense. You know, he's playing better as well, and I think it's going to continue to be a work in progress for us that way.”

In Lee’s case, he has drastically improved his numbers over the last seven games compared to the first six. To start the year, he shot 22 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from deep. Conversely, Lee is making 47.4 percent of his shots over the last seven and 34 percent of his triples.

Moreover, he has scored in double digits in six of the last seven, while Fland also has crossed the double-digit threshold in five of the previous seven.

Florida’s first SEC opponent of the season is the Missouri Tigers, with the Gators traveling to Columbia on Saturday, a place where they have won two consecutive games. Tip is at 8:30 p.m., with the SEC Network televising the contest.

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