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Florida basketball: No, Todd Golden isn’t on the hot seat yet

By Will Thomas

Feb 15, 2023; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden reacts against the Mississippi Rebels during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 15, 2023; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden reacts against the Mississippi Rebels during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Florida basketball hasn’t had the successful season that they had hoped to have in the preseason. With talented transfers like Will Richard and Kyle Lofton, alongside returning talent like Colin Castleton and Kowacie Reeves, the ceiling seemed to be high in Todd Golden’s first year.

But things didn’t turn out that way.

The Gators looked the same way they’ve looked in the past few years. Slow on offense, inconsistent shooting, and unable to string together consecutive great performances.

It’s easy to look at some of the bad losses and the sub .500 record and say “This is what happens when you hire an analytics guy with no power 6 experience.”

But this isn’t on Todd Golden, and he shouldn’t be on the hot seat at all.

For starters, we need to take a broader look at Florida basketball over its history. I have no problem with the standards at UF being high, but by no means are we a basketball blue blood.

Billy Donovan walked in and gave the Gators their best stretch of basketball they’d ever seen. And then he left, and it’s been a slow decline ever since.

Gator basketball just hasn’t been a dominant program year in and year out ever in their history. They had a dominant coach who stuck around for a while.

There should have been no expectations that in Golden’s first season, he