On their Field of 68 show, Jeff Goodman and former UF assistant Matt McCall dissected the Gators' offseason.
After winning the national championship in April, the Florida Gators basketball program has had a busy offseason. For one thing, UF had to shore up the backcourt after losing the top four guards: All-American Walter Clayton, starters Alijah Martin and Will Richard, and backup Denzel Aberdeen.
Meanwhile, Florida had to sweat things out while multiple front-court players tested the NBA Draft waters before each decided to return to Gainesville for another season. And, of course, there also was some coaching staff turnover.
On their Field of 68 show Wednesday, Jeff Goodman and former UF assistant Matt McCall dissected the Gators’ offseason. You can watch their breakdown up above, but here are some notable comments from the pair.
Goodman on the different look of the team: “Todd Golden, man, he did it with a bunch of mid-major transfers last year. Walter Clayton, Alijah Martin, Will Richard. Well, they’re all gone.
This is a completely different back court, not a different team. The front court has remained the same, which is absolutely loaded, but you got a couple guys in the back court, they loaded up. nd I was worried for a minute. They got [point guard] Xavian Lee early from Princeton. But late you didn’t kind of know, were they going to get another guard of significance? Well, they ended up getting [point guard] Boogie Fland, the Arkansas transfer, after he withdrew from the NBA draft. You you’ve got their whole front court back, Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu, Micah Handlogten. … They also have some different staff members as well, so there’s a lot change in Gainesville.”
McCall on the acquisition of Fland: ‘They did something that Todd Golden hasn’t really done before since he’s been there. They took a high-high level transfer. He hasn’t done that. Look, Alijah Martin, call it what it is. We love Alijah Martin. He didn’t come off a great year [at FAU]. … Alijah didn’t have a great year. He had to go to Florida to prove himself.
So Boogie Fland, the 5-star recruit, I mean, he brings the camera crew with him on his visit. There’s all kinds of social media being put out there. That’s not something that Todd Golden has done in the past.”
McCall on the staff changes after losing assistants Kevin Hovde [Columbia] and John Andrzejek [Campbell] to head coaching jobs: “I’ll say this about Todd Golden: He does not go outside and hire people that he has not worked with before or doesn’t have a close relationship with. And I give him a ton of credit for that. But when you lose two of your guys to head coaching jobs, it’s a different dynamic that he’s got to figure out. Staff meetings are a little different. Who’s running the offense? Who’s running the defense? He gives his staff a lot of freedom. So, it will be interesting to see how he handles that transition.”
McCall on the returning players and the freshmen signees: “They lose Sam Alexis—didn’t play a huge role. I’m not worried about that. But then you look at the guys that are back. Haugh, Condon, Chinyelu, [Urban Klavzar]—I’m hearing reports out of Gainesville that he had a great summer. Look for him to play a big-time role in the rotation [at guard].
And you know, then the guys that they brought in. The freshmen, [guard] Alex Lloyd, [guard/forward] CJ Ingram, Cornelius Ingram’s son. Cornelius, two-way player at the University of Florida, won an SEC championship on the basketball team, and Urban Meyer got there and said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. You’re not playing both anymore, okay? You’re on football scholarship. You will be with us full time.’ But CJ Ingram, boy, a lot of talent, athleticism, kind of reminds you of Alijah Martin a little bit just with his length. Maybe even bigger than Alijah. … Going to take some time. That’s a freshman that’s going to have an impact.”
Goodman on the importance of the Fland pickup: “If you had told me they would lose their four guards the way they did in Florida and they don’t have crazy NIL. They don’t have Kentucky NIL or some of these other schools spending, you know, 12 million plus. They’ve got good NIL now. I would have said they’re in major trouble for this year.
Getting Condon back was huge for the front court. Huge. Because people thought he was probably gone. Maybe a late first-round pick. Didn’t play great in the NCAA tournament until that title game. So, he made the right decision, I think, to come back. But to me, the Boogie Fland addition might have saved Florida in a sense of having an opportunity to be in the mix again as one of the 10, 12, 15 teams that’s going to have a chance to go to the Final Four, win the whole thing. That was pivotal.”
Goodman on his biggest concern for the Gators? “My biggest question is how do the pieces fit now?
Because you don’t have a real three man. You don’t have another guard and you got two guys that really had the ball in their hands a lot last year. Lee at Princeton, Boogie Flynn when he was healthy at Arkansas.
And oh by the way, when he was healthy at Arkansas last I checked I think they were 0-5 in league play. And when he went down, it changed things. So, I want to see, can Boogie Fland be a winning player And it’s probably unfair to call him not that because he only played half a year in college basketball before he got hurt.
But, I want to see how those two coexist. Now that worried about because again, the more point guards the merrier for me as long as they can shoot. And both these guys can shoot. My biggest question and the X factor to me becomes the three-man spot or whoever is going to play that third perimeter. Right now, they’re going to try to fit Thomas Haugh into a position, into a spot that I don’t think he fits.”
McCall also has questions about Haugh playing a lot of small-forward [he was a power-forward last season]: “I mean, it’s a concern of mine. Thomas Haugh, I mean you could say the play in the national championship game that maybe changed the game for Florida was his and-one on the break.
But when he’s at the four spot, he stretches defenses. He makes you have to make a decision. Are you going to switch one through four? Even when he plays at the five some, are you going to switch one through five because of how he can shoot? Can he put it on the deck well enough to play that spot? Who’s he guarding? Right? Like can he defend a three in the SEC?”
Category: Basketball
