Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – What is your enduring image of the 2023-24 Florida basketball season? An exasperated Todd Golden dealing with officials during the season-ending loss to Colorado in the NCAA Tournament? The forearm shove to Zyon Pullin as time expired? Walter Clayton's tearful face draped in his jersey after willing his team back into the game? 
 
Or perhaps you'll go the other direction. How 'bout Golden doing the Gator chomp as the seconds ticked off in the win over Texas A&M to put UF in the Southeastern Conference Tournament title game? The Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center crowd wailing during the very first basketball rendition of "Won't Back Down" late in a Senior Night blowout of Alabama? The overtime shootout and road upset at Kentucky? 
 
Plenty of options, for sure, as is the case for all seasons. But one thing UF fans can agree on is that the men's basketball program in Year 2 under Golden, just 38, took a significant turn in the right direction, what with an eight-game improvement; from a losing record and NIT first-round flame-out to 24 wins to a spot in the league championship game and pulsating, last-second defeat in opening-round play of the NCAA South Region. 
 
"A good building-block season for us," Golden said after the seventh-seeded Gators fell 102-100 to the No. 10-seed Buffaloes at Indianapolis Friday. "Our hope is to continue to raise the bar as we move forward." Golden's inaugural Florida season ended on March 15, 2023 with an ugly 67-49 home loss to UCF in the NIT. Those Gators finished 16-17, marking the program's first losing season since 2014-15 (just the second in 25 years). Golden and his staff wasted little time flipping the roster, with only four scholarship players – out of 10 – invited to stick around. 
 
It was a lesson Golden learned the year before, when he was hired after Mike White left to become coach at Georgia. One of Golden's mentors is Kyle Smith, now head coach at Stanford. Smith gave Golden his first assistant's job at Columbia in 2013. He hired Golden away from Auburn to make him associate head coach at San Francisco in 2016, then lobbied for Golden to be his successor upon leaving for Washington State in 2019. 
 
Smith always believed that players who wanted to stay in a program, especially after a coaching change, deserved that option. Golden tried that in his first year at Florida and it didn't work out. Going against this unwritten rule, you might say, was one of Golden's first acts in putting his stamp on dictating the culture he wanted. 
 
Last spring, four players were encouraged to transfer and did so. Another turned pro, two more were fifth-years done with their eligibility. Those seven were replaced by six incoming transfers (four of whom contributed), plus a trio of freshmen (two that played), and the end result was the program's winningest team in seven years at 24-12 (including 11-7 in SEC play), the first NCAA berth since 2021 and a crowd-pleasing offense that produced the highest-scoring team in Florida basketball history (85.6 points per game).

CHARTING THE GATORS: Golden's record-setting scoring squad 
Here are the five highest-scoring offenses in the 107-year history of Florida basketball. 

Points (per game)	Season	High scorer (points per game)	Highlight
85.6	2023-24	Walter Clayton Jr. (17.6)	Dominating run to SEC Tournament championship game
84.2	1986-87	Vernon Maxwell (21.70	Gators' first NCAA Tournament season ends in Sweet 16
83.8	1999-2000	Mike Miller (14.1)	UF falls to Michigan State in program's first NCAA final
81.8	1974-75	Gene Shy (15.8)	Losing record overall and in SEC, but upset No. 4 Kentucky
81.1	1976-77	Bob Smyth (15.1)	Went 10-8 in SEC for first league winning record in 9 years

Now Golden has to do it again, which means replacing – at least – two outstanding fifth-year players who helped establish not just a winning, but a get-along culture. 
 
First-team All-SEC point guard Zyon Pullin (15.5 points per game, 4.9 assists, just 1.3 turnovers) was plucked via the portal from California-Riverside and became an elite floor general. Second-team All-SEC forward Tyrese Samuel (13.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg), by way of Seton Hall, anchored the front court and helped make the Gators one of the nation's best rebounding teams. Their departures will be significant.
 
"These guys laid a great foundation for us," Golden said. 
 
Also gone is fifth-year guard Julian Rishwain, who never recovered from knee surgery after transferring from San Francisco and logged zero minutes in SEC play. That's, for certain, three scholarship vacancies that will need to be filled. 
 
There likely will be more, with all eyes on Walter Clayton Jr. 
 
