Florida Basketball: Todd Golden isn’t helping Scott Stricklin’s fate
When he was hired on to be the head coach of the Florida Gators, Todd Golden was a relatively unknown coach on a national scale, but he fit the mold of the “young up and comer” that seemed like could be a decent hire. Compared to the slow and plodding style of Mike White, Golden was supposed to bring his three-point shooting parade with him from San Francisco to Florida basketball.
As his inaugural season at the helm winds down, it is apparent that Golden hasn’t been as advertised. And he is the latest in a string of hired by Scott Stricklin that haven’t been as advertised.
Florida Basketball: Stuck in the Bronze Age
We have mused before about the string of questionable hires made by Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin. Women’s basketball and women’s soccer have both been riddled with scandals and any program in Gainesville that has been good is led by a coach that Stricklin didn’t hire.
Stricklin hired Billy Napier and the Gators went a disappointing 6-7. We are willing to give Napier through the 2024 season before any definitive judgements can be made, but if you are of the opinion that things needed to be torn down and built back up, ask yourself who hired the guy that had the program before Napier that brought the program to a place that it needed to be torn down in the first place?
That was Scott Stricklin.
And now that Florida basketball is coming off three straight defeats, including a disaster class of a performance against Vanderbilt, hopes of a NCAA Tournament bid look bleak. Like Napier, we are willing to give Golden time to get his program in place.
Bruce Peral took over Auburn and endured two losing seasons before ascending to a regular season SEC title in his fourth season. Rick Barnes took three years before he had a winning season in Tennessee.
But then there is a coach like Nate Oats at Alabama that took a largely dormant basketball program to a 26-7 record his second season.
And it’s not like Todd Golden is stuck coaching nothing but Mike White leftovers while he gets his own guys into the Florida basketball system. Riley Kugel is a freshman, Kyle Lofton transferred in from St. Bonaventure, Will Richard transferred in from Belmont, Alex Fudge came from LSU, and Trey Bonham came in from VMI.
Five of Golden’s top eight players are guys that he brought to Gainesville. Napier had a number of players that he too brought with him to Gainesville and those players were some of the best players for the Gators. The difference is that the best player for Florida basketball is Mike White holdover Colin Castleton.
New sheriff in town
So, what happens if Todd Golden winds up not being an upgrade to Mike White?
Scott Stricklin probably gets fired.
The University of Florida’s new president Ben Sasse is a sport minded guy and isn’t going to settle for an underwhelming athletic program. Sasse has no allegiance to Stricklin and surely is not impressed by his first impression of the men’s basketball team.
Once Sasse puts two and two together and takes a hard look at Stricklin’s hires, it wouldn’t be shocking if Sasse had some questions about the state of the Florida Gators.