SAN ANTONIO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – When Bruce Pearl was hired in 2014 to rebuild Auburn’s program, he lured Todd Golden away from Columbia to serve as his director of basketball operations.
After Golden spent his first year focused on Auburn’s advanced analytics and metrics and a lot of other duties, Pearl promoted him to assistant coach. Though the Tigers suffered through two losing seasons when they worked together, it was enough to put Golden on the fast track.
He was hired as San Francisco’s associate head coach in 2016, promoted to head coach in 2019 and jumped to Florida in 2022. Though Pearl and Golden haven’t worked together in nine years, they’re as close as ever — and they’re each one win away from their first NCAA championship game appearance.
Alas, when Florida (34-4) takes on Auburn (32-5) in Saturday’s first Final Four semifinal in San Antonio, Texas, only the pupil or the mentor will advance to Monday night against either Duke or Houston. While the Tigers earned the No. 1 overall seed from the NCAA Tournament committee, the Gators are regarded as a slight favorite by the oddsmakers.
“It is (awkward) because the relationship is that close,” Pearl said on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” “But if we have to play each other, let’s do it for a championship, you know? I’m so proud of Todd and so happy for him.”
“Bruce and I texted a little bit on Saturday night, Sunday morning,” Golden said. “And then I FaceTimed with Steven (Bruce’s son and an Auburn assistant) Sunday night after they won. We were just kind of giggling, man. It’s pretty incredible, you know?
“Come a long way from the 2014-15 season at Auburn, where we were playing in the only game on the men’s side on the first day of the SEC tournament. It was us against Mississippi State at the bottom of the league. Fast-forward 10, 11 years and now both of us have our teams in the Final Four.”
Then Golden smiled.
“We don’t necessarily enjoy playing each other. It’s not something that excites us. But at the same time, when you’re doing it in the Final Four, it’s a little different.”
When Golden joined the SEC in 2022, he quickly was reminded what a force Pearl and the Tigers are. Both went all-out to reel in a big transfer from Morehead State named Johni Broome.
Broome, of course, selected Auburn and has developed into a first-team All-American and National Player of the Year candidate. Though he’ll be at less than 100 percent Saturday due to an elbow injury suffered in Sunday’s regional final win over Michigan State, Broome enters the Final Four averaging 18.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game.
“At the time, I probably had just a misunderstanding of kind of what I thought of myself as a head coach,” Golden said. “Comparing Bruce to myself, you know, Bruce was a lot more accomplished at the time.”
But don’t weep too much for Golden. He still managed to reel in a nice recruiting class that included Belmont transfer Will Richard, a three-year Florida starter who averages 13.3 points per game. The following offseason, Golden attracted Iona transfer guard Walter Clayton Jr. (team-high 18.1 ppg), who merely has developed into a first-team all-American, too.
Auburn didn’t need to watch film of Florida’s 84-79 win over Texas Tech in the West Regional final to learn what type of havoc Clayton and the Gators can wreak. The Tigers lived that movie on Feb. 8 when then-No. 6 Florida visited then-No. 1 Auburn for the schools’ only regular-season meeting.
Similar to the way Clayton poured in 13 points in the final 5:24 to turn a 10-point deficit against Texas Tech into Florida’s first Final Four appearance since 2014, Clayton went berserk for 13 points in 3:40 midway through their Feb. 8 clash, which Florida won 90-81.
The Tigers looked almost unbeatable at that juncture of the season. They were 21-1, had won 14 straight by an average of 19.4 per game and owned No. 1 in the national polls for the last month.
Once Feb. 8 was in the books, Pearl believed more in Florida.
“Paul, I’ve been saying for the last two months that I’ve thought that Florida was the best team in the country,” Pearl told Finebaum.
Golden demurs — to a point.
“Both teams have probably changed quite a bit since Feb. 8,” he said. “But I do think our first game gives us some confidence going into Saturday’s tilt that, you know, we’ve played well against this team before. We understand they’re going to have some tricks up their sleeve and some things they want to do differently this time around, and we’re going to have to adjust as well.”
–Field Level Media