Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — They were looking forward to a rare date night in downtown San Francisco. With a babysitter secured, the Goldens had it all plotted out. First some tennis at the nearby courts, followed by a stroll up the street for a casual dinner. It didn't matter that neither Todd Golden nor wife Megan, both standout athletes in their college days, weren't particularly good at tennis. This was about some time to themselves. 

Until it wasn't. 

"There's a reason we don't play a lot of games," Megan said. "We're both so competitive, and it usually doesn't end well. One of us ends up grumpy."

To this day, she doesn't recall who won the match, only that the two weren't speaking when they arrived at the restaurant (and that they haven't played tennis since). 

Todd's recollection, however, is clear. 

"Oh, I definitely won," he said. 

Cue the eye roll from the wife, but also an enthusiastic and anticipatory drum roll from a University of Florida fanbase that is about to fall for the ferocious and infectious competitive side of its new basketball coach. His players already have. 

The hype and resume most often attached to Todd Golden focuses on his youth, enthusiasm, intelligence, relationship-building and an embrace of analytics. Each of those elements were cited last March when UF athletic director Scott Stricklin and his search committee locked in on the boyish-looking coach working the University of San Francisco sidelines after Golden guided the Dons to the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in 24 years. When the Gators open the 2022-23 season Nov. 7 against Stony Brook at Exactech Arena, trained basketball watchers will look for nuances in Golden's X's and O's, his team's pace of play and late-clock strategy, while also evaluating his eye for talent after plucking four players from the transfer portal.  But a deeper dive into Todd Raymond Golden, 37, reveals that those qualities that made him such an appealing candidate are connected by a thread of belief in himself; a confidence that is in no way subtle. It's what Golden's college coaches saw when they recruited the skinny kid with attitude during his state-championship high school days in Phoenix. It's what he exuded in going from walk-on to floor general during a terrific career at Saint Mary's. It's what attracted his future wife, a freshman volleyball star, to the fifth-year senior and 3-point sharpshooter. The professionals in Israel wanted him for it. So did the hotshot Bay area marketing firms he went to work for before being coaxed back to the game he loved. 

"He just has a certain charm and charisma that people gravitate toward," said Washington State coach Kyle Smith, who lured Golden into the profession a decade ago while at Columbia and later hired him as an assistant at USF. "It's all genuine, too."

Added best friend Delaney Gallagher, who played baseball at Saint Mary's: "The underlying thing about Todd, and what's made him so successful, is that he is so darn competitive in every aspect of his life. That's why he's where he is today. He just has a tremendous amount of self-belief that's always kind of put him ahead of the curve and given him a knack of just making the winning play."  

The drive was there long before Golden was cut from his prep junior varsity team and set out to prove he belonged — which he did. The mission, which carried over into Golden's collegiate career, was never just about him, but also about the positive influence he had on his teammates. 

Even if it rubbed some folks (usually on the other team) the wrong way. 

"I know there's a fine line between confidence and cockiness, but even as a walk-on I just always had a belief in myself," said Golden, who will draw the curtain on his first Florida team with Tuesday night's open Orange & Blue Scrimmage at the O'Dome. "Now that I'm in coaching I feel the same way. I just feel very comfortable leading a program, running it from a day-to-day operational standpoint, and very confident once we get into a season and on the sidelines with whoever we're going against. That's how I was as a player, whether I should have been or not." 

It's a mindset that carried over to his stint handling basketball operations at Columbia and later during his first full-time assistant post alongside Bruce Pearl at Auburn, a springboard to bigger things. In three seasons at USF, Golden went 57-36 in a very competitive (and Gonzaga-dominated) West Coast Conference, capped by last season's 24-10 record and first NCAA berth since 1998.  The day after the Dons were eliminated in opening-round tournament play, Golden agreed to a six-year, $18 million contract with the Gators, taking the program over after Mike White's exit to Georgia. He was introduced March 23 at an O'Dome news conference and from the podium oozed that trademark confidence mixed with the right touch of humility in accepting the challenge to return Florida basketball to the glory days of the Billy Donovan era. 

