Bruce Pearl will try his best to end Todd Golden’s first NCAA Tournament run of any kind come Saturday night in San Antonio when Pearl’s powerhouse Auburn team collides with Golden’s Florida team for the right to play for everything on Monday.
It’s amazing to think Golden hadn’t even won an NCAA Tournament game before leading Florida on an exhilarating path to the Final Four. Golden’s Gators were in danger of falling short in both the second round against 2-time defending national champion UConn and in last Saturday night’s regional final against Texas Tech.
Both times, Golden rallied his troops, Florida survived, and now Golden is in his first Final Four at just 39 years old. Pearl, on the other hand, is a 65-year-old grizzled veteran of the coaching ranks. So, how possibly could Golden and Pearl be so connected, other than coaching SEC behemoths who are now in the Final Four?
Pearl was asked to explain during Thursday’s Final Four press conferences when talking about how he got Golden his first chance at a Power 5 coaching job. Pearl had Golden as an assistant coach at Auburn from 2014-16 after he got back into coaching, giving Golden his first taste of the big-time after his 2 seasons as an assistant at Columbia.
“I did give him his first shot at the Power 5,” Pearl said. “What is significant about it is I’d been out of coaching for three years. When I was getting back into coaching, I was putting my staff together. I brought my son Steven, I brought Todd, a couple other guys I really trusted. I think that meant a lot to Todd. Todd recognized how close I was to my coaches, how much I relied on my coaches, how much I expected of my coaches, and the bar that we set about the way they behaved, the way they taught, the way they carried themselves.”
Golden made quite the impression on Pearl then and, well, now look at him.
“Even though I only had Todd for two years, he helped lay the foundation, helped getting some of the recruiting started that helped us in our fourth year,” explained Pearl. “Todd and Megan had just gotten married. They were newlyweds. They had their first son while he was at Auburn. I was one of the first to hold his son. There’s a close connection.”
On Saturday night, they’ll be fierce opponents, but that connection will surely last a lifetime.
Bruce Pearl reflects on giving Todd Golden his first Power-5 coaching job Saturday Down South.
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