Golden still looking to solidify his bench rotation

Florida coach Todd Golden sits with his assistants on the bench during the Stetson exhibition at the O'Connell Center on Oct. 27, 2026. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media.

Five days. That’s not much time to find answers to the numerous questions that have been raised by the Gators’ performance in three preseason exhibition games. Wins over North Florida and Stetson from the lightly regarded Atlantic Sun Conference and a loss to Baylor, consistently among the top teams in the Big 12, did little to reinforce Florida’s consensus preseason No. 1 national ranking. The three games weren’t without their moments when it was easy to see the potential, but there are unmistakable gaps between the top six players on Todd Golden’s roster and the nine other players vying to become part of the rotation starting Monday when the regular season begins in earnest with 14th-ranked Miami in Tampa.

Last night’s 85-68 win over Stetson at the O-Dome provided a perfect window into what Golden sees and it’s a familiar picture, a reminder of the November struggles of a year ago when the Gators were trying to make all the moving parts fit together. Playing without Boogie Fland, who Golden said was “under the weather,” Florida’s five starters combined to score all but four of the 85 points. At full strength when they lost to Baylor in overtime in Jacksonville ten days ago, the starters and sixth man Urban Klavzar were responsible for 73 of the Gators’ 76 points.

The recurring theme of an inadequate bench certainly got Golden’s attention.

“The message that I talked to the team about in the locker room is we had some struggles early in the year last year, but we got really good when our bench started playing better and when we went to the bench, there was no drop off,” Golden explained.

Here is the stat line for the five starters against Stetson who combined for 81 points, 19 rebounds, 12 assists, five steals and four blocked shots. They shot 31-59 overall from the field, 11-21 from three and 8-13 at the foul line.

Tommy Haugh: 14 points, seven rebounds, one assist and one steal. Haugh was 5-9 from the field, 1-3 from the three-point line and only 3-7 on foul shots.

Alex Condon: 15 points, nine rebounds, five assists, one steal and four blocked shots. He was 6-12 from the field, 0-1 on his lone three-point attempt, and a perfect 3-3 at the foul line.

Rueben Chinyelu: Six points, eight rebounds, one assist and one steal. He was 3-8 from the field and didn’t get to the foul line.

Denzel Aberdeen: 22 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. He was 9-12 overall from the field, 4-5 from three and didn’t get to the foul line.

Urban Klavzar: 24 points, one rebound and one assist. He went 8-14 overall from the field, 6-12 from the three-point line and 2-3 on his foul shots.

Now for the bench: 2-6 overall from the field, 0-6 from three, 0-2 from the foul line, seven rebounds, five assists, one steal and one blocked shot.

The Gators played with an eight-man rotation especially from the SEC portion of the schedule onward a year ago with Haugh, Condon, Chinyelu, Fland and Xaivian Lee the starters and Klavzar, Isaiah Brown and Micah Handlogten coming off the bench. Lee (Gonzaga) and Handlogten (Ole Miss) are seeking a fifth year from the NCAA. With Denzel Aberdeen returning after a year in exile at Kentucky to replace Lee, the Gators have a quality starting lineup that is as good or better than any in the country. Klavzar, last year’s SEC Sixth Man of the Year, regained his shooting touch against Stetson. Of the six misses from the three-point line, three were rush jobs to beat the shot clock. Think of him almost as the designated shooter.

The top six guys are rock solid. Beyond them, there are far more questions than there are answers at this point.

“Getting two of those three (Klavzar and Isaiah Brown) back we felt like we'd be in really good shape with our bench and just hope that one of these other guys would step up,” Golden said. “Urby's gonna be fine. I feel like I was pretty consistent about that after the Baylor game (0-10 from the field, 0-7 from three). I think he showed it tonight. We don't have to worry about that shooting effort being the issue, but we need Isaiah to play better. I think that's very clear to see. The message that I'm talking to you guys about, I talked to him about in the locker room and then we need somebody else to step up too. We need eight or nine guys to get through the season."

