Golden, Gators Confident in New Guard Duo

When Lee is sharing the court with Fland, he will be in an off-the-ball role, similar to the one Martin took up last season. 

“Honestly, having him off the ball to start and running different things for him out of the corner like we would do for Alijah last year, getting him downhill, going right, I think will really be good for our team,” Golden said. “With him playing off the ball, we want to get him in positions where he's a decisionmaker and a playmaker.”

His playmaking has already been on full display in practice in the early goings as well. 

“Yeah, Xaivian, excellent passer, one of the best passers I’ve ever played with, great vision,” junior forward Alex Condon said. 

As mentioned, though, neither is the same level of shot-maker as Clayton Jr, which slightly changes the way the Gators' offense will have to score. 

“So obviously we lost a lot of shot-making,” Golden said. “We don't have somebody that can make shots like Walt on this year's team, but not very many teams do. So we got to find different ways to kind of pick up that efficiency."

So, how will they do that? 

By continuing to push the pace, like Golden instructs his team, but also taking better care of the ball than his previous team. 

“I think Boogie and Xaivian, that's one of their best talents is how explosive they are in transition and their quickness in decision-making,” Golden said.

Golden said that by playing more in transition, it could help mitigate the lost efficiency from Clayton Jr.. 

“So if we can find a way to play 5% more of our possessions in transition, I think that would really help us be able to make up for some of that lost efficiency,” he explained. “I keep going back to the ball handling. We haven't done nearly enough job yet taking care of the ball. But Boogie had a great assist-to-turnover ratio last year. Xaivian was fantastic, and Tommy (Haugh) and those guys are great for frontcourt players in terms of taking care of it.”