Florida head coach Todd Golden hasn't been shy to express his frustrations with officiating so far this season, and he's gone on rants in now two of the Gators' marquee losses. On Tuesday night, Florida dropped its second game in a row against a top-five opponent, losing to No. 5 UConn 77-73 at Madison Square Garden. The Gators came into the year in the discussion for being the best team in college basketball, but early on, it looks like they're really feeling the losses of guards Walter Clayton Jr. and Denzel Aberdeen from their 2025 national title squad.
After the game, Golden spoke to the media, once again expressing his frustrations about the officiating. He did the same thing against Duke after the Blue Devils took down the Gators 67-66 last week. Now at 5-4 on the young season, the excuses are piling up for Golden's team.
Todd Golden rips officiating once again after Florida's 77-73 loss to UConn
Florida was down 76-73 with under 10 seconds to go, and forced an inbound turnover on the Huskies to retain possession and potentially tie the game. However, the Gators couldn't even get the ball in, as they were called for a five-second violation, handing the ball right back to UConn. Admittedly, it did seem like a fairly quick call in the moment, as officials are usually pretty generous with the five-second whistle. Nonetheless, Florida ended up falling to UConn, throwing away its last opportunity to extend the game, and Golden gave his two cents on the officiating.
"I challenge everybody to time it and see what they come up with," Golden said. "We timed it in the locker room, and we got 4.6 and 4.7 (seconds)."
This was a similar rant Golden went on after Florida's loss to the Blue Devils, where he took a shot not only at the officiating but at the Duke program in general.
"I told our guys, to win in a place like Cameron, you’ve got to outplay Duke by 10 points because you’re not going to get any 50-50 calls," Golden said after the loss to Duke. "Things aren’t going to go your way, and we certainly had a little bit of that tonight. Again, overall, I thought we played a good game."
Florida's head coach hasn't been hesitant to blame the refs after the Gators' big time losses, and it makes Duke's win over Florida that much sweeter for Duke fans. In fairness, Golden's complaints aren't completely unwarranted, as the five-second call against UConn could've been premature, and there were some bogus calls in the matchup against Duke. Nonetheless, it's never a good look for a premier head coach to constantly blame the officials in close losses.
Florida is currently ranked No. 22 in the NET, with a combined 2-4 record in Quadrants 1 and 2. It's been a slow start to the 2025-26 campaign for the reigning national champs.