Part I: A journey to a national title; Golden "We've got some dudes!"
I am 73 years old, son and grandson of wait until next year Gators who went to their graves longing to see the University of Florida win Southeastern Conference championships in both football and basketball. The years have taught me how precious the memories are of national championship seasons. Life is short and since you never know when the next one will happen, you savor those moments when the big trophies are hoisted as confetti rains from the ceiling.
Today and for the next several days, I want to take you on the journey that ended in San Antonio with a 65-63 win over Houston for Florida’s third NCAA basketball championship. Indulge me if you will because I don’t want the warm and fuzzy feelings of an entire season to go away anytime soon.
June 20, 2024. Gainesville
It’s the kind of day when you break into a sweat the moment you throw the sheets off. Todd Golden is waiting at Mi Apa when I pull into the parking lot.
Over breakfast the subject of the team he’s putting together comes up. “I like this team,” Golden tells me. “We’ve got some dudes.” Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard, Alex Condon, Tommy Haugh and Denzel Aberdeen are back from the 24-12 team that lost to Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Back also is 7-1 Micah Handlogten, who fractured his leg in the championship game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville back in March. “He’ll sit out,” Golden says. “He’s going to take the year to rehab and get stronger. When he comes back he’ll have more muscle. He’s going to be a beast.”
There is this teensy problem of replacing point guard Zyon Pullin and power forward Tyrese Samuel, one-and-done transfers who were vital to Florida’s 8-game turnaround in the win column. Samuel, who averaged 13.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in his one year after transferring from Seton Hall, made All-SEC. Pullin is a guy nobody really knows about since he played in the Big West Conference at UC-Riverside where he was an absolute stud. At Florida, he was second team All-SEC, averaging 15.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.
Those are huge losses, I tell Golden. I’m fishing for an answer. Over a 10-day span in April he landed three transfers – 6-9 Sam Alexis from Chattanooga, 6-10 Rueben Chinyelu from Washington State and 6-2 Alijah Martin from Florida Atlantic. Martin is the best known of the three because he was a driving force in 2023 when Florida Atlantic shocked the world by making the Final Four.
Golden explains that these three guys will make the Gators better defensively. It goes without saying improvement has to be made. The Gators were the No. 12 offensive team in the country per kenpom.com in 2023-24. Defensively, they were No. 94.
Nothing emphasized the need for more defense than the 102-100 loss to Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re going to be a lot better on defense, count on it,” Golden tells me.
Before we go in different directions after breakfast, Golden tells me he expects to add a couple more freshmen, most likely international players. Later in the summer he will land Urban Klavzar, a shooter from Slovenia who’s range is from the first step off the bus on in, and Viktor Mikic, a strong, physical 6-11 Serbian who spent a year prepping at Hamilton Heights Christian in Chattanooga, a school that has a solid history sending international kids on to bigger and better things.
I drive off thinking Todd Golden is extremely confident. He’s been that way since his introductory press conference in the lobby of the O-Dome in the spring of 2022, but this is different. He’s gone through two seasons, shown tremendous improvement from season one to season two, and now he’s four-and-a-half months from season three sounding like he has a seriously good team.
“We’ve got some dudes.” That bounces around in my brain. Something about the way Todd Golden said it makes me trust that he’s going to have a really, really good basketball team.
It has been a long, long time since I felt this good about Florida basketball in the offseason. Go back to the summer of 2010 when Billy Donovan was bringing back five starters – Chandler Parsons, Vern Macklin, Alex Tyus, Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton. That team could have won the national championship but they lost in the Elite Eight game to Butler in overtime when a 3-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out.
Monday, November 4, 2024, Jacksonville
Back in Jacksonville. Again. On Saturday, DJ Lagway got hurt just when it seemed the Florida football team was going to upset Georgia. Walk-on Aidan Warner finished the game and the Gators lost to Georgia. Again. 34-20 was the final.
Doom and gloom. That’s the feeling in Gainesville and wherever Gators gather. The Gators play Texas in Austin next followed by LSU and Ole Miss. Although there is good news Monday morning that Lagway is going to play again, sooner and not later, optimism is in short supply. Consensus is a fourth straight losing season is inevitable and Billy Napier shouldn’t be investing in real estate in Alachua County.