Yes, there is humility in Golden, too. 

Example: Over the summer, Randy Bennett, the respected and longtime coach at Saint Mary's, called his former point guard and invited him to play in their annual alumni game in July. Bennett knew Golden was still getting settled in Gainesville, that it was a long way to come and figured it was a long shot. He asked anyway. Golden said yes. His former point guard returned for a day and his appearance was a big deal. 

"He's a very loyal and likable person who cares about the places he's been and cares about the people," Bennett said. "And now he's at the University of Florida. That makes him a headliner."

Yes, it does. 


PHOENIX RISING SON   

Scott Golden was born and raised in White Plains, N.Y., where he was a pretty good basketball player. Good enough, in fact, to walk on for one season at the University of Massachusetts, where he was a year behind — get this — a fella named Julius Erving. Back then, freshmen could not play varsity, but they did practice with the upperclassmen, meaning Golden's father squared off a couple times against "Dr. J" in scrimmages. 

How'd that go?

"Pretty good," Scott said. "For him."

The elder Golden went on to law school at Emory University in Atlanta and in 1976 relocated and joined a practice in Phoenix, where he met his future wife, Gale, a University of Arizona grad. Todd came along in 1985. His sister, Tate, two years later. 

Both kids were interested in sports as toddlers. Both were good little athletes, but Todd was just as intrigued with thinking the games. 

"I don't take any credit for his athletics," Scott said. "He was self-made. He really worked at it, but he had to. He was always playing with older kids, so he was undersized, but he just saw things differently than others his age. He saw things that should happen, that were going to happen and ultimately did happen. When it came to trying to learn the game, he was a sponge."  When it came to playing it, he was a hard-head, at times. Young Todd did not take losing well, but what really set him off was seeing teammates give less than 100 percent. He expected them all to care about winning as much as he did. 

At the age of 10, Todd signed up for a camp at Sunnyslope High School. Coach Dan Mannix couldn't help but notice the wiry kid who'd arrive 10 minutes early and start jacking left-handed shots from five feet beyond the 3-point line. 

"He was a brash fourth-grader, if you can picture that," Mannix recalled. "But a fearless competitor, even then." 

Even more so later, after fine-tuning his game at the local Jewish Community Center and showing up at Sunnyslope as a freshman ready to take on the desert basketball world. 

In Golden's mind, he was a lock to make the junior varsity squad, but when told he'd be playing on the freshman team Golden bolted out of the coaches' office, kicked a ball across the gym and stormed out of the building. Those who knew him best understood. 

"It wasn't an entitlement thing," said Andrew "AJ" Cooper, Golden's high school teammate, co-best man in his wedding and now the defensive line coach at Washington State. "It was strictly a competitive thing." 

Two years later, Golden was the starting point guard on one of the best teams in Arizona state history. His backcourt mate, Jon Simon, went on to play at Colgate. Another teammate, forward Mike Nixon, Arizona's Gatorade Football Player of the Year, was drafted and signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cooper signed to play tight end at North Dakota State. 

Golden wasn't Sunnyslope's best player, just the unquestioned leader and on-court firebrand. He made things go, but also had a knack for getting opponents worked up. 

"He let people know if we were playing well and they weren't, so you can read between the lines with that," Cooper said. "Me? I was basically a football player on the basketball court, meaning my job was to rebound, play defense and take care of Todd." 
  Mannix marveled at Golden's command of the point guard position, but the coach was equally impressed with the sway his point guard had with the team; even the players at the end of the bench. Golden would ask Mannix to put him on the second unit so he could control practice and keep the backups involved. In scrimmages, Golden passed up open looks to get them shots. 

Sometimes, he'd pull a guy off to the side, put an arm around him and say something in private to get a smile out of them. 

"He was better at that than I was," Mannix said.

A coach in the making.  

