Florida basketball opens up its 2026-27 campaign on Monday night against the Miami Hurricanes after playing a pair of preseason exhibition games — including a 17-point win over the Stetson Hatters on Tuesday.

On Thursday, head coach Todd Golden spoke with the press about his team's win over Stetson, while also providing a preview of the upcoming Miami matchup. Included in his Q&A session was the status of guard Boogie Fland, as well as AJ Lloyd and CJ Ingram, plus the play of Urban Klavžar and the Gators' bench, and what he expects from Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon this season.

Below is a look at everything Golden said as the Gators prepare to open up their new season.

What was kind of your message to the team after the win?

Pretty similar to what we said right after, in the sense of I thought we did some good things. After kind of letting the emotion die down and thinking about it, it's hard to really be too disappointed with a 17-point win when your starting point guard's out. And you don't really know who's going to be out till the day of the game, so you're not as organized.

There were things that — if the goal was to beat Stetson by the most amount of points possible, then we probably would have prepared a little differently. And again, as I said, I think they're pretty good. We'll see how they do in the A-Sun. I think they have legitimate high-major size, a really good pick-and-roll point guard, good floor spacers, and they played with great purpose.

So I think Stetson deserves credit for staying in the game and playing the way they did. As I said, I thought our starting group was really good — consistent across the board, plus-minus wise. Our reserves didn't give us as big of a lift as we need, and that's going to be something that we need some guys to step up before you know Monday and as the season starts.

But again, some good things. We've done a really good job taking care of the ball. I thought that'd be something that we needed to think about on Tuesday without Boog and the other guys stepped up. We did a good job that way. Got to rebound better. That's something that, over the last 60 minutes, we haven't been our best. And the ball started going in. We started shooting the ball better.

So big-picture wise, I think there's definitely some good things we can learn from. We need our bench to play a little bit better. But other than that, I think everything was pretty consistent."

Donnie Jones is obviously a good coach and had them prepared?

Yeah.

And you said you didn't scout them?

I wouldn't say that, but we didn't go anywhere near as in-depth as we probably did.

How's Boogie doing now, and could we see him Monday against Miami?

I would expect him to be out there on Monday. Still dealing with a little bit of the headache stuff, but we think he'll be ready to go.

What's the status on AJ? He was the only bench scorer in that first game against Baylor

Well, it's the exhibition season. So you want to try to see what all your guys have. I think we have a pretty good understanding of what AJ can provide for us, and wanted to see what Domen looked like, give Artie (Butajevas) some minutes, and see what Isaiah looked like.

Is there any progress with CJ?

Yeah, I mean he's improving. I wouldn't expect to see him on Monday night, though. If that's your question.

What is it going to take for the switch to flip a little bit with the guys coming off the bench?

Yeah, it's a good day. So I think him kind of going back to that six-man rule will give us a little bit of a spark. We talked about that after the (Baylor) game; (Urban Klavžar) got some good shots. He just didn't make them in that game, but I thought he played pretty well. And we'll see.

I think that's kind of the challenge is figuring out how to get guys comfortable, playing unafraid to fail and just kind of letting it all hang out a little bit. And we got to find that. We've had a really good camp, as I said. I think Isaiah is the one that we're kind of talking about a lot because he's proven it before, and we still have full confidence that he'll get ripping. And for him, I think it's a matter of time.

This team thrived in transition the last few years. Where do you see this team in respect to that right now?

I think we're going to be very good in transition. We got to get out and transition a little more, but I think that'll still be a pretty strong part of this team's DNA moving forward.

What do you see with Miami?

They are a top-10, -12 preseason team. They have a lot of talent across the board. They're pretty big, and they picked up some good pieces. I think they have a little more depth than they had last year. They played really well against Vandy.

They did have (Malik Reneau) in that game so that'll be interesting. He's going to play if he's healthy; he's going to be a big part of what they do. So I think it kind of changes how they play a little bit, but it's a great challenge. You know, it's kind of what we were hoping we would get out of opening the season with a team like that. We have two games of tape on them.

South Florida — they had a closed door, and then Vandy. They're a good squad. I think it's going to be a really good opportunity for us on opening night to play a team like that and kind of see where we're at.

What do you feel like are the keys for the game?

Pretty consistent with what they always are for us in terms of defending them at a high level and trying to win the glass and value the basketball. If we do that, as always, it gives us a good margin or error to not have to shoot an incredibly high percentage. Just kind of being good in those three phases will give us a really good chance to win the game.

The kill shot from the end of the game against Stetson – what did you see from the guys there?

