Todd Golden said Xaivian Lee’s surge is changing Florida’s ceiling fast

Florida knocked off Colgate 90-60 in a contest that was never close. Xaivian Lee led the way with 19 points, while three other Florida starters were north of 15 points.

After the game, Todd Golden met with reporters for a press conference, and this is everything he said from the press conference.

Florida cruises past Colgate 90-60

Todd Golden

Really pleased with our effort today. Thought this kind of contest against a really solid, well-coached Colgate team can be a trap, can be a trouble game when you have guys that are all taken off to go out of town to see the families to get a break. We played a tough schedule, and Colgate might not bring the same jing that some of these other opponents that we played have. 

But I thought our guys did a great job of respecting the opportunity to compete today and having a really good systematic effort. I thought we did a good job on the game plan, minus giving up the three-point line a little bit to two guys, dominated on the glass, which we emphasized, and we knew we needed to do. And by far our best job, taking care of the ball in a long time. 

Obviously, that last group had some bad turnovers. But for the first 36 minutes to only have four turnovers, that was some really good growth by this group. And it provided us the opportunity to have a big win. So, really pleased with this type of effort going into the break. And it allows us to enjoy these next coupleof  days a little more. 

Reporter

Where you are now compared to where you were back on November 3, what's been the greatest area of improvement from your standpoint? 

Golden

I think multiple guys are getting more comfortable. The obvious one for me is Xaivian (Lee) playing really well, starting to shoot the ball well, and starting to score for us. This is another game where he's had multiple assists, zero turnovers. 

So that's given us a big lift. Our guards, I think, are playing better and more comfortably. And I thought Micah (Handlogten) gave us really good minutes today. And I just think we're getting more comfortable. 

This is the best way I can answer that question. And looking forward to coming back, playing Dartmouth, and then getting into SEC play and seeing how we look against some better competition. 

Reporter

How much work have you seen (Rueben Chinyelu) put in? I mean, he's in baby hooks and stuff now. I mean, just the work he's put in, how much of his production is a testament to that? 

Golden

Yeah, a lot of it. You know, he deserves a lion's share of the credit. And, you know, he came when he decided he was coming back, you know, after testing, we would see him in the gym every morning, just lathered in sweat, you know, before 10 a.m., and just a beast. And that, you know, Ruben's a very special human being, dude. 

The way he attacks everything he does, He's really bright, mature, and very prideful. And for him, even though he shot a high percentage, I think he wanted the opportunity to go try to score a little more around the rim, maybe get some more post touches, and he's earned it. And to his credit, finishing through contact better.

You've been better from the foul line over the course of the whole season. Had a little dip the last couple of weeks, but has been great that way. And he's one of, if not the best, defending big man in America with that as well. So, just a great player, and he deserves a ton of credit for the growth he's shown. 

Reporter

Xaivian Lee has led you guys in scoring five of the last six games now. Do you sense that there's a weight lifted off him, that he's, like, this is who he's supposed to be? 

Golden

Yeah, I think he's playing with a lot more confidence and a lot more freedom. And, you know, there's a lot of things, you know, in this new era that you don't necessarily account for, you know, when you get guys, and I mean, he's played with a ball in his hands a ton, and, you know, we have him playing off the ball with Boogie (Fland), 

And I think we as a staff have done a good job, a better job, recently, kind of manufacturing more opportunities for him to play out of that high-ball screen where he's really comfortable. I think he's attacking and transitioning better, and he's shooting the ball better. 

So we need him to be that for us to be the best we can be. So him kind of shape rounding into that form has allowed us over our last six games to play some really consistent basketball, even though we lost a couple of those against really good teams. 

But really, since the Providence game, we've played like a top 15, 20 team in every game. And his coming on has been a big part of that. 

Reporter

For Alex Kovatcev, to give him a look… is that a lesson to some of the other guys? 

Golden

No, it's him earning the opportunity. He's played well in practice. We've kind of given some other guys a little bit of a head start that we thought would be able to give us a little more upside. But I mean, everybody saw when he came in the other night against St. Francis that he played with great pop, shot ready, played made for others. 

