Steven Pearl on Florida HC Todd Golden: 'This one is tough. He's family'

The Auburn Tigers take on Florida tonight in a battle against a former assistant coach.

The Auburn "family" isn't just a term the fanbase likes to throw around.

It's a real, tangible thing, and its exemplified in tonight's basketball game.

Tonight, former Auburn assistant Todd Golden will coach against the Tigers in a match that Tigers' assistant Steven Pearl described as "tough" in a recent interview with the media. Tough, but not for the reasons one may think.

The history between the Golden and Pearl families goes back a ways.

Golden was an assistant coach for the Tigers from 2014-2016 before moving on to San Francisco to take the same position. In 2019 he was hired as the head coach of the Dons. He posted a 57-36 record over three seasons and made the NCAA Tournament in his final season.

Now, he faces the Pearl's for the first time on the other side of the court. What's even more interesting is the SEC bench he happens to be sitting on.

Florida is one of the most prestigious college basketball jobs in the country. With six regular-season SEC championships, eight Elite Eight appearances, and two national titles since 2000, Golden stepped into the position in Gainesville this past offseason surrounded by rare air - with only three years of head coaching experience to his name on top of that.

"Obviously I'm cheering for him every game of his career until tomorrow night, Always been his biggest fan," Pearl said. "When he was at San Francisco I stayed up late when he was at San Francisco [...] obviously worked together for a couple of years, so this one is tough. He's family. He's like a brother to me, and he's like a son to BP (Bruce Pearl)."

Steven Pearl remembers the moment he found out that Golden had gotten the job.

"I had my Apple watch on at the halftime of the Jacksonville State game [...] I looked at my watch, and I got the buzz from ESPN that said "Todd Golden,' and I literally out loud said 'holy s---!' [...] I didn't know how far down the road it was. It was more just I was so proud that he got that job."

Pearl noted that they have a certain comfortability he doesn't share with any other coach out there. The relationship between him and Golden's family is one that will get a different treatment before the two teams clash in Neville Arena. 

"He's probably the only coach in America that I would ever be willing to spend any time with the night before a game," Pearl said. "And I've got some good friends in the profession. But he's probably the only one I would be comfortable enough to do it with."

Both Pearl and Golden played overseas in a couple of different places - Australia back when Pearl was just a senior in high school, and Israel (Maccabi Haifa) during college. "We've just stayed in touch ever since," Pearl said. "A lot of guys you meet in the coaching profession you meet through coaching. We've known each other since we were kids basically. It's more of a family type thing than a friendship type thing."

Golden found a lot of success at San Fran in an area that has begun to define both the college and pro game over the past decade; analytics. There aren't many coaches out there that apply numbers to the game like Golden does, according to Pearl.

"He was the one that introduced me to it," Pearl said. "Todd introduced me to KenPom, and really got me into it. Just to see some of the things that he does analytically - whether it's fouling a bad free throw shooter when they're up one point - no coach in the country is courageous enough to do that, but Coach Golden will. A lot of the things that he taught us, we use on a day-to-day basis."

The Gators, off to a 7-5 start this season, have dramatically shifted their style of play in a variety of areas. For starters, take a look at the aforementioned KenPom stats. The Gators have skyrocketed up the charts in adjusted tempo, moving from 267th nationally last season to 26th this year. More threes, wider spacing, all surrounded by one of the league's most consistent big men. 

"You can see it, as far as the offense they run. He's made a ton of adjustments this year already with the lineups and rotations," Pearl said. "He hasn't had the same starting lineup very often. He's trying to plug and play [...] I guarantee you he's looking at efficiency lineups to see which lineups have the best plus/minus together [...] you can see that throughout the games and the starting lineups he's put together."

You can check out how to watch tonight's game between No. 20 Auburn and Florida here.

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