The VyStar Veterans Memorial basketball arena is about 1,000 or so yards away from the football stadium where the Gators were whomped by the Poodles. South Florida is the opening night opponent.
Walter Clayton Jr. will start at the point with Will Richard and Alijah Martin on the wings. The big guys will be Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu. Basically two returning starters although one (Clayton) is playing a new position. Three new guys. How are they going to blend together?
A few days earlier, Golden said, “Our goal is internally to be a top 40 defense.” Tall order when you consider so many new moving parts. Top 50 would be a big improvement. Top 40? Yikes, that’s optimistic.
It’s not a great crowd – 5,764 was the official attendance – but some of that could be hangover from football. Pre-game a lot of folks are talking more about football than the impending basketball game.
Once the game begins, you hear a lot of groans from the pro-Florida crowd. South Florida has a 13-point lead with 6:13 to go in the first half but that’s when Will Richard heats up. Richard scores 10 of Florida’s final 16 points but the Gators trail 40-39 at the half. The Gators hit only 3-18 from the 3-point line.
With ten minutes to go in the game, the Gators are up by a point, but that’s when the Gators go on a 13-0 run for a 76-62 lead that pretty much settles the issue. When the final horn goes off, the Gators are 1-0 with a 98-83 win over South Florida. Walter Clayton Jr. scored 29, Will Richard 25 while Alijah Martin and Alex Condon each had 13.
The Gators scored 98 points even though they went only 5-26 from the 3-point line.
Golden doesn’t sound happy post game. He shouldn’t be. Even though the Gators won by 15 and scored 98 points, they were sloppy and the defense was poor.
Thursday, November 7, 2024, Gainesville
The day begins with a vote of confidence for Billy Napier from UF athletic director Scott Stricklin. Football is still dominating the talk among the fan base and it shows at the O-Dome in the evening when the Gators beat Jacksonville, 80-61, behind a career-high 23 points by Alex Condon. The official crowd is 8,353, but there are maybe only 6,000 live bodies in the arena. The Gators kill the Dolphins in the paint with 46 points but once again the shooting from the outside is rather spotty (7-24 on threes). The defense is better.
Golden doesn’t sound happy post game when he says, “I think fundamentally we’re not great right now.”
Friday, November 8, 2024, Gainesville
Early morning I get a call from Bobby D’Alessio, who is in Austin for Florida’s football game with Texas. “Have you seen what’s in the Alligator?” he asks me. I haven’t. “Read it and call me back,” he tells me.
The Independent Florida Alligator has published that there is a Title IX complaint against Todd Golden filed by more than one woman. The complaint alleges cyberstalking, sexual harassment and exploitation among other things. The allegations are such that I wonder if Scott Stricklin will be holding a press conference to announce Golden’s suspension later in the day.
Bobby D is with Jeffrey Meldon, one of Golden’s close friends. I talk to Bobby, who is stunned. Then I call Jeffrey. “Not the Todd I know,” Jeffrey tells me. He worries out loud about Megan and the kids.
Buddy Martin and I talk on the phone. “What’s your gut telling you?” he asks me. “If it’s true, then Todd’s gone and I can’t see Scott Stricklin surviving. Billy Napier either.”
During the day I’m bombed with text messages that call the Florida athletic program a “dumpster fire” and that is one of the kindest. Most are calling for Golden, Stricklin and Napier to be gone. “Clean out the whole joint” seems to be the prevailing thought.
Maybe 10 texts come in with that oft-used line, “Believe the woman.”
Golden’s side of the story hasn’t been told but nobody seems to want to hear it.
UF issues a statement that says it will follow the facts, but Golden isn’t suspended. Things that make you go hmmm. Something seems fishy but the damage has been done. I wonder how this is going to affect the team. I wonder how Florida fans are going to deal with this? Will they withhold judgment until all the facts are out or will they do a virtual storm of Tigert Hall, demanding that Todd Golden be gone?