Clayton, the transfer from Iona, was spectacular in pouring in a career-high 33 points – 26 in the second half, including his team's last 16 – as the Gators rallied from 13 points down over the final four-plus minutes in the tournament. His 35-foot 3-pointer with nine seconds left tied the game at 100, which made KJ Simpson's baseline dagger (and forearm to Pullin) all the tougher to stomach. Clayton led UF in scoring at 17.6 points per game during '23-24, shot 43.2 percent overall, 36.4 on a team-best 93 makes from distance and led the squad at 87.7 from the free-throw line (and tied the school-record with 42 straight along the way). His situation is going to take some time to sort out, as Clayton, who became a father in December and now has a family to support, is expected to go through all the NBA evaluation process. Offensively, Clayton is an elite player. Any negative feedback he gets from the pros likely will focus on his defense. Whether that's enough to get Clayton back for his final year of college eligibility is something he'll have to determine; something his coaches will have to wait out. 
 
Oh, and NIL considerations will be a factor, as well. And not just for Clayton. 
 
The return of guard and two-year starter Will Richard (11.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, 34.5 from 3, 80.2 at line), as well as blossoming sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen (20 points off the bench against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament) and freshmen forwards Alex Condon (7.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg, team-best 45 blocks) and Tommy Haugh (3.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg), a pair of outstanding young building blocks, are pretty much certainties. All four will have huge roles in '24-25.
 
And then there's Micah Handlogten (5.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg), the sophomore 7-foot-1 center and team's second-leading rebounder who fractured his left leg in the SEC title game against Auburn. He's vowed to return, but whether that means in six months, eight months, 10 months or even a year – given the severity of the injury – is impossible to pinpoint right now. Handlogten makes five for-sure scholarship guys back. 

Remember, though, that roster-building is now a two-way street, what with players free to transfer with no restrictions. A player wants a clear vision of his role (and worth) to the program.
 
Which brings us to Riley Kugel, whose status figures to be complicated. 
 
Kugel, of course, was a preseason All-SEC selection listed on numerous NBA mock drafts as a first-round pick. The sophomore guard had back-to-back games in November losses of 25 points against Baylor and 24 against Wake Forest, respectively, but things got rocky from there, with his role (and minutes) slashed drastically as the season went on. He played 19 minutes at Georgia, then three three days later at Alabama; 29 at South Carolina, then 10 at home against Alabama. Kugel went 6-for-6 from the line in the last 15 seconds of the SEC Tournament to preserve a defeat of Georgia, then had two DNPs in the semifinal against A&M and in the final against Auburn. 
 
It's possible Kugel, who averaged 9.2 points (fifth on the team) and played some very good defense, could pursue his professional options. He also could hit the portal and be a much-sought player with name recognition. Whatever the decision, it figures to come after a serious sit-down with the staff and a review of what was a roller-coaster season for the uniquely talented Kugel, probably the best athlete on the team. 
 
The status of two international underclassmen, sophomore forward Aleks Szymczyk and freshman point guard Kajus Kublickas, will be evaluated, as well. By the staff and the players.
 
Szymczyk, the 6-foot-10, 255-pound sophomore from Germany, had some moments as a freshman last year following the season-ending injury to Colin Castleton, but broke his foot in preseason. Though cleared to return to action, "Shimmy" had some recurring discomfort that had him on and off the practice floor. He sat out the season and would be eligible to apply for a medical redshirt, which would make him a third-year sophomore. 
 
UF signed Kublickas, by way of Lithuania, as insurance behind Pullin last summer. Kublickas, who did not arrive until the start of fall semester, played just 35 minutes in nine games, but was a mainstay on the "white" second-unit team (with Haugh, Condon and Aberdeen) during practices and has a clear understanding of the offense. The decision to return probably will be his, but the Gators definitely will look to add competition on the ball. 
 
Florida has signed one incoming freshman in 6-5 off-guard Isaiah Brown, who averaged 18.1 points for Class 2A state runner-up Orlando Christian Prep, including a high-game of 45.  So, at the very least, the Gators will have four scholarships to fill, with the staff expected to mine the portal for a veteran point guard and post player (maybe two, given the uncertainty with Handlogten), plus depth and shooting on the perimeter. "Veteran point guard and post player" means established guys with numbers on their resumes (like Pullin and Samuel). And if players leave, more portal prospects will be contacted. There will be no shortage of candidates available, what with the portal expected to rise to nearly 2,000 prospects, like it did last year.
 
This time last March, no one had a clue what the Gators would look like in 12 months, with only four guys back. With a solid nucleus returning, the picture is a little clearer this time around, but changes – and more new faces – are definitely on the way.

The Florida staff has shown it knows how to rebuild. Now the Gators have to show it again. That's the college basketball offseason in 2024. 
 
"Really proud of where this program is right now, the way this team played all year," Golden said Friday. "The goal is that these younger guys will continue to grow and get better, and we'll find guys that are the right fit with great attitudes and great work ethics and really want to be Gators. We'll continue to build that way because it's what I believe in and it's worked for us."