Sunnyslope went 29-1 during that 2001-02 season and defeated Page in the Class 4A state title game, with Golden scoring 16 points, including a falling-out-of-bounds shot from the baseline that he arched over the backboard and hit nothing but net for a crucial (and circus) basket with about three minutes to go. In a contest with thousands of video entries from around the country, the play was crowned the 2002 Nestle's Great Shot Award," which earned Golden a meeting with Shaquille O'Neal, who was doing some pretty big things with the Los Angeles Lakers at the time. 

Meanwhile, some college coaches from Northern California — the city of Moraga, specifically — were making second and third trips to Phoenix to watch the AAU Arizona Stars, one of the better club teams in the southwest. Bennett, the head coach at Saint Mary's, and Smith, his assistant, did not have Golden on their initial radar, but once they saw the ruthless 145-pounder play, pass, shoot and lead, they could not take their eyes off him. 

"You could see the confidence, the personality, the positive energy. He just had a lot of spunk about him," Bennett said. "Plus he was rocking a headband at the time."

Not to mention bleach blonde highlights in the hair. 

"He knew how to market himself," Smith said.

Clearly, they thought he could play, as well. In doing their homework, the Gaels learned that Columbia, of the Ivy League (and with no athletic scholarships), was the only other school showing interest in Golden. He took an official visit to Saint Mary's (Jewish kid, Catholic school) and fell for everything about the place. He knew right away that's where he wanted to be. Upon his return to Phoenix, Golden's parents extolled the virtues of an Ivy League education, but their son's mind was made up. 

"At 17, I just wasn't that passionate about school, so the whole Ivy League component didn't matter that much to me. It was strictly a basketball decision," Golden said of SMC, with its enrollment of around 3,500 and the Moraga campus nestled about 45 minutes east of Oakland. "I loved the school, loved the coaches, got to play pickup with the guys and thought they were going to be good. It was a Division I program in California that was on the rise and I had a chance to be on the ground floor of it." 

But as a walk-on. For one year.


PERFECT POINT MAN FOR ASCENDING PROGRAM

During a defensive shell drill at practice his true freshman year, Smith jumped on Golden for failing to touch the mid-line. When Golden snapped back, Smith stopped practice and lit Golden up in front of the team. The expectations for him, Smith railed, were much higher and he "could not be that guy." 
 

The dress down hit Golden where it hurt — his pride — but also because he knew he was wrong. That night, Smith got a call at home. It was Golden, still emotional, apologizing for the events of the day. 

"I remember thinking right then, 'This is going to be a really good player.' He did not want to let us down," Smith said. "I might have gone too far, but it hurt him to know that the coaching staff was disappointed with him." 

That was never a problem again. 

Three years earlier, Bennett had taken over a program coming off a 2-27 season. The Gaels went 9-20 Bennett's first year, 15-15 the second and 19-12 during Golden's walk-on '03-04 rookie season. As a redshirt freshman, he was a bit player in about half the games but broke into the starting lineup as a third-year sophomore and went on to start 82 of 93 games over the next three seasons. Each year, the Gaels tried to recruit a point guard over him. They couldn't. 

Meanwhile, the self-assuredness swelled.

CHARTING THE GATORS 
Todd's Golden statistics during his four seasons playing point guard at Saint Mary's (Calif).

Season	Games / Started (minutes per game	PPG	APG	FG%	3P% (FG/FGA)	Record (WCC)
2004-05	16 / 0 (7.2)	0.8	0.3	.235	.188 (3-16)	*25-9 (11-3)
2005-06	29 / 28 (31.7)	6.7	2.8	.388	.400 (46-115)	17-12 (8-6)
2006-07	32 / 22 (27.9)	5.1	3.2	.338	.343 (34-99)	17-15 (8-6)
2007-08	32 / 32 (25.9)	7.0	2.6	.469	.459 (56-122)	*25-7 (12-2)
Totals	109 / 82 (25.3)	5.5	2.5	.392	.375 (139-352)	84-43 (39-17)

* NCAA Tournament appearance (lost in first round both seasons)

Golden's numbers weren't overwhelming, but his efficiency was. He never tried to be anything he was not. 

