Todd Golden went 16-17 in his first season on the Gators' sidelines.
Rebuild Vision Starts With Kugel, Richard
Thursday, March 16, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On Friday, it'll be one year ago to the day that Todd Golden was in Indianapolis coaching his University of San Francisco basketball team in first-round play of the NCAA Tournament, with an offer from Florida (as well as offers from three other Southeastern Conference schools) on the table. The Dons lost to Murray State in overtime that Thursday night and by Friday afternoon Golden had been named the 20th coach in UF history.
From that point on, it's been basically non-stop for Golden. He had to hire a staff, evaluate his roster, re-recruit whatever players he wanted to keep, make connections with high schools and AAU programs around the region, move his family across the country and check all the boxes associated with such a transition, including a deep dive into the transfer portal. He did so while holing up in an AirBNB with a couple of his new assistants for a couple months.
So forgive Golden for not having any definitive answers to the "Now what?" questions lobbed his way following Wednesday night's ugly 67-49 season-ending loss to Central Florida in first-round play of the National Invitational Tournament at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.
"We're gonna take or day or two. Catch our breath," Golden said. "It's been a long year."
Golden said he'll need 24 or 48 hours to decompress, but don't think for a second that so-called time won't be consumed with thoughts of what comes next for a Florida program coming off just the second losing season in the last 25 years. UF finished 16-17, dropping eight of its final 11 games, five of them after losing three-time All-Southeastern Conference forward Colin Castleton to a broken hand. The Gators went 9-9 in league pay, but checked in at 75th in the final KenPom.com advance metric rankings, the lowest since the service began in 2002. Florida's final NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking was 62nd, with a 2-13 record in the most challenging and so-called Quadrant 1 games and did so against the 22nd most difficult schedule in the nation.
When Golden and his assistants reconvene they'll take aim at a roster that will lose three fifth-year seniors in Castleton, point guard Kyle Lofton and off-guard Myreon Jones, a trio that started the bulk of the season together, plus a pair of backup wings in Kowacie Reeves and junior Niels Lane, who Thursday joined the now annual national flood of players entering the transfer portal. That's five scholarship vacancies. Expect more, with center Jason Jitoboh, who replaced Castleton in the starting lineup, plus a trio of backups in forwards Alex Fudge and CJ Felder and guard Trey Bonham weighing their options.
So much of what the Gators want to be in 2023-24 will depend on the status of guard Riley Kugel(24), who was the team's top offensive option the final month of the season.
When all the exit interviews and the decisions are done, the Florida roster, for certain, is expected to return sophomore guard Will Richard, the team's No. 2 scorer (10.5 per game) and rebounder (4.5 pg), reserve 6-foot-11 freshman center/forward Aleks Szymczyk (2.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg) and seldom-used freshman point guard Denzel Aberdeen (12 appearances, mostly in mop-up duty). UF will welcome incoming 6-9 forward Thomas Haugh in the fall and has a commitment from a 6-11 international player who has verbally committed to sign in April. That means the Gators could be looking to fill as many as seven scholarship spots or as few as three. On a team hurting for shooting, rebounding, size and toughness, the smart money is on a number closer to the former.
Whatever the case, those five for-certain goners (Castleton, Lofton, Jones, Reeves and Lane) accounted for 49 percent of the Gators' total minutes, 49.3 percent of their points, 40.1 of rebounds and 66.3 of assists. That's a big chunk of the stat sheet to fill in.
Oh yes, and then there's the situation with Riley Kugel, the talented freshman who blossomed into a true go-to guy the final month of the season.
Over the last 10 games, Kugel averaged 17.3 points, shot 49.6 percent from the floor and became the first UF freshman since Bradley Beal in 2012 to post 10 consecutive double-figure scoring games. The 6-foot-5 combo guard was an inconsistent 10-minute guy to start the season (even had a DNP in the team's SEC opener at Auburn), but became more confident and comfortable as the season progressed and grew into the Gators' primary offensive option after Castleton suffered his injury. Last week he was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.
Since his upward trajectory began, Kugel has been peppered with questions about his future. And while he's yet to appear on NBA draft boards, his skill set — specifically, an ability to create his own shot and vastly improved 3-point numbers (40.7 percent against SEC opponents) — translate well to the next level. There's also that other element of uncertainty (if not angst for the Florida coaches) at play.
Kugel, as a freshman, is a college free agent and can transfer anywhere without sitting out, if he so chooses.
So what's he thinking?
"I don't want to answer those questions at this time," Kugel said after the UCF game.
Added Golden: "We want Riley back. He's done a really good job for us, but I think there's a lot for him to build on, as well. We'll have a good conversation and see where it lands."
If Golden can coax Kugel to return and pair him again alongside Richard, the Gators will be set with two good offensive options on the perimeter. Richard, who transferred last spring from Belmont, shot 49 percent on the season, 40 percent from the 3-point line and nearly 86 percent of his free throws.
"Attack it hard, knowing that [the team is] going to rely on us a lot next year," Richard said of the impending offseason and the alpha roles both he and Kugel would inherit. "Just make sure we are leading and working hard every day, get each other better and make sure we set the tone."
Gators guardWill Richard (right), who played the last month of the season as an undersized "4" man, was one of the league's most efficient offensive players during his sophomore season.
By the time the summer rolls around, Richard and (the Gators hope) Kugel will be surrounded by a bunch of strangers who — in a perfect world — include some big aggressive rebounders, a couple very good outside shooters and another proven point guard.
"We'll take a look at everybody that's available out there and jump on the ones we think can help us win and continue to build the program," Golden said. "Again, we'll take a day or two to gather ourselves."
Last fall, Golden's big-picture goal for the Gators was a return to the NCAA Tournament. On the floor, he wanted a team that was solid on both ends of the glass, shot it well from the 3-point line and protected the ball. It was basically a mini-checklist of things the Gators did not do the season before he arrived.
The upshot: UF lost in the NIT, was out-rebounded by more than eight a game in league play, hit only 31.4 percent from distance (30.3 in '21-22 was the worst in program history) and was one of the better teams in the SEC at protecting the ball (but is losing its point guard).
So there's a lot of work to do.
"This team has done some things they can be proud of. Not the level of what I expect for this program as we moved forward, but making the NIT in Year 1 could be a lot worse," Golden said. "To make the postseason gives us something to build on a little bit knowing that the NCAA Tournament is going to be what we're OK with."
Here's betting Golden doesn't get much of a breather the next couple days. Here's betting he's checking out portal-player video right now.