Saturday, November 9, 2024, Gainesville
Golden issues a statement on Twitter that doesn’t scream innocence, but he does say he has hired Tampa attorney Ken Turkel to represent him. Turkel won more than $100 million for Hulk Hogan in a defamation suit. Friends who know him say he doesn’t take a case unless he knows his client is innocent. When he wins, he wins big. For Turkel's opponents it is nuclear winter when he gets them in court. He is a shark and apparently he sees blood in the water because he's taken on Golden.
The text messages have slowed to a crawl, but I’m still getting some nastygrams. No buzzards are circling over the basketball facility, at least none yet.
Monday, November 11, 2024, Gainesville
Another doom and gloom Monday. The football team was blown out by Texas, Golden has a Title IX lawsuit and Grambling is in town for basketball. Paycheck game for the Tigers. Easy win (86-62) for the Gators, who put five in double figures, nobody with more than 12. The Gators outrebound the Tigers 45-24. Another lackluster crowd at the O-Dome (7,857) watches but when Golden was announced there were no boos or catcalls from the crowd. They watch poor shooting night from 3-point range (7-23) and good defense against a bad team. As expected it isn’t close. The Gators have way too much talent.
After the game, Golden is asked about the Title IX lawsuit. He has lawyered up and can’t say anything so he politely defers. He talks basketball, but is anyone really listening? This Title IX thing is serious and the Gators have just beaten a very bad basketball team.
The Gators are 3-0 with Florida State waiting in Tallahassee on Friday.
Friday, November 15, 2024, Tallahassee
The FSU crowd let Todd Golden have it when he was announced pre-game, but he didn’t let it faze him. Nor did the 20th-ranked Gators, who for a half looked like the team Golden was talking about back during the summer. The dudes showed up, a good thing because Leonard Hamilton-coached teams tend to beat teams into physical submission, especially in Tallahassee. On this night, the Seminoles do their best to turn the game into a rock fight, but unlike some Florida teams pre-Todd Golden, the Gators fight back. The Gators have bigger rocks.
Florida bolts to an 18-point lead by taking care of the ball, making open shots and playing the best defense of the young season. At one point it’s 37-19 in the first half, 44-31 at the intermission. Florida looks like a team that could win this game by 30. Or more!
Then comes the second half and the Gators get lazy with the basketball. FSU takes advantage of 11 UF turnovers in the second half and trims the lead to 77-73. Seminole fans think they are on the verge of a basketball equivalent of the Choke at Doak. Two Tommy Haugh free throws and a defensive stop lead to an 11-inch stiletto plunged into the hearts of every FSU fan on the planet. As the shot clock winds down within a split second of zero, Alijah Martin steps inside a 6-10 defender and lets fly with a desperation heave. It looks long when it leaves Martin’s hands but it hits the backboard.
And it goes in.
The FSU crowd is stunned. So are the Seminoles. Walter Clayton Jr. is inspired. He blocks a shot that Will Richard rebounds, then drills a three with 1:21 to go. With 21 seconds left he scores on a layup.
The Gators win, 87-74. We’ve seen a great half of basketball from the Gators and toughness to make game-winning plays when knuckles start turning white. What this game tells us is if the Gators ever put it all together for an entire 40 minutes they can beat a lot of VERY good teams.
Saturday, November 16, 2024, Gainesville
Maybe they were inspired by the basketball team, but the Gators scored a shocking 27-16 win over LSU at The Swamp. DJ Lagway was brilliant, but so was a pass rush that sacked Garrett Nussmeier six times. So much for an LSU offensive line that announcers bragged was as good as it gets in the country.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024/Friday, November 22, 2024, Gainesville
The Gators improve to 6-0 with an 84-60 win over FAMU and a 93-68 win over Southern Illinois. When I get home from the FAMU game I get a call from Haven Hospice telling me my stepfather, Dom Underwood, isn’t expected to live more than 1-3 more days. At 2:30 they call to tell me he opened his eyes, smiled at the nurse, swallowed and then passed away peacefully. I missed the Southern Illinois game but Saturday, I’m at The Swamp where the Gators win their second straight over Ole Miss, 24-17.
