Todd Golden on Florida’s stunning loss: ‘Did a poor job executing on both ends in the last 2 minutes’
Published:
Todd Golden was mighty proud of his Florida players but also appropriately critical of what they didn’t do in the final sequences of Sunday night’s stunning upset loss to Iowa in the South Region second-round thriller in Tampa.
His top-seeded Gators were sent packing really early in this NCAA Tournament, short of the Final Four and even short of the Sweet 16, as No. 9 seed Iowa took a 12-point lead in the second half, took Florida’s best blows in a predictable comeback attempt, then fired the final shots in the massive 73-72 upset that sent shock waves around college basketball.
It was an intense night in Tampa, with the teams and even coaches having to be separated during the first half. Golden and Iowa head coach Ben McCollum exchanged words before being separated, and once cooler heads prevailed the teams fought down to the wire, with Florida taking a 72-70 lead and needing 1 stop to get to Houston and the Sweet 16.
Golden admitted to reporters in the postgame press conference that Florida was trying to foul when Iowa inbounded the ball with 8.9 seconds left. But the Gators defense got lost on the play, and the ball found Alvaro Folgueiras all alone in the right corner, where he buried a 3-pointer and buried Florida’s repeat dreams along with it.
“Did a poor job executing on both ends in the last 2 minutes. On the last play, we wanted to take a foul to prevent them from getting off a (3-pointer). They got away from us. We weren’t able to take it. They knocked it down, so credit to them for that,” Golden said. “Just a tough way to go out. … Tough one for us to swallow. We’ll be thinking about this one for a while.”
Of course, Golden added that he was really proud of his players in coming back after a championship run last year and getting a second straight No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But it wasn’t his team’s night, and it turned out that it wasn’t Florida’s season, either.
Florida won’t be returning to the Final Four for a shot at a repeat title next month, but here is what the Kalshi market is currently seeing for the top teams in the mix to get to Indianapolis:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
