Florida has a new basketball head coach, officially adding Todd Golden on Friday. Golden joins the Gators after 5 seasons in San Francisco, including 3 as head coach of the Dons.
Although Golden comes to Florida from the West Coast, he has ties to the SEC. He was an assistant on Bruce Pearl’s original team at Auburn and spent 2 seasons with the Tigers.
Asked about Florida hiring Golden, Pearl praised the move. Pearl even called Golden a “Grand Slam hire” by the Gators.
“It’s an absolutely grand slam hire by Florida. Todd Golden is part of this next generation of bright young coaches,” Pearl explained on Saturday. , I think, for anyone in any profession. If you want to be big, you have to bet on yourself. So he left Columbia to become my director of basketball operations. And then after a year, he becomes one of my assistants.
Then he goes to San Francisco, comes back to the west coast where he’s from because he’s from Phoenix, to be the associate head coach in San Francisco. Some would say he’s a full-back, but he’s a hair’s breadth from his job. His coach gets the job in Washington State, he gets the job. It puts San Francisco in a position where people really think they can beat Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s and BYU, and it does.
Pearl also discussed Golden’s pedigree, praising the new coach’s experience as a player, assistant and head coach:
“When Florida is looking for a coach, you have a guy with some SEC experience as an assistant,” Pearl said. “You have a successful head coach in a very competitive conference. He played for a great coach at Saint Mary’s. He worked for very good coaches. It may not have hurt to have Jay Jacobs as number 2 in Florida with Scott Stricklin. I think Jay could vouch for Todd’s character.
“I’m not excited about going against him. Like I told Scott, he’s ten points ahead of me. He is. I hope I will have 15 top talent points when we face him. So, so, very happy for Todd and his family.