Bruce Pearl acknowledges it will be 'weird' facing former assistant Todd Golden in Final Four

When Auburn and Florida meet in the Final Four, it’ll be a meeting between coach and mentor. Todd Golden used to be an assistant coach on Bruce Pearl‘s staff with the Tigers.

The former has had a remarkably quick rise through the ranks, reaching the Final Four in just his third season with the Gators. That’ll make the meeting a little weird for both on Saturday.

“It is, because the relationship is that close,” Pearl said Monday 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.”

Todd Golden began his coaching career under Pearl, doing so at Auburn in 2014. He joined the staff as a director of basketball operations.

Two years later, he was promoted to an assistant under Pearl. A year later, he jumped at the opportunity to go to San Francisco as an associate head coach. In 2019, he took over as the full time head coach at San Francisco after Kyle Smith left for Washington State.

Fast forward three years and Florida would come knocking. Golden quickly turned things around.

After reaching the NCAA Tournament last season and losing a heart-breaker to Colorado, Todd Golden returned the majority of his roster. He went right to work.

“Paul, I’ve been saying for the last two months that I’ve thought that Florida was the best team in the country,” Pearl said. “I thought that they were playing better than anybody. They’ve got an incredibly deep front line. They’ve got the best point guard on the floor almost every single night in Walter Clayton. Their wings, (Alijah) Martin and (Will) Richard, can really score. They’re big. And Todd does a great job coaching. This is going to be a great, great challenge for us.”

Playing against Todd Golden will offer a unique challenge for Pearl. But there’s also another unique element to this year’s task in the Final Four.

Auburn has some experience getting this far under Bruce Pearl, doing so in 2019. Unlike then, the field this time looks very different.

“The other thing about going in 2019, when we went in 2019 there wasn’t a one seed alive,” Pearl said. “It was a wide open Final Four with Virginia. Maybe Virginia might have been a one, I don’t know. I think they were. But Michigan State, Texas Tech on the other side weren’t.

“Right now I believe you have the four best teams in college basketball. Yeah, they were all No. 1s. But I don’t think there’s a single team outside of these four that you would want to make an argument saying, ‘No, no, they’re one of the top four teams.’ I don’t think there’s a fifth team out there that you can make that argument for. These are the best four teams left.”

Todd Golden and Bruce Pearl will square off on Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET in the first of two Final Four games.