I think we had a good stretch with our five starters in there for a little bit. I think that played a good role and big part of that. We guarded. I thought we guarded better in the second half. We weren't great, but we made some adjustments and put Tommy on the ball a little, which was really good for us.

Kind of affected their ability to get deeper in the paint. It hurt us in switch situations. That was good. You step back after the game and let the emotions from the game die down. We didn't play our starters nearly as much as we might in a game that is real.

When those guys were in the game, we were pretty dominant. Our plus-minus from the starting group was, I think all but one guy was over plus-15 in his minutes. We were doing some good things with that group out there.

What do you expect to see from Alex Condon and Tommy Haugh that you haven't seen?

I think they are doing their job. You always want more, and you always the vets to kind of take on more responsibility. I think both guys have done a great job of being leaders coming back. The concern, or some of the things that you worry about, is like, all right, they're coming back.

Like, are they going to continue to have the same mentality that's made them great for the first three years in terms of being themselves and putting the team first? I think they've been really good that way. Always probably want a little more vocal leadership from those guys because they've earned the opportunity to do that.

From a playing perspective, from a coachability perspective and just an overall program effort perspective, I think both those guys are hitting the mark.

Is vocalizing out of character for them?

I think Condo, he's more than capable. I think he's comfortable doing that. I think Tommy — I wouldn't say he's a natural vocal leader, but I think he's getting better in understanding that it's kind of an expectation that we have. So he's working hard at it right now.

On facing Somto Cyril and what he brings to Georgia

He's just a really good rim protector, really good athlete and great rebounder. A guy that, to his credit, helped Georgia win a lot of games last year, tournament team. A guy that we feel like we know really well by now. We have played him like five or six times. Just a really, really good athlete in the frontcourt that can change the complexion of the game with his rim protection and his athleticism.

On how poetic it is to start in Tampa

I haven't really thought about how poetic it is, to be honest. But it's a great place to play. We feel like we have a really good fan base there and we want to play really good teams in the non-conference. We want to play really good neutral games. I think they benefit both sides because they matter.

If you win those games, you get a lot of credit for it, whether it's in wins above the bubble. I don't feel like the committee punishes you for good opponents in neutral settings. So, just a good game for us and just that added storyline, so to speak, if we could go in there and play well.

On how the players have reacted to the preseason results

I think it was really good for us, coming in with a lot of expectation and probably thinking that we'd be really good regardless of what happens. Understanding that there's really good teams out there that are going to try to clip us every opportunity they get and we'll probably get every team's best shot.

I think it probably humbled all of us a little bit and helped us make sure that we go into the season with the right attitude and mentality. I think it's been healthy for us.

On the media questioning UF about games that don't count

I agree.

On the critiques that come with being preseason No. 1

I think it's probably like an unintended consequence of playing exhibition games. In the past, we've always had these games close doors. And so, you guys or the public wasn't watching, so it was hard for you to critique something you didn't see. Now you get these opportunities to see us before we're a finished product.

Obviously, this last game without our point guard, trying some different things, seeing if it works, doesn't work. And as I said last time, we're out there. We're in the heat of the battle. We're trying to compete and find a way to win. So, it does matter from a competitive standpoint. The results don't matter in regard to how it will affect our season moving forward.

But I think ultimately, we have an opportunity to use it to really help us going into the beginning of the year.

On Walter Clayton Jr. landing with Dallas

I'm really happy for him. He had kind of cut it down to two organizations that he was going to go to, either of which I thought would be really great fits for him. Because I thought he would've been really comfortable and believed in the direction and the way that the organization competes. And there's no doubt about the comfort that he has in Dallas.

Obviously, he knows Dusty. Obviously, he lived with Jack, who was a teammate of his. So, he knows who Dusty is and what Dusty is about. I think he was able to talk to and get a great feel from the front office of what the expectation was. And to Dallas' credit, they've held their word in terms of what the opportunity would be that was provided to him.

And I feel like he's doing a good job taking advantage of it. He didn't shoot the ball well last night, but he's playing 15 minutes in a game where he beat the Thunder. Didn't shoot it well, but played a great floor game. He was great in that Miami game. He looked like he did when he played for us in that game.

The NBA's a business, man. Different organizations are trying to accomplish different things and I think sometimes for younger guys, it's hard for them to understand where that business part falls in. Trying to win, trying to tank, trying to do these different things. The Dallas Mavericks are trying to win.

So, to be a part of that, I think he can really get behind that and his belief in Dusty and the organization is really strong.