When the Auburn basketball team heads to San Antonio to face off against the Florida Gators in the Final Four they will be going up against a team whose head coach got his start on the Plains.
Florida head coach Todd Golden got his first job in the high-majors when Auburn's Bruce Pearl hired him on as an assistant in 2014. He began as the Tigers' director of basketball operations and became an assistant coach in 2015-2016 before leaving for a similar role at San Francisco. He became the head coach at San Francisco in 2019, and then parted ways for the Florida job in 2022.
Now, Golden will face off against one of his mentors Bruce Pearl, and one of his close friends Steven Pearl on the road to the championship game.
"It's crazy, to be honest," Golden said, per Auburn Undercover. "I think if we would have said this at the beginning of the year, a lot of people would have laughed at us, that we would have been meeting in the Final Four. Surreal. As you know, Bruce is one of my mentors, and his son, Steven, is one of my best friends. I FaceTimed with Steven after they got the win, and we were just sitting there shaking our heads like, 'Really? We're meeting up again here in the Final Four?' It's hard to believe."
Meanwhile, with a record-breaking season under their belts on the Plains, the Pearls and their team will be trying to finish what they started and get Auburn basketball its first national championship in program history, going up against a coach who was a played a part in building up their program.
"I've been saying for the last two months that I've thought that Florida is the best team in the country," said Pearl, per Auburn Undercover. "I thought they were playing better than anybody. They've got an incredibly deep front line. They've got the best point guard on the floor almost every single night in Walter Clayton. Their wings, Martin and Richard, can really score. They're big. And Todd does a great job coaching. This is going to be a great, great challenge for us."
The Tigers and the Gators will tipoff from San Antonio this Saturday at 5:09 p.m.