‘Icing on the cake’: Sweet 16 in San Francisco a homecoming for Florida basketball’s Todd Golden
RALIEGH, N.C.― When Florida basketball coach Todd Golden first glanced at the NCAA Tournament bracket last week, he knew there was a chance for a special homecoming of sorts.
As the No. 1 seed in the West Region, the Florida Gators (32-4) moved on to the Sweet 16 in San Francisco, Calif., following their 77-75 win over No. 8 seed UConn at the Lenovo Center. Florida will now play Thursday against 4-seed Maryland.
UF’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2017 will hold special significance for Golden, who played in the Bay Area at Saint Mary’s from 2004-08 and was an associate coach (2016-19) and head coach (2019-22) at the University of San Francisco before being hired by UF.
“It’s kind of the icing on the cake to be able to go out there, see a lot of friends and family, and people that will kind of support our program as adopting the Gators out west will be awesome,” Golden said.
Golden said his time in the Bay Area shaped his basketball career as well. He played under Randy Bennett at Saint Mary’s and worked under Kyle Smith at San Francisco before becoming San Fran’s head coach in 2019. Golden went 57-36 in three seasons as San Francisco’s coach, leading the Dons to the NCAA Tournament in 2022.
“It’s a huge part of who I am as a basketball guy,” Golden said. “Played for a great coach in Randy Bennett in college and obviously Kyle was the associate head there at the time. Working with Kyle for three years at San Francisco gave me the opportunity to become a head coach and incredibly grateful to be able to play for and play with both those guys.”
What Todd Golden wants to show the Florida basketball team in San Francisco
Golden said he would like to get a practice in at the old gym where he coached in San Francisco but isn’t entirely sure of its availability because the Dons are still playing in the NIT.
“I’m hopeful USF will let us use the gym for a practice or two, maybe a walk through,” Golden said. “The other cool thing is both San Francisco or Samford play in the NIT tonight and if they both win, I think Samford will play at San Fransico on Wednesday night so that might be a game we slide over to watch for the first half.”
Golden also wants to take the team to his favorite restaurant in San Francisco, Original Joe’s, for dinner.
“Go see the Dugans,” Golden said. “Great Italian Restaurant, family was very good to us when we lived in the Bay.”
Florida will play its Sweet 16 game in the Chase Center, a recently built NBA arena in downtown San Francisco for the Golden State Warriors. But Golden said he wants to take his players to War Memorial Gym on the San Francisco campus to remind them of their underdog, mid-major roots.
“This group is very gracious, understands how good they have it,” Golden said. “But I think when they walk in the gym at War Memorial, they’ll appreciate the O’Connell Center even more.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun's Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida basketball coach Todd Golden looking forward to Sweet 16 trip to San Francisco
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