UF Looks to Wrap Unbeaten December

Saturday, December 30

Gainesville, FL

1 PM

Florida Gators

Quinnipiac

UF coach Todd Golden, a year after winning just seven games before league play, would love to have double-digit wins before hitting the Southeastern Conference season next week.

UF Looks to Wrap Unbeaten December

Friday, December 29, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Alex Condon was a virtual newbie to the post-game press conference scene, so he gets a pass on this one.

On Dec. 5, the Florida Gators overcame a dreadful first half to post a 77-57 home win over Merrimack. Condon, the 6-foot-11 backup center from Australia, had 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in the game. The team had a week to stew on a disappointing road loss at Wake Forest, so the victory, which snapped a two-game losing streak, was much needed.

Asked about the outstanding individual performance, Condon dismissed any talk about his statistics and spoke, instead, to the outcome and how the Gators had set a goal among themselves to go unbeaten in December.

"It's player-oriented," Condon said. "We're sticking to it. That's the goal."

The internal objective was out of the bag (or the locker room). Oh well. That's was three and half weeks ago. On Saturday, the Gators (9-3) will take a five-game winning streak into their afternoon date against Quinnipiac (9-3) at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, which not only will mark UF's final game of December, but the last before the team opens Southeastern Conference play Jan. 6 against Kentucky.

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

The run of five straight wins is the most for the Gators under Coach Todd Golden's, now in his second season. None of the victims have been ranked opponents, but the three straight neutral-site victories over Richmond, East Carolina and Michigan in double-overtime of the Jumpman Classic showed this team has some substance to it.

They also showed progress on an array of fronts that Golden wants to build on, especially with the league season looming.

Freshman center **Alex Condon** had 12 points and a career-best 16 rebounds in the Merrimack win that started the chase for an unbeaten December.

"Keeping the momentum we've built up over the last month is really important coming out of this break," said Golden, whose players returned from Christmas holiday and responded with a pair of spirited, competitive practices Wednesday and Thursday. "This team has made big strides over that time. We've finished out some close ball games, we've improved on the defensive end and we are beginning to play more cohesively on the offensive end. We can't afford to regress in any of these areas."

Not with the Wildcats looming in a week.

Heck, not with Quinnipiac in the house. Good teams keep their edge against all opponents (and sharpen that edge against ones they're supposed to beat).

"We've kind of come together as a team the last few weeks," junior wing Will Richard said. "The Wake Forest loss stung us a little bit. That was a game we thought we should have won. We just said, 'Let's go unbeaten in December' and win 'em all before going into SEC."

Five down, one to go.

Worth noting: Since 2013-14 Florida famously won 30 straight games – and was perfect in January, February and March that season – the program has had just one undefeated month over the last 10 seasons. That was in November 2021 when the Gators opened with six straight wins and rocketed to No. 14 in the rankings, then promptly split six games in December, including an infamous home loss to Texas Southern in what turned out to be Coach Mike White's final season.

Through 12 games last season (Golden's first on the UF sidelines), the Gators were 7-5 and without as much as a Quadrant-2 victory, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool ratings. This season, UF is 3-3 in games versus Q1 and Q2 opponents (with a Q1 win against Pittsburgh) and is staring at a stacked Q1 start to the SEC slate, including the first league opener against Kentucky in 25 years, followed by a trip to unbeaten and 24^th-ranked Ole Miss, back home against Arkansas (a Sweet 16 team last season), then back-to-back road games at No. 6 Tennessee and at Missouri.

"The growth of the program, and this team specifically, compared to last year's group is evident," Golden said. "Our personnel, our chemistry, and our competitiveness are all areas of improvement. We have many areas where we can keep improving, but I like where we are headed."

Preferably, toward perfection in December. And more good things from there.