"I was short on natural talent and athleticism, so my confidence had to be a difference-maker for me," Golden said. "My self-awareness was always pretty good. I knew the only way I was going to play was if I could make other guys better and help the team. That wasn't hard to figure out."

He definitely had his moments, though. Like the double-doubles in wins at San Francisco (15 points, 11 assists) and home against Pepperdine (15 and 10), but none like his senior-season home game against Gonzaga when Golden went 6-for-6 from the 3-point line on the way to a career-high 19 points and an overtime victory. That Gaels squad, led by freshman and future NBA champion Patty Mills, went 25-7 (including 12-2 in the league) and finished second behind the Zags in the WCC. Golden averaged 7.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists and helped guide the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament.

His final collegiate game was a first-round tournament loss to Miami. Golden finished his career with more than twice as many assists (270) as turnovers (116), and as the winningest player in Saint Mary's history. He also met Megan, a volleyball player and the 2007 WCC Freshman of the Year. Golden's life was about to change, but his legacy would be a lasting one. 

Winner. Competitor. Gamesman.  "There can be cocky that is annoying and there can be the confident guy that has cockiness in him. That was Todd," Bennett said. "He wasn't afraid for things to get chippy. He could get under your skin and was just fine with that. I saw several guys take swings at him, but he knew what he was doing."

Like the alumni game in 2008. Golden, his career done, was playing pickup after working a Bennett camp. A former-player-turned-prominent Gaels booster — with his name emblazoned on the practice gym's floor — was involved in a controversial game-ending play, with Golden's team on the losing end. Players from both sides were screaming at each other when Golden went next level. 

"I told him the only reason we let him in the gym was because his [expletive] name was on the court," Golden recalled with a grin. 

A melee ensued. No punches connected. 

The two are close friends to this day.  


BRIDGE TO COACHING CAREER  

Instead of putting his SMC business administration degree to work right away, Golden found an avenue to keep his playing days alive. Though his college statistics weren't eye-popping, his overall game got the attention of some agents for the Israeli Basketball Premier League, which had a so-called "Russian Rule" that required at least two Israelis to be on the court at all times. 

So off Golden went to Israel, where he played two professional seasons and in between played for Pearl, then coach at Tennessee, as a member of the USA Open Team in the 2009 Maccabiah Games, aka "The Jewish Olympics." 

"He was the classic overachieving white kid, but a great competitor and great shooter," Pearl said. "Oh, I know what you're thinking. Jewish kid, right? Yeah, OK. When I was growing up, whenever someone would call me a 'Jewish kid," I'd tell 'em, 'I'm not Jewish. I'm Israeli. You wanna mess with me?' Todd was that kid, too. He was just a tough SOB." 

Yeah, he was. Pearl's team won the gold medal. 

In 2010, Golden called it a career and returned to San Francisco to be with Megan and set off on his post-basketball life. Or so he thought. Golden took a marketing position at IMG and eventually moved to selling ads for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, which meant a lot of days and nights with clients — in a suit and tie — attending Warriors, 49ers, Raiders, Giants, Athletics, Sharks, plus Cal and Stanford games. 

In other words: Constantly. Around. Sports. 

"He was sitting on the couch asking himself, 'What are you doing? You're never going to be stimulated by this,' " Gallagher said. "Needless to say, competing was in his blood. That's just how he was wired." 

Golden remembers it the same way: "It wasn't a pity party or anything like that. I just wasn't that excited or happy doing what I was doing." 

Then came the morning, like all his previous workday mornings, he was sitting in a bumper-to-bumper toll booth logjam on the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge. Scrolling through his Twitter feed, Golden saw a post about an assistant coach at Columbia that had been hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers' front office. "Whoa," he thought. Smith was the head coach at Columbia. The two had spoken in the past about Golden maybe joining his coaching staff. It was never the right time. 

This was. 

Golden got the green light from Megan, and a week later the two were driving cross-country — to New York City — for a director of basketball operations position. A non-coaching post, yes, but Golden's foot was in the door.  That first week, Golden was setting up meetings, scheduling meals and travel, and making sure players were going to study hall. 

