Florida Basketball is set to square off with the Houston Cougars tonight in San Antonio in the national title game. The Gators beat Auburn, while Houston beat Duke on Saturday night to advance to tonight's tilt.
This will be Florida's 4th time in the national title game, all since 2000, and the first time Florida head coach Todd Golden has made it to the championship game.
Prior to Monday's tilt, Golden held a press conference on Sunday where he talked about the challenges Houston will pose, what makes Walter Clayton Jr. special, and why the mentality for Florida has been great all season long.
Houston's Identity:
"They're the best defensive team in America. They have just a great identity as a program of just being both physically and mentally tough. That's something we've tried to pride ourselves on this year. Houston I would say is a great example of that."
Walter Clayton Jr.'s Growth:
" think he's done an incredible job of getting himself in great shape. He works on his game a ton. Having someone that's such an elite threat to score with the ball in his hands at all times obviously makes everybody else so dangerous as well. A lot of questions were asked last summer and this fall if we would have enough ball handling on this team, enough play making. Obviously Walter has quieted those concerns and has led us to the national championship game."
Contrasting Styles:
"They're going to impose their will as they've done on everybody this year. We're a pretty tough team also. We're going to have to do a better job than we did last night. I thought first half we let Auburn take it to us a little bit. We can't allow that to happen tomorrow night. They're absolutely an elite team."
Facing Kelvin Sampson:
"Coach Sampson, I love the way he talks about his team, the way he talks about his staff. I saw something that he doesn't take phone calls when he needs spots on his staff, he just promotes from within. You can tell by the way they recruit, they're not worried about rankings, they're worried about finding tough-minded young men that are willing to put the Houston program above themselves. That's what we've tried to do at Florida as well."
Florida's Mentality:
"I obviously respect everyone that we're playing against. We don't fear people. We respect them."
Key's To The Game:
"It's a 40-minute game. Our depth, our ability to run guys at our opponents, just that constant pressure that we put on the rim, that makes defenses account for those bodies, I think it's really, really important to the way we play offensively, for sure."