And so for us, it's like, man, this guy's doing everything we're asking him to do. He defends hard. He's a good athlete. Wanted to give him a rip in that third sub of the game. And you wouldn't look at his stat line and be blown away, but his plus-minus was really damn good. 

And that's kind of what the only thing we care about right now in that role is come in and make sure we either hold water or go the right way. And in his 12 minutes, he was plus 16. So he defended. He did his job. Made sure the score was going the right way. And I think he'll be able to do that for us a little bit. 

Reporter

Is this a game that Boogie can kind of build off of? Obviously, pretty instrumental in limiting Jalen Cox, who is probably going to be his conference player of the year this season. Or has he just defensively seemed to get a long rip during the second half during the big run? 

Golden

Boogie does a lot of things really well that don't necessarily get noticed all the time. And by many people, you obviously know the defense at the point, putting pressure on really good ball handlers. He's seen a lot of good matchups this year. 

Hasn't won them all, but he's done a really good job. And most of them, I thought Cox was a guy that we were awfully concerned about. He's a really talented player. He did a really good job against Michigan State, did a good job against Illinois, some of their high-major opponents, and then forced him into five turnovers. He was minus 36. We did a good job on him today. 

And I think Boogie's gonna be a guy that keeps us together. We want him playing with great pace, playing in the paint, making good paint decisions, and I thought he did a good job that way today. 

Reporter

Talk about how Boogie and Xaivian have just grown more comfortable. Obviously, they're so much more comfortable playing together now than they were at the beginning of the year. 

Golden

Yeah, it's just a function of reps and a function of getting through our schedule a little bit and just competing. We knew it was going to take a little time. We had that group last year together, well, Walt and Will, for a couple of years. 

And these guys are new to our program. Boogie’s young, Boogie’s 19. Xaivian is coming in from Ivy. Obviously, it's a new level. We knew it was going to take some time for these guys to get super, super comfortable. But they've been much better over the last couple of weeks. 

Reporter

Everyone's focus will usually go to the Xaivian Lee, Boogie Fland, (Thomas) Haugh, and (Alex) Condon. But what's the importance for Chinyelu to allow you to play how you want to play on offense and defense?

Golden

Incredibly instrumental in terms of that. With his physicality, the way he can rim run and transition, and his ability to protect the rim on defense. And we obviously play multiple bigs, so we need to have depth in the front court to be able to do that. 

He and Micah, we believe, by the end of the year, should be the best five-man tandem in America. So Rueben has continued to grow, and I think, again, as you said, might be the unsung hero sometimes. But internally, we know how valuable he is, and he's a huge part of our success last year and this year. 

Reporter

(Assistant coach) Dave Klatsky’s involvement in knowing what Colgate likes to do, having been there for more than a decade. How helpful was that today? 

Golden

Yeah, it was funny, man, because when you have these opportunities competing against coaches you know or staffs you've been on, you've got to do your best you can to use your knowledge to give yourself the best chance, but also it can't be personal, and you allow other things to become more important. 

But he did a great job. Obviously, he and Matt are great friends. They played together at Penn. I think he knows that program pretty well. So we had some good ideas of what they wanted to do against us today. And he did a great job preparing us. To get up 37 against that team is hard to do, man. Our guys played well today, and we had a good game plan. 

Reporter

You always say it's hard. You don't want to be overly critical when you win by a lot of points, but you look at their three-point shooting. Was that just-- is that a tip of the cap kind of thing? 

Golden

A little bit. I think we gave Carlissamo, and mainly him, too many open looks. Like Sam Wright's capable shooter, I think he was 23% coming into the game. We knew they were going to let him fly. And so initially, they beat the scout a little bit on his first two, because that was what we were going to live with. And we adjusted and started going to the 1-5 switch to kind of get him off the line, did a better job that way. But big picture-wise, we limited their threes. 

So that was a positive. Obviously, them shooting 64% is not ideal. But one thing we were just talking about as a staff is for them to be able to shoot, make 11 threes, 64 from three, and for us to still win by 30 means we did a lot of things really well. 

Merry Christmas, everybody.