"It took me three days to know I'd made the right decision," Golden said. "I was part of a team again."

Golden did the DoBO thing for one year before Smith promoted him to the No. 3 assistant for the second season; his first full-time coaching gig. He was 26. 

The following spring, Pearl was gathering his first staff at Auburn after being out of the game for three seasons due to NCAA troubles at Tennessee. All he had was a DoBO post, but it was in the Southeastern Conference. When Pearl called Golden, who married Megan that summer, he assured his former point guard he'd be in line for a full-time job.

"I knew how much he loved the game," Pearl said. "There was something in his belly." 

Hello, SEC. And a rebuild. The Tigers were bad that first year (15-20 overall, 4-14 in SEC play), but Golden was promoted to Auburn's third full-time assistant in the second. Though a rookie on the region's recruiting trail, Golden was instrumental in the Tigers landing a nationally ranked class that featured Jared Harper, Anfernee McLemore and a group that three years later reached the first Final Four in program history.  Golden wasn't there for that NCAA semifinal run. After his second season with the Tigers he got a call from Smith, who moved on to become head coach at San Francisco in the WCC, a league both Smith and Golden knew very well. Come back west — come home — and be an associate head coach, Smith said. It was a tough decision because Golden knew the Tigers were on the come, but he thought the best chance for advancement (as in a head coach opportunity down the line) might be with Smith and in the region that knew him best. 

Despite all he learned from Pearl ("Personality-driven. Elite motivator. Just a different style than I was used to," Golden said), he headed back west. 

When Golden went to Pearl with the news, both men cried. 


RISING WEST COAST STAR

Oh-and-37. 

Upon Golden's arrival at USF in the spring of 2016, Smith hit his new associate head coach with those numbers. They meant nothing to Golden, so Smith explained. 

Since Bennett, their mentor, took the job at Saint's Mary's in 2001 — and with Mark Few parked at Gonzaga for nearly two decades and winning big — there had been 37 coaching hires in the West Coast Conference. None had gone on to better jobs. Zero. Golden's reaction? 

"You could have told me that before I took the job," he said.  Instead, they went to work, with Golden charged with defense, recruiting and analytics. The Dons were coming off a 15-15 record (their third non-winning season of the previous four) but improved to 20-13 and went to the NIT in '16-17, the first of three straight seasons with at least 20 victories. Under Smith, USF was 63-40, which caught the attention of Washington State in the Pac-12 Conference. By then, the aforementioned WCC number stood at 0-40. Smith's exit to the Cougars made it 1-40. 

When Smith went to USF athletic director Joan McDermott with the news he was going to recommend Golden for the job. The conversation never came to that. 

"I told her I wanted to tell my team and she said, 'Do you mind if Todd speaks with them afterward?' " Smith recalled. "I mean, I'm not even in the grave yet. He was already hired and making offers to coaches before the body was even cold." 

At 33, and just five years from a career in the business sector, Golden was a Division I head coach.  

In his first season, USF was 20-12 and likely headed for some postseason tournament when the sports world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In '20-21, the Dons upset reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champ Virginia in a "Bubbleland" game early on, but in late-January the team was ravaged by COVID, forcing a mini-shutdown of the program. The Dons were 10-8  at the time, but went two weeks without practicing and nearly three without playing a game. When they finally returned to action, players were in and out of the lineup the rest of the season due to health and safety protocols. USF lost seven of its final eight to finish 11-14. 

The 2021-22 team had no such issues. The Dons won their first 10 games (and 13 of the first 14), basically played the entire season ranked in the top 30 of KenPom.com's advance metrics (ascending to No. 21 at season's end) and reached the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed. 

On March 13, while USF was celebrating its best Selection Sunday in 24 years, about 2,400 miles away the third-winningest coach in UF history, White, was being announced as the next coach at Georgia. Stricklin and his search committee went to work. In the run-up to the Dons' first-round game against Murray State, Golden's name was tied to no less than five coaching vacancies, including three in the SEC. The Gators were actually the last league team to reach out. In fact, Golden was well down the road with two of those other schools before Florida got in the mix.

