{"id":128355,"date":"2026-01-22T22:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128355\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T22:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:18:11","slug":"auburn-basketball-vs-florida-steven-pearl-faces-todd-golden-for-the-first-time-as-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128355\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn basketball vs Florida: Steven Pearl faces Todd Golden for the first time as head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auburn basketball<\/a> coach Steven Pearl and Florida coach Todd Golden share a deep friendship that even a conference rivalry can\u2019t break.<\/p>\n

The two go back, working together at Auburn since former head coach Bruce Pearl started in 2014. Golden was an assistant on Bruce Pearl\u2019s first staff and stayed through 2016. Steven Pearl worked his way up through Auburn\u2019s staff to become the head coach in 2025.<\/p>\n

Golden was hired as Florida\u2019s head coach ahead of the 2022-2023 season, winning both the SEC and national championship in his third season with the Gators. <\/p>\n

Florida knocked off Auburn in last year\u2019s Final Four before winning the program\u2019s third national championship. Saturday will be the pair\u2019s first matchup since that game and Pearl\u2019s first game against Golden as the Tigers head coach. <\/p>\n

\"Men\u2019sMar 5, 2022; Auburn, AL, USA; Steven Pearl cuts the net after the game between Auburn and South Carolina at Neville Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Taylor\/AU AthleticsJacob Taylor\/AU Athletics<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unique, it\u2019s special,\u201d Pearl said about Golden Thursday afternoon. \u201cHe was ops (operations) and I was the assistant strength coach at Auburn 11 years ago. Which is kind of crazy how time has flown, and our career paths have come to where they are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearl told reporters that he and Golden talked on the phone this week. Both coaches are planning to see each other briefly after Auburn arrives in Gainesville on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been such a valuable resource to me,\u201d Pearl said. \u201cAny chance I need to run something by somebody, he\u2019s been one of my first calls, and he\u2019s always been so gracious with his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t want to go down there and kick his a**,\u201d Pearl added.<\/p>\n

As for Florida, the Gators are currently ranked No. 16 in the country and is 5-1 in SEC games this season. After its upset loss to Missouri, Florida has defeated ranked conference opponents in Tennessee, Georgia and Vanderbilt to improve to 14-5 overall. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just have so much respect for TG and everything he\u2019s doing down there,\u201d Pearl said. \u201cThey\u2019re a top-5 team in my opinion. They\u2019ve lost five games by a combined 17 points, all away from home. They\u2019re one of the elites in college basketball. He\u2019s one of the best coaches in college basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auburn (11-7,3-3) and Florida are scheduled to tip off at 3 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auburn basketball coach Steven Pearl and Florida coach Todd Golden share a deep friendship that even a conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[63460,3108,28,30,29,52371],"class_list":["post-128355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-63460","tag-basketball","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-mens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}