The Gator Boyz are hot, but so is the football team. I do my best to let the basketball and football teams dull the ache in my heart. I started writing sports for a daily newspaper when I as 13 in McComb, Mississippi. Sixty years and I can’t recall a time when I’ve had such a hard time focusing on what is going on. As happy as I am for the Gators, my heart is broken by the loss of such a good man who was my mom’s best friend, partner and husband for 52 years.
November 28, 2024/November 29, 2024, Lake Buena Vista
Two games at the Milk House at Disney against the two best teams the Gators have played so far, Wake Forest and Wichita State. There have been glimpses of things to come but the Gators have yet to play well at both ends of the court from start to finish of a game. Things are about to change starting with Wake Forest, a good team that is done in by Walter Clayton Jr. (21 points), Alijah Martin (16), Will Richard (14) and Alex Condon (12). Rueben Chinyelu (9), Condon (8) and Tommy Haugh (8) dominate the Demon Deacons on the boards as the Gators win the rebounding battle, 44-30. The defense is ferocious. Wake hits only 3-20 from the 3-point line. The Gators are a work in progress, but I’m really starting to believe that this team is really, really good.
It's even worse for Wichita State the next day, blown out by UF, 88-51. The Gators score at will and defensively they smother Wichita State. Clayton hits five 3-pointers and scores 19. He could have scored more. Condon goes 3-3 from the 3-point line as part of a 17-point, 9-rebound game. Chinyelu is a beast – 14 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots. Wichita State hits 29.8 percent from the field overall and just 5-22 from the 3-point line. The Gators dominate the rebounding 56-30.
Everybody knew Clayton, Martin and Richard could light it up. What we didn’t know was that the front line could dominate at both ends of the court. These guys can play some defense. What a concept.
November 30, 2024, Tallahassee
On a cold Saturday night in Tallahassee, the Gators won their third straight football game, blowing the doors off Florida State, 31-11. Billy Napier, whose head was perceived to be on the chopping block four weeks earlier, finished the regular season 7-5, ending all speculation that he wouldn’t be around in 2025. The Gators went on to beat Tulane 33-8 in the Gasparilla Bowl.
Back in 2005, the Gators blew out Florida State 34-7 in the final regular season football game at The Swamp. That team went on to beat Iowa in the Outback Bowl to finish 9-3. The night before the Gators beat FSU at The Swamp, the UF basketball team beat FSU 74-66 at the O-Dome. On Monday night the Gators beat Alabama State to finish November with a 6-0 record. From that beginning, the Gator Boyz went 33-6, winning their last 11 games and the 2006 national championship in Indianapolis.
Nineteen years later, the Gators beat FSU in football on the last Saturday in November. The basketball team finished the month 8-0, ranked 13th nationally. From that beginning the Gators went 36-4, winning their last 12 games as they captured Florida’s third NCAA championship in school history.
Let’s see, 6-0 November in basketball, a football win over FSU to finish the month and a season-ending 11-game winning streak that ended with the 2006 NCAA basketball championship. Nineteen years later an 8-0 basketball November, a football win over FSU on the last Saturday of the month and a season-ending 12-game winning streak that ended with the 2025 NCAA basketball championship.
Coincidence? I think not.
Tomorrow: A 5-0 December, a loss to Kentucky to start the new year and a 30-point blowout win over the No. 1 team in the country.
No one covers the Gators with such heart as you, Franz. Thanks for telling these stories. You are one if us but on the front row. I look forward to your column daily, but especially to reading the rest of this series.
Franz, on 14 Aug 24, I went to Golden‘s preseason Gators Caravan presentation in the O’Dome lobby. Obviously, at that time of the season, he didn’t want to say too much and consequently overinflate people’s expectations. But, you could tell, he was very optimistic about what was to come.
This year, I was fortunate to attend many of the great games in the O’Dome. As it was for you, it was a season I will always cherish and never forget. You’re right, you never know when one of these will come around again. I sure hope there are more soon, but “We’ll always have San Antonio.”
A lot of good stuff Franz- I look forward to the December recap
Thank you Franz! This recap is outstanding! Can’t wait for your December recap! Go Gators!