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Todd Golden reacts to Florida’s SEC Tournament championship: ‘We’re just getting started’
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Todd Golden has picked up the first championship of his Florida tenure, guiding the Gators to an SEC Tournament title. After earning a double-bye, UF defeated Mizzou, Alabama and Tennessee in Nashville to win the conference tournament, defeating the Vols 86-77 on Sunday.
“I think it just shows the growth that we’ve had over the past 3 years,” Todd Golden told ESPN’s Jess Sims after the game. “Obviously, this is our 3rd year being here. We made it to the championship last year, fell a little short. But these guys stepped up and found us a way to get us this title in the best conference that college basketball has seen in 20 years. Our guys had a hell of a game today. They’ve been great all year. They deserve this.”
Sims asked Golden about his team’s depth. The ESPN broadcast remarked that Florida wore down Tennessee using a 9-man rotation.
“It makes our staff look really good,” Golden said. “Obviously, we have a very deep team. We can even play even more players. But the 9 that did, a great job today, they stepped up. Nobody lets the bar drop. They play hard defensively. They rebound. They take care of it. Most of all, they make each other better. It gives us a chance to make a deep run here in March.”
Sims asked Golden what makes the Gators the team to beat in the Big Dance.
“I think we’ve shown that over the last couple of months,” Golden said. “Again, I think this conference tournaent is very similar to what the NCAA Tournament is going to be. We beat Missouri, who’s a Sweet 16-type game. We just won 2 Final Four-type games, and I think we’re just getting started.”
Florida will learn its NCAA Tournament seed and bracket in just a couple of hours.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
