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Todd Golden Q&A: His plan to 'get Florida back to being a national title contender'
Your San Francisco team capped a monumental season by reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin had to balance a coaching search with being respectful of candidates who are involved in March Madness. In the aftermath of Thursday night’s overtime loss to Murray State, walk me through how the agreement came together.
It was a situation where Scott informed me that I was on their radar and they said, ‘as soon as you’re done coaching your team and getting them as far as they can go, we can get together and see if this makes some sense.’ So after we got eliminated, things got sped up pretty quickly. I felt fortunate to meet with Scott and Lynda (Tealer) and Chip (Howard) and we came to a resolution quickly Friday, before we got on the plane heading back to San Francisco. It all moved really, really fast. I think both sides felt really comfortable with each other from the onset and felt like there was no reason to waste any time.
The Gators face Xavier in the second round of the NIT on Sunday under interim coach Al Pinkins. Have you dug into any level of self-scouting and begun assessing a roster that has seven seniors?
Right now I’m being respectful and allowing the current athletes in the program to finish their season. There have been some distractions for them because of coach White leaving, and I don’t want to add to that. I want to give the players, coach Pinkins, Eric (Pastrana) and the rest of the staff the chance to finish strong in the NIT. As soon as that is over, I’m going to reach out to the young men in the program and introduce myself. I’ve already been in touch with the signees, trying to continue to build relationships with them and make sure they feel comfortable with Florida being their home.
Todd Golden Q&A: His plan to 'get Florida back to being a national title contender'
Your San Francisco team capped a monumental season by reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin had to balance a coaching search with being respectful of candidates who are involved in March Madness. In the aftermath of Thursday night’s overtime loss to Murray State, walk me through how the agreement came together.
It was a situation where Scott informed me that I was on their radar and they said, ‘as soon as you’re done coaching your team and getting them as far as they can go, we can get together and see if this makes some sense.’ So after we got eliminated, things got sped up pretty quickly. I felt fortunate to meet with Scott and Lynda (Tealer) and Chip (Howard) and we came to a resolution quickly Friday, before we got on the plane heading back to San Francisco. It all moved really, really fast. I think both sides felt really comfortable with each other from the onset and felt like there was no reason to waste any time.
The Gators face Xavier in the second round of the NIT on Sunday under interim coach Al Pinkins. Have you dug into any level of self-scouting and begun assessing a roster that has seven seniors?
Right now I’m being respectful and allowing the current athletes in the program to finish their season. There have been some distractions for them because of coach White leaving, and I don’t want to add to that. I want to give the players, coach Pinkins, Eric (Pastrana) and the rest of the staff the chance to finish strong in the NIT. As soon as that is over, I’m going to reach out to the young men in the program and introduce myself. I’ve already been in touch with the signees, trying to continue to build relationships with them and make sure they feel comfortable with Florida being their home.