On that Monday, after his team's first practice in preparation for a Thursday night first-rounder against Murray State, Golden's agent called and told his client Tuesday would be a crazy interview day, with Florida now on the list. Immediately, Golden wanted the Gators, but it wasn't until after his call with the search committee — Stricklin, along with senior administrators Lynda Tealer, Chip Howard and Dave Werner — that Florida knew it wanted Golden. 

Stricklin buzzed Golden's cell right after the 45-minute Zoom. "You hit it out of the park," he said. "We'll be in touch very soon." 

Golden called his agent with instructions. "Get it done."  USF fell to Murray in overtime on Thursday and Golden's agreement with the Gators was reported Friday morning. Megan was the first to know. "I get goose bumps just thinking about that day," she said. Golden called Gallagher with the news, saying, "I got the Florida job. Can you [freaking] believe it?'" 

Yes, he could. The belief Golden has in himself is shared by those who know him best. 

"I think he's going to be the next big thing in coaching," Gallagher said. 

That updated West Coast Conference number now stands at 2-43.


GOLDEN GATORS 

By now, Florida fans know about Golden getting to town and in a matter of days convincing 6-foot-11, two-time All-SEC forward Colin Castleton to return for a fifth season. Several other Gators considered transferring but put their trust in the stranger from out west, giving the team six players back from a 20-13 NIT squad to go with a quartet of transfers and a trio of freshmen. 

UF missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 last season, yet Golden has spent the last six months pumping confidence into his players and talking about deep runs in March being a program standard. That's certainly the bar Florida fans got accustomed to under Donovan, who won six SEC titles and went to 14 NCAAs over 19 seasons; eight times reaching the second weekend, with four Final Fours and two national championships. Under White, the Gators won at least one game in all four of his NCAA appearances, including a dash to the Elite Eight. 

"Florida is not a turnaround job," Smith said. "It's sitting there ready to run." 

With Golden ready to run with it. Sprint, actually.

"It's all happened so fast for him, but it's not really a surprise because he's so good with people," Bennett said.  

Every player on the Florida roster would co-sign that statement. Some on past Florida rosters, too. One of Golden's priorities, after reaching out to Donovan, was reconnecting with Gator greats from the past and inviting them back to the program. Joakim Noah, Jason Williams, Matt Bonner, Chandler Parsons and Patric Young, to name a few, have checked in since with praise and appreciation for the new coach. There will be more. As for the current squad, Golden's ability to connect with his guys has spilled onto the practice floor in the form of higher energy, boisterous communication and noticeable chemistry. Not a play goes by where Golden doesn't seek out a player for a fist pump, fanny pat or instruction. 

"That first time I sat down with him, it was like I'd known him for a couple years," Castleton said. 

Senior center Jason Jitoboh went one better. "He's such a people person. You wanna go through a wall for him."

Maybe being younger has helped with the relationship piece or maybe, like Bennett said, Golden just has a knack for it. Then again, he makes it a priority and enjoys the investment in their time. Kind of like his playing days when he'd take those backup guys under his wing and treat them as vital parts of the team. 

"I've been around enough coaches and programs to know it's really important," Golden said. "You have to have a pulse on how they're doing. It's gives you a competitive advantage to know who and how they are as people. Guys will 100-percent trust you more and play harder for you if they feel you are concerned about them and care about them." 

Now comes the fun part. The games. The SEC even had a little fun by pitting Florida against Auburn in their league opener Dec. 28. 

"I'm gonna try to kick his ass, and he's gonna try to kick mine," Pearl said.  Two weeks ago, Florida was picked to finish seventh in the 14-team league during preseason balloting at SEC Media Days. Golden's expectations for his first Gators' squad will be much higher. Like the expectations he's always set for himself. 

Megan was asked how confident her husband was that he will win big here? Her answer came with a slight chuckle. And one word. 

"Extremely."