NEW YORK — Todd Golden was disappointed, make no mistake. Another game against a national championship-caliber opponent had fallen the other way. Yes, again. But melded into that disappointment early Wednesday morning was Golden's unbridled optimism about his 2025-26 basketball team that has struggled just enough in pivotal moments to be beaten.
"We're close," Golden said after fifth-ranked Connecticut handed his 18th-ranked Gators a 77-73 setback Tuesday night in their hyped meeting at Madison Square Garden. "We're right there."
So, how close?
UF lost the season opener to Arizona – which has since ascended to No. 1 in the polls – by six points at a hostile Las Vegas venue. In that one, the Gators missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game with 30 seconds to go.
Florida fell by one point last week at Duke, now No. 3 in the country, in a game the Gators led by two with 25 seconds left, only to lose by giving up a 3-pointer, then turning the ball over inside five seconds remaining.
Now add the UConn loss to the mix. The Gators played an outstanding first 10-plus minutes of the second half, then fell behind again after a rough eight-minute stretch, only to have possession, down just three and inside 10 seconds to go. They turned it over on a five-second violation on the in-bound play.
Roll in the four-point loss to Texas Christian in the Thanksgiving tournament at San Diego, a game UF led by 10 in the second half, and the Gators (5-4) have dropped four games this season – the same amount they lost during the entire 2024-25 national-championship season – by a combined 15 points.
Close? Absolutely.
But that and a couple bucks would have bought a street-meat hot dog outside Penn Station on the way out of town.
UConn senior guard Solo Ball scored 19 points and connected on five of six free throws over the final 34 seconds to help the Huskies (9-1) get out of a MSG with a victory in the nightcap of the Jimmy V Classic. The game not only brought together the last three NCAA champions, but also served as a rematch of last March's second-round, changing-of-the-guard tournament game won by the Gators in Raleigh, North Carolina, en route to the title. Fifth-year senior forward Alex Karaban added 13 points, with a couple big buckets and equally big blocked shot when the Huskies were on their way to closing out the victory.
UF was led by senior guard Xaivian Lee, the transfer from Princeton, who had 19 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals and no turnovers over 38 minutes. Lee went 5-for-14 from the floor, 8-for-9 from the free-throw line, but had another tough day from deep in making just one of seven from the 3-point line.
"I need to start making some [expletive] shots, that's what I need to do," said Lee, who is now shooting 26% overall and 20.3 from the 3-point line. "When I start making shots, were going to be so [expletive] good. Not to put pressure on myself, but it's true."
UF guard Xaivian Lee (1) lead his team with 19 points, but also played a complete floor game with six rebounds and five assists without a turnover.
UF shot 42% for the game, made only four of 15 (27%) from the arc and 19 of 27 free throws (70.4%) and turned the ball over 12 times leading to 17 points for the Huskies. UConn, meanwhile, made good on 50% from the floor, nearly the same from deep (8-for-18), with just nine turnovers. The Gators beat up the Huskies on the glass, 40-28, including 16-7 on the offensive end, but failed to take advantage with only six second-chance points. They missed some easy put-back opportunities, too.
"We just weren't able to capitalize and score," Golden said. "We know that one area we need to improve upon quickly is just being more efficient offensively and finding a way to find more baskets."
The Gators have shown they can do it in spurts, just not consistently. Take Tuesday. UF led by seven, 20-13, midway through the first quarter, then proceeded to miss 12 of its next 13 shots, while UConn – get this – was making nine straight. The Gators managed to keep in striking distance, trailing just 39-32 at halftime, despite shooting 30% to the Huskies' 59, including 5-for-10 from deep.
"They hit some tough ones in the first half," Golden said.
And the Gators did the same in coming alive in the second. Right away, in fact.
Eight minutes out of the locker room, UF took the lead when Thomas Haugh (18 points) buried a 3-pointer to put his team ahead 49-46, as the Gators hit eight of their first 11 shots, while defending the Huskies into 3-for-16 shooting to start the period.
Florida led 55-54 with eight minutes to play when UConn heated up again, thanks to a stretch of 10-for-12 shooting, with 3s from Karaban and Solo that pushed the Huskies on a 12-3 blitz and to an eight-point advantage with four-plus minutes to go.
Thomas Haugh(10) flushes a lob, with the foul, in the second half Tuesday for two of his 18 points.
The lead was still eight after free throws by Tarris Reed Jr. (12 points, 5 rebounds) at the 1:13 mark, but a mini-UF run of 9-4 over 50 seconds, assisted by a couple missed UConn free throws, closed the Gators within 74-71 with 23 seconds left after a putback by Alex Condon (14 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks). That still was the margin with 14 seconds remaining when UF forced Jaydan Ross into a turnover on the sideline in front of the UF bench, giving the Gators the ball trailing by three.
That's when point guard Boogie Fland could not inbound the ball and turned it over on a five-second call.
Golden was adamant the whistle was quick.
"I thought they called it early, man, to be honest," Golden said, adding that his staff timed the play at 4.6 and 4.7 seconds in the post-game locker room. "In a moment like that – I've been around the game for a long time – to get a call like that where it doesn't even get to 5 seconds … usually they give you an extra second, to be honest. Just a really, really tough pill to swallow."
Like the final outcome, which was made official when Ball hit one of two free throws to make it a two-possession game with 7.6 seconds to go.
There's that old saying; the one about "close" only counting in so-and-so. Basketball is not one of the so-and-so's.
Nonetheless, UConn coach Dan Hurley knew, even with the MSG home crowd advantage, that he'd just been in a dogfight that went down to the final minute against a coach and program with trophies on their resume.
"They're as good as anybody," Hurley said.
Maybe so, but they're still looking for some more validation to show for it. Golden believes they'll find it.
"I'm a pretty positive guy," he said.
The start to the Southeastern Conference season is still three weeks away. There's lots of work to do, but plenty to work with. Getting the backcourt in sync might be the first step to improving on "close."
"I think Boogie and I have had good games, individually, but we have to play well together – both at the same time," Lee said. "The bigs do what they do, but when it comes to crunch time we have to be a little more composed and execute better down the stretch. We're in all these games. We should be winning more, but we just have to keep our composure, settle down and execute better."
