New Season, Flipped Roster, High Expectations

Monday, November 6

Gainesville, FL

8 PM

Florida Gators

Loyola Maryland

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Gators coach Todd Golden did a Gators makeover during the 2023 offseason.

New Season, Flipped Roster, High Expectations

Monday, November 6, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The excitement and anticipation for the start of the 2023-24 Florida basketball season is palpable. The UF fan base is starving for some success from its high-profile teams, so now Gator Nation is looking to Coach Todd Golden and a mostly rebuilt squad to fill that void.

Golden, entering his second Florida season, believes his latest band of Gators could be such an antidote. That's no surprise, given Golden's reputation for confidence. Looking back, Golden and his staff thought their first Florida team would be pretty good this time last year, only to get a two-month reality check in non-conference play that spilled over once the Southeastern Conference campaign began and ended, ultimately, with a 16-17 record and just the second losing season for the program in 25 years.

Chalk that first year up to arriving in late-March and everything that comes with the natural learning curve of being in a new place and culling through the process of learning what was inherited versus what was needed to succeed.

Hence the makeover last spring. Eight new players – five transfers, three freshmen – added to four returnees, including preseason All-SEC guard Riley Kugel and steady junior wing Will Richard. The '23-24 Gators, who open the season Monday night against Loyola Maryland at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, are a bigger, faster, more athletic, more versatile, more basketball savvy, better shooting and a seemingly more competitive bunch.

"To be honest, I feel like we're a lot better this year than last year," Richard said.

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]

Are they making such sweeping and optimistic statements all across the country right now? Sure. But Golden, though he swears by analytics, doesn't need a bunch of inside-basketball numbers to project improvement for his program. These Gators not only passed the eye test during their offseason and preseason work, but added two very impressive performances in their closed scrimmages late last month – a buzzer-beating win at '23 Final Four Miami, plus a 40-point blowout of Florida International at home – to put some validation to the optimism inside the building.

"We're much further along than we were at this time [last year]," Golden said. "A lot had to do with the summer and fall we had. We spent so much time last year playing catch-up, getting guys in late, getting guys healthy late, and it wasn't conducive to having a good start. Where as this year, I feel we've had it going a lot longer, played pretty well in our scrimmages and for the most part we've been heathy. We're just in a much better place."

And, frankly, with better, more proven (and more winning) players.

Since the transfer portal era blew up following the Covid-shuttered season in 2020, Florida has brought in a handful of players – many of them all-conference types at their previous stops -- who became starters or rotational regulars. The majority of them, however, weren't so much accustomed to winning before they got to UF.

Such could be said about Brandon McKissic (Missouri-Kansas City), Phlandrous Fleming Jr. (Charleston Southern), CJ Felder (Boston College) and Myreon Jones (Penn State) under Mike White. None of those players had ever experienced a NCAA Tournament; not even a NIT. And of their 12 combined previous seasons 10 were played on losing teams. Golden's first season saw the arrival of Kyle Lofton (St. Bonaventure), Trey Bonham (Virginia Military), Alex Fudge (LSU) and Richard (Belmont). Of those four, only Lofton and Fudge, as a seldom-used role player, had participated in a NCAA Tournament (Lofton in one NIT, as well).

Of UF's five '23-24 transfers – guards Walter Clayton Jr. (Iona), Zyon Pullin (California-Riverside) and Julian Rishwain (San Francisco), forward Tyrese Samuel (Seton Hall) and center Micah Handlogten (Marshall) – three have played in NCAA tournaments, one has won a conference regular-season and tournament championship, and of their 15 combined seasons only two ended with losing records.

"All these guys have winning in their DNA," Golden said. "They've experienced it and that's really important."

CHARTING THE GATORS: Transferring Success
UF's five transfer players each enjoyed personal success at their previous school, but also team success; as in winning.

Player (individual accolades)	Previous school	Team highlights
Walter Clayton Jr. / Guard (2023 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of Year)	Iona	Won two regular-season MAAC titles; 27-8 in '22-23; lost to UConn in NCAA 1st round; 52-16 over two seasons with Gaels.
Zyon Pullin / Guard (2023 First-Team All-Big West Conference; 2022 Second-Team All-BWC; 2021 Honorable Mention All-BWC)	California-Riverside	Went 60-37 over his four seasons, including 22-12 as a senior and a third-place finish in league.
Julian Rishwain / Guard	San Francisco	Was 6th man and No. 5 scorer on USF's first NCAA team in 24 years; two winning seasons in three years with Dons.
Tyrese Samuel / Forward	Seton Hall	Winning records, including two 20-win seasons, in all four years, including NCAA trip in '22.
Micah Handlogten / Center (2023 Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year)	Marshall	Went 24-8, finished second in league, but upset in 1st round of Sun Belt Tournament.

What comes with that experience, especially in this portal era, is using it for the betterment of the team. Florida, obviously, isn't the only program dealing with high roster turnover. Everybody is. But wherever it happens, chemistry becomes paramount, as players from all different programs and backgrounds – UF's eight new players come from four different countries and three continents – need to mesh on and off the floor.

So far, so good in the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Complex.

"We're more jelled, more together," Richard said. "I feel we have a really deep team, with a lot of guys who can go and impact a game in a lot of different ways. It just feels like everybody is on the same page, with a lot more focus and energy with what we want to do."

Junior guard/forward Will Richard (5) is on the same page as his coach, relative to the direction and all-around improvement of the '23-24 squad.

Among the things that have to date defined this new group is an unselfishness on the court (the Gators combined for 46 assists in their two scrimmages), an ability to play fast (all four healthy "bigs," especially freshmen Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh, can really run the floor) and are working hard to commit to the kind of passion and awareness on the defensive end Golden wants to see (UF finished 31st in the country in defensive efficiency last season).

Collectively, the Gators truly believe they've come a long way and are in a far different – and better – place than Opening Day 2022.

So bring on Opening Day 2023.

"Last year, using that as a test run, now we have a much better understanding of what we have to do," Golden said. "We're in a much better situation."