John Fanta
College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter
SAN ANTONIO — Bruce Pearl and Todd Golden go way back, which is why they don’t exactly look forward to the days when one of them has to beat the other. That’s what makes Saturday’s SEC Final Four showdown between conference regular-season champion Auburn and tournament champion Florida even more fascinating — because the two have come a long way since the 2009 Maccabiah Games.
It was 16 years ago that Pearl was the head coach of the United States team at the games, also known as the “Jewish Olympics.” He was leading a team that featured his son and now Auburn assistant Steven Pearl, as well as Golden, who was playing professional ball for Maccabi Haifa in Israel at the time. The U.S. rallied for a thrilling gold-medal victory, using a seven-point run to force overtime and then pulling out a 95-86 win behind former Stanford star and All-Pac-12 selection Dan Grunfeld, who scored 25 points.
“Let me tell you something: Todd could shoot the ball,” Pearl said. “He was a scoring point guard, not a great defender [with a laugh], but he played hard. He could really score the ball and shoot it, and he got downhill in the lane at a high level. And, more than anything, Todd was a fierce competitor.
“He passed it when he had to. He was not the type of point guard you wanted to play with, thinking you were going to get a ton of touches. Your best way of getting the ball from him was if you went to the rim on a back cut because then you could get an offensive rebound.”
That sarcasm displayed by Pearl speaks to the bond the two SEC coaches have. When Golden worked for Kyle Smith at Columbia and was trying to grow in the profession, Pearl was the one to give his former Maccabiah guard a phone call to offer him the director of basketball operations spot at Auburn.
“For me, it was a one-way ticket to the SEC — working in one of the best leagues in America and working for a guy that I care a lot about,” Golden said. “It was an easy decision, but it was hard to leave Kyle. We ended up together again at San Francisco, but having that opportunity with Bruce at Auburn was very formative in terms of where I am now.”
Where Pearl was then is very different from where he is today. Auburn provided him with a second chance after he was out of coaching for three years following his firing from Tennessee in 2011 due to a series of recruiting violations.
Auburn finished the 2013-14 season with a 14-16 record, marking the 11th straight year the program missed out on the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers made the move to fire Tony Barbee, as athletic director Jay Jacobs and his donor base grew tired of watching losing season after losing season. They wanted a winner to run their program, and if they weren’t going to give Pearl another shot, someone else would have.
On March 18, 2014, Pearl was named the head coach at Auburn, and his first order of business was to evaluate who he wanted to be on his staff. Two of his first hires were his son, Steven, and Golden.
“I think that meant a lot to Todd,” Pearl said. “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 and the way they carried themselves.
“Even though I only had Todd for two years, he helped lay the foundation at Auburn, helped get some of the recruiting started that helped us in our fourth year.”
Golden and Pearl grew close during those two seasons, which were formative years for Golden, who had just gotten married and welcomed their first son into the world.
“I was one of the first to hold his son,” Pearl recalled. “There’s a close connection. All the while, he becomes best friends with his fellow assistant, Steven Pearl.”
After Auburn beat Michigan State in the Elite Eight on Sunday in Atlanta, those two best friends FaceTimed one another.
“It’s what life is all about, and we’ve been laughing just thinking about it,” said Golden, who has helped lead Florida to its first Final Four since the Gators went in 2014 under Billy Donovan. “We were shaking our heads on FaceTime like, ‘Man, we’re legitimately going to the Final Four, competing against each other.’
“It’s a long way from when we first got down to Auburn.”
While Golden served as the director of basketball operations for the Tigers, Steven Pearl worked as the team’s assistant strength coach.
“I think it speaks volumes about the way we build our programs, that we’re both still alive right now,” Golden added.
The plot thickens on Saturday night in San Antonio when the Tigers and Gators square off with a spot in the national title game on the line. Florida won the lone regular-season meeting between the two SEC foes back on Feb. 8, 90-81, a victory that cemented the Gators’ status as a national championship contender.
Florida Gators
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Auburn Tigers
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Auburn All-American Johni Broome, who was held to just 18 points on 19 shots in that first meeting between Auburn and Florida, was a full participant in practice on Thursday and told the media that he is 100 percent after suffering an elbow injury in the Tigers’ Elite Eight win over Michigan State. The Auburn big man didn’t shy away from the fact he wants to get back at Florida.
Not only does Saturday bring a case of revenge for the Tigers, but they’re a 2.5-point underdog as well.
“Obviously, it just shows that people still don’t have the respect for us that we think we should have, so we’re just putting that chip on our shoulder,” Tigers freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford said.
Pettiford has been a spark plug for Auburn with a pair of 20-point games in the NCAA Tournament. However, he only shot 4-for-11 in the first meeting with Florida.
“Honestly, I think everybody’s doing us a favor by naming us the underdog,” Auburn wing Chad Baker-Mazara said. “That will fuel our fire.”
Whether it’s motivation or not, Pearl was pretty candid about the first meeting against Florida, in which his team gave up 48 first-half points and was playing catch-up the whole way.
“That was more of Florida winning that game in every way than us losing, because that’s how great Florida is,” Pearl said. “I’ve been saying since prior to the Florida game, I think Florida’s playing the best basketball of anybody in the country. I’ve said it publicly a dozen times. Is that a slap in the face to Duke or to Houston or to my Auburn team? No, it’s not. But that’s how I have felt.
“Does that mean we can’t beat them [Florida]? Of course not. I felt that way going into the game. And then in the game they showed us that. They were better than us. We were the No. 1 team in the country.”
Pearl’s sentiments reflect how impressive this year’s Final Four field is, with all four teams having a legitimate shot at taking home a national championship. Only time will tell on that, but on the road to Saturday, Golden and Pearl will keep smiling about their friendship – for now.
“It’s a full-circle moment and I wouldn’t be here without him,” Golden said of his former boss. “When the ball goes up on Saturday, it’s going to be pretty cutthroat. Until then, there will be a lot of love shown.”
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
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