Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said Friday that he was hoping to “beat the pants off” Florida, despite the Gators being coached by a former assistant of Pearl’s in Todd Golden, who served as an Auburn assistant under Pearl from 2014-16.

However, come Saturday afternoon’s game from Florida’s Stephen C. O’Connell Center, the Gators were the ones doing the beating as they topped the 12th-ranked Tigers in a dominating, 81-65 win to drop Auburn to 19-5 (8-3 SEC).

Here’s everything Pearl said following Saturday’s loss in Gainesville.

OPENING STATEMENT: “Congratulations to Florida. They were great and really well prepared. They were more physical. They didn’t turn the ball over; they took great care of the ball. Defensively, we weren’t as effective. We only had one steal. We turn people over 13 or 14 times a game, and we score off our turnovers. We only had seven turnovers. So what we were doing defensively did not disrupt them. This was a game that I felt like if we could be close that maybe there was some more pressure on Florida — they needed to win this game, obviously. The prize on our head is huge coming in with the math and where we are in the NET or whatever. It’s a big win and a big number for Florida, getting them in a great position.

They play with great confidence. I knew they’d start well both halves, I just didn’t think it would get away from us as much as it did. Give Florida all the credit. To blame my team because we didn’t do this, we didn’t do this — would take away from one of the top five teams in the league. I think, been through and seeing almost everybody, Florida will finish in the top five.”

ON AUBURN’S STRUGGLES ON DEFENSE: “They were several things that we game-planned to do that we didn’t actually do. Second thing is, Florida’s guards are good. Like, really good. As good as anybody’s guards. When (Zyon) Pullin plays — I don’t know what guard is better than Pullin when he has a one-on-one matchup. You tell me who’s better than Pullin in his one-on-one matchup. You tell me who’s a better scorer than Clayton. I don’t know if they’re going to lose those matchups very often. And then, you know, Kugel’s playing better now, coming off the bench. He’s going to win most of those matchups. The frontline is big and athletic. They’ve got some pieces.”

ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH TODD GOLDEN: “I love Todd. I love him to death. I’m so proud of him. You all know him in the community now. You understand what you’ve got. You’ve got a brilliant young coach, highest character, unbeliveable family, kids are playing for him, he cares about the kids, do it the right way. He’s one of the best young coaches in all of college basketball, and he’s here at Florida. I knew that. I was grateful I had a chance to actually talk to some people at Florida when they were deciding. Playing the right way, playing really hard, playing together. They’re good. I root for them every single night except for when they play us.”

ON WHAT HE TOLD FLORIDA OFFICIALS DURING GOLDEN’S HIRING PROCESS: “‘Who’s better?’ One of my messages was just, ‘Stop. You tell me who’s better? Who’s got a better basketball mind? Who has a better relationship with the kids? Who’s got a better family? OK, maybe you’re not sure if he’s got enough experience. That’s fine.’ I didn’t have to convince anybody at Florida. I think they knew what they had.”

ON AUBURN’S STRUGGLES IN GAINESVILLE: “You know what I’m paying for? I’d like to find out what my record is here. Marlene, if you don’t mind? But what I’m paying the price for was my first two years at Tennessee — Dane Bradshaw and that crew beat the two-time national champion Florida Gators two out of three times. It doesn’t get talked about, so I have to talk about it every now and then.

No, look: This is one of the hardest places to win in the league. By the way, they haven’t lost but one game at home — to Kentucky, and they probably should’ve won that one. They’re probably not gonna lose at home again. They’ve got Alabama coming in.

I would have liked to have played better. I would have liked to have it be competitive. It wasn’t.”

ON WHETHER AUBURN’S SHOOTING STRUGGLES WERE THE RESULT OF POOR SHOT SELECTION OR JUST AN OFF GAME: “Eh, a little bit of both. Little bit of both. Florida’s defense was really good. Their length really bothered us. Didn’t execute particularly well. Their length — they’re really long.”

ON AUBURN’S POSTING A SEASON-LOW ASSIST NUMBER: “Well, the assists were down. Part of it was we didn’t play very good inside-out basketball. We played inside-get-your-shot-blocked basketball. That wasn’t what the game plan was. So we needed to do a better job of inside-out passing, penetrate-and-pitch. We weren’t very sharp offensively.”

ON FLORIDA FORCING TURNOVERS: “Yeah, I think their length was really good. They played really hard. They played physically. The game itself was, I think it was chippy, and that’s part of the game. I thought they were the more physical team. The physicality disrupted us a little bit, so.”

ON IF THE EMOTIONS OF THE WIN OVER ALABAMA PLAYED A FACTOR IN THE LOSS: “I appreciate the question, and I will say this. When you’re out of the bye week, and Florida obviously had the bye week. They played Saturday at Texas A&M. Saturday night, they’re thinking about their next game. It’s Auburn. Sunday night, their next game’s Auburn. Monday night. Tuesday night. Wednesday night. Those guys, they had five nights to think about their next game against Auburn, and they looked like it. They were ready to go.

We played Alabama on Wednesday night. Prior to that, we’re thinking about Alabama, as you should; take it one at a time. And then the guys come in Thursday. Can’t really do much after such a hard-fought, hard-played game Wednesday night, so we get a little bit done Thursday. We leave, fly out at 3 o’clock in the afternoon Friday, so we practiced a little bit on Friday, a couple hours. So we had Thursday night and Friday night. We had two nights, they had seven nights.

I just think from the standpoint of emotions and being ready, it did look like we were a little fatigued and weren’t quite as sharp. But that’s the grind of the schedule. You’ve got to race the grind. I would say on bye weeks, the team that has the bye weeks should travel, and/or then maybe play Tuesday instead of Wednesday.”

ON AUBURN’S PLAYING TO THE FINAL WHISTLE AND TIGHTENING THE GAP DOWN THE STRETCH: “We got beat bad on the road, but we got it down and we won the last four or five minutes. The math’s going to hurt us, but it’s not going to destroy us. The math’s going to really help Todd and the Gators.

So yeah, I mean I’m glad our guys kept playing for it, kept playing and we were able to close it down. Nobody’s proud of a 16-point loss, though.”