By Ken Cross
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gators head basketball coach Todd Golden enjoyed how his team showed a dominant presence against No. 11 Auburn in the Gators’ 81-65 win on Saturday afternoon.
Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl brought Golden aboard in 2014 when he took over the basketball program on The Plains.
Golden then took an assistant coaching job to Kyle Smith at San Francisco before Smith left for Washington State. Golden took over as the head coach and continued winning as he put the Dons into the NCAA Tournament in 2022 which was the team’s first appearance in 25 years.
As Pearl has brought Auburn into a national specter, Golden is placing the Gators back into that national spotlight as the team continues to improve and is ready for the last eight games of the season.
“He’s one of the best young coaches in all of college basketball, and he’s here at Florida,” Pearl said after the Gators’ win. “I knew that. I was grateful I had a chance to actually talk to some people at Florida when they were deciding.”
Florida is destined to join Auburn in the NCAA Tournament as potentially the Gators are going to be one of those aforementioned ‘teams you do not want to see in your bracket.’”
The Gators have moved to 16-7 overall and 6-4 where they are tied with Kentucky for fifth in the SEC. Florida has won five of its last six games with both Auburn and Kentucky being two of its victims.
Golden and his staff thoroughly understood the making of a team as the Gators offer a rotation of eight players that have become a major story in the SEC.
“I’m really proud of our team and our program is, as you all know, we’ve been playing really well,” said Golden. “We had won four out of the last five going into this game, but we were having trouble maintaining leads in the second half.”
Florida’s starting five – Walter Clayton, Jr., Zyon Pullin, Chris Richard, Tyrese Samuel, and Micah Handlogten – came through the transfer portal. Riley Kugel, who is literally a ‘sixth starter,’ comes off the bench and has re-established his game as he showed on Saturday in leading both teams in scoring with 22 points.
With 6-9 Thomas Haugh and 6-11 Alex Condon using their size when they make their presence in the rotation, Florida is a tough matchup because they lead the nation with 44.4 rebounds per game and outrebound their opponents by 8.8 this season.
“Playing the right way, playing really hard, playing together; they’re good,” commented Pearl. “I root for them every single night except when they play us.”
Golden has crafted an exciting style of basketball where, according to kenpom.com, Florida has an average possession length of 16 seconds, 35th among 361 teams in NCAA Division I basketball.
Golden’s personality and his team’s style of play are two keys to making Exactech Arena a tough place for opponents. The Gators are 10-1 at home after the win over Auburn. Their only home loss was to Kentucky, 87-85, in early January. However, the Gators returned the favor with a 94-91 win in overtime in Lexington on Jan. 31.
Golden says that Auburn reflects one of the teams that could win the national championship and cut the nets on the first Monday evening in April.
“They’re playing as well as anybody – top-10 offense, top-3 defense, a lot of continuity on the roster, a lot of really, really good players, you know, and then we come out and we play our best game of the year against them,” Golden explained.
Pearl reiterated Golden’s aforementioned appreciation for being an assistant on his first two coaching staffs.
“I love Todd; I love him to death,” said Pearl. “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, unbelievable family, kids are playing for him, he cares about the kids, does it the right way.”
Golden, who lifted Auburn as a team that was of national championship quality, talked about Pearl’s work at Auburn.
“The job that he’s done at Auburn is not replicable,” Golden explained. “The situation that he took over – it was just a very tough situation and it took time, but he never wavered. He stayed true to what he knew would get that program back on track. I’m a little upset. I was only there for the first two years because those weren’t that fun. We took a lot of losses.”