Isaiah Brown looked indecisive in the games against Baylor and Stetson. During the SEC portion of last year’s schedule, he was an explosive finisher at the rim and a constant jolt of energy on the defensive end. CJ Ingram once again didn’t suit up due to lingering low back issues. He saw more and more playing time in the final few games of the season and is expected to be an athletic multi-position performer off the bench.

Golden has been unable to evaluate Ingram’s progress due to the injury. There are concerns about Isaiah Brown.

“It’s really hard to be good, and I think we have a lot of expectation and pressure on us this year, being the preseason No. 1 team in America,” Golden said. “I think he's just struggling with that a little bit. I think it's that simple. I think he's working the right way. He's a great dude, reliable teammate, but he's obviously not playing with the same confidence or explosiveness that we're used to seeing. And I told him and told the team we need him to step up. Like we need, we were counting on him being a big part of this team, with him coming back, playing 12 to 15 minutes a game in league play last year, and being one of the most efficient bench players in the whole SEC. So I still have great confidence in him. I think he's going to turn it around, but we need it to happen sooner than later."

The Handlogten minutes are going to be difficult to replace. He was a 7-1 rim protector who was one of the better offensive rebounders in the conference. When he came into the game to replace either Chinyelu or Condon there was very little dropoff in the efficiency at both ends of the court.

Viktor Mikic (6-11) had 10 rebounds in the exhibition win over North Florida, but played a combined 2:15 in the Baylor and Stetson games. Freshman Arturas Butajevas (6-10) didn’t play against Baylor and was in for 3:58 against Stetson. Domen Petrovic (6-9) is more of a hybrid whose perimeter offensive skills are good enough that he won’t see extended minutes in the paint. Mikic, Butajevas or freshman Jones Lay (7-0), who didn’t play, needs to be capable of providing at least a few tall minutes otherwise the Gators will have to play smaller.

“As a staff just talking out there, Arty’s the one we think could really come on and really give us some good minutes as the season goes on,” Golden said.

Petrovic was a willing rebounder, but tentative on the offensive end. In the first half he passed up at least three open shots from the perimeter, perhaps a sign that he’s trying to fit in as a teammate rather than focus on things he does well when he’s got the ball in his hands.

Petrovic missed a three badly in the second half, but did show off a nifty Euro-step move off a drive for an easy bank shot. It appears he is still adjusting to the tempo and intensity of the college game since coming to UF from Slovenia.

“I thought Domen was fine,” Golden said. “Want to be probably a little more aggressive on the offensive end, just in terms of looking for his three-point shot. Cleaned up the glass a little bit, which helped us. Defensively, I thought was okay. I thought he was solid, good night for him."

He could be a good piece of the final puzzle that will require Isaiah Brown to regain his explosive mojo and a healthy Ingram for the Gators to be at their best. AJ Brown, who didn’t play against Stetson, has been a career three-point bomber in his Ohio U life before Florida so that’s another potential answer to questions off the bench. Alex Lloyd got a dunk off a steal but went 0-4 from three. His play in team scrimmages has been encouraging but he has to prove he can get it done in real time against someone other than his own team.

Rebounding has to get better. Free throw shooting (30-52 in the Baylor and Stetson games) definitely has to improve. There has to be more intensity on the defensive end.

Finding answers to these questions might take more than the five days between now and Monday’s Miami matchup, but it isn’t like this is a blank canvas for Golden. And, it isn’t like an exhibition game to bring out the best in a very talented team. The overall intensity should ratchet up significantly when games are meaningful.

“I just think that's the reason why we have these exhibition games,” Aberdeen said. “I'm not trying to take it as a bad thing, but just seeing what we've got to work on, what we've got to learn from here on out. Now it's regular season. Now there's no more practice games, if you want to call it that. So now we've got to step it up and we've got a really good team coming next week.”