Great interview. I LOVED his vision for how to construct the team/program. I’m not sure if he is fooling himself or us, but we weren’t a tourney team when CC went down. That aside… really good. I also thought it was interesting he mentioned Alex Fudge would “have to accept a role”. Perhaps that hinted at what ultimately led to Alex’s decision.
I won't take exception with the statement that we were a tourney team when CC went down. We were on the bubble at that point and getting a little better in each outing. I'm confident we would have had 19 or 20 wins on Selection Sunday. Still on the bubble but maybe on the plus side of it. Clearly, Fudge wasn't ready to become a role player but it was almost a given. CTG says he was still trying to sign another guard and another big. When this interview was done, we hadn't yet lost Fudge nor signed Tyrese Samuel. That would make it a wash, but I'm going to think we're probably done with the hunt for another big. We got one we really wanted. I'm guessing we are still going hard after Tylor Perry. Love everything Coach had to say and it makes me feel really good about the direction of Gator basketball.
This interview though is another example of why I believe he can be a success here. He just gets it. If he gets something wrong it isn’t because he didn’t think something through, and will correct course where needed. And when he goes after a kid he has a good head to head record against some good coaches. He has all the tools in his toolbox to win, outside of maybe some help offensively. But as the roster becomes more his we will see more whether that was the players or the staff.
Golden is the best interviewee to listen to since Spurrier. He does seem to just “get it”. He exudes honesty and competence. He’s just fun to listen to. When he gets around to talking X’s and O’s, it’s even more fun. I hope he has enough success that our crazy fan base, which includes me, doesn’t run him off. Lets let the man coach but let’s also let him enjoy raising his family in a fantastic place.
I've been saying since mid season that CTG is going to be here for a long time. He is a great interview too. I'll be ecstatic if he doesn't ever go into coach-speak, ever, which I HATE.
He does say all the right things, he is young and dynamic. I hope he is the answer to turning basketball around. But until he wins, I not really to grant him sainthood.
Agree - and Confused, Colin played the next 4 games after the big Tenn win, we lost 3 of the 4. and with Colin, maybe we beat vandy the 2nd time we face them, but that's probably it. This team wasn't making the tournament and our schedule was brutal.
I think that we would have beaten UK at home and, possibly, Vandy plus at least a 1st round game in the SEC. That might have gotten us into the Dance.
I've been pretty negative this year for sure and still question the hirer. But, big but, the reality is/was our schedule this season was down right brutal for any team. Even you start the season, you think you are going to start off with a few cupcakes, and those cupcakes turn out to be very good basketball teams in Kennesaw State and Florida Atlantic. Throw in games against Xaiver, West Virginia, UCONN and Kansas State. I'm not sure how many teams would have survived that schedule along with the SEC normal schedule.
