Bruce Pearl shares what he told Florida before it hired Todd Golden

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As Florida targeted Todd Golden as men’s basketball coach in 2022, one of the people it interviewed during his hiring process was Auburn’s Bruce Pearl.

Golden worked on Pearl’s staff at Auburn from 2014-16 and played under him at the 2009 Maccabiah Games during his time in the Israeli Basketball Premier League.

A decade after getting his start in the SEC with Pearl, Golden beat his former boss on Saturday as the Gators trounced No. 12-ranked Auburn, 81-65, in the O’Dome.

“I love Todd. I love him to death. I’m so proud of him,” Pearl told Gators Online. “I was grateful I had a chance to actually talk to some people at Florida when they were deciding.”

Golden, 36 at the time, had emerged as a top candidate for the Gators job after leading San Francisco to the school’s first NCAA tournament bid since 1998. He impressed UF officials with his fluency in analytics and his ability to innovate and connect with players.

What did Pearl tell the Florida administration about Golden?

“‘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,” Pearl said.

The Gators faced four different top-five teams in the same year for the first time in program history during Golden’s inaugural season, beating No. 2 Tennessee. The 67-54 upset matched Florida’s highest-ranked regular season victory and also matched the highest-ranked win on UF’s home court.

The victory over the Vols put the Gators in position for the NCAA Tournament, but four games later they lost first-team All-SEC selection and SEC Defensive Player of the Year Colin Castleton to a broken hand. His season-ending injury effectively ended their chance at the Big Dance.

Golden overhauled Florida’s roster in the offseason with one of the top transfer classes in the country and has UF poised to make the tournament this year after defeating No. 12 Auburn and No. 10 Kentucky, marking the Gators first road win over a top-10 opponent since 2003.

“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. He’s one of the best young coaches in all of college basketball, and he’s here at Florida. But I knew that,” Pearl said. “They’re 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.”

The Gators improved to 16-7/6-4 with their win over Auburn, tying them with Kentucky for the fifth-best record in the SEC. Pearl predicted that Florida will be a top-five team in the league at the end of the regular season.

“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 that — would take away from what I think is one of the top five teams in the league. I’ve been through and seen almost everybody, Florida will finish in the top five,” Pearl said. “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 [Walter] Clayton. I don’t know if they’re going to lose those matchups very often. And then, you know, [Riley] 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.”

Todd Golden on beating Bruce Pearl

In their first meeting last season, Pearl’s Tigers defeated Golden and the Gators, 61-58, in the SEC opener. Golden returned the favor in Gainesville, extending Florida’s home winning streak against Auburn to 15 games.

He also picked up his fourth top-25 win as Florida’s coach on Saturday, doing so in his 56th game at the helm, the second-fastest of any coach in UF history and the fastest of any Gator coach in the past 50 years.

“The reality is that I’m not here without Bruce Pearl. That’s first and foremost,” Golden said. “And not just from our relationship, playing back in 2009 in Israel or obviously working with him for two years at Auburn. Those two years were tough, man. The job that he’s done at Auburn is not replicable. 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. And then they got really, really good really, really fast after I left — to a Final Four two years later.

“But this game, for as great as I feel about winning, like Steven and Bruce are family to me and I love those guys. And that’s kind of a tricky part of this. Similar to my old job when I had to play against Randy Bennett, a guy who coached me and gave me an opportunity to play. But he’s one of the best coaches in college basketball and what he’s done in Auburn again, had Tennessee No. 1 in the country and goes to Auburn, Final Four. I think they are one of, if not the best team in America right now. Just incredible. But I know he’s pissed that they lost, but I do think he’s also proud of me and proud of the job we’ve done here to get Florida kind of back on the map a little bit.”