A shocking three-pointer and a controversial final pass doom Florida. Coach Todd Golden questions a split-second decision that cost them the game.
Florida head coach Todd Golden didn't like the way his team played the final two possessions of their 73-72 loss to Iowa on Sunday night.
The No. 9 Hawkeyes played a much more physical contest than the No. 1 seed Gators, knocking out the defending champs in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Golden wanted his team to foul Iowa on their final offensive possession, hoping to force Alvaro Folgueiras to knock down two free throws to tie the game with four seconds.
Instead, Folgueiras drained a three-point shot to shock the crowd for 14,717 at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida.
With four seconds to go, Florida's Xaivian Lee quickly made his way down court and had an opportunity to make a tough but makable play at the rim to give the team a one-point win.
Instead, he tried a dump-off to Thomas Haugh that wasn't as clean of a pass as he would have liked, and UF failed to attempt a shot before time ran out.
Golden told reporters after the game in his news conference that he would have rather Lee finished at the rim rather than try to pass in that situation. At worst, Lee should have been shooting two free throws at the line.
"I would have preferred him to obviously get to the rim on that," Golden said, via 247Sports. "I thought he had a good advantage on the guy that was defending him.
"His defender was not in a legal guarding position, so I feel like if he would have kind of jumped back into the body and shot a lay-up, we would have either scored it or got fouled.
Golden thought, like the play that allowed Folgueiras to get free for a three-point shot, his guys failed to calculate correctly on a "split-second" decision.
"But a split-second decision, he's out on the floor," Golden said. "And he obviously played a really good game for us tonight.
"We've got to live with the results on that, but I thought he did a good job getting around his guy. I would have loved to have seen him go finish it."
Those moments were crucial, but Golden pointed out that there are 60 other possessions during the game that are just as important, but won't be put under the microscope like what happens in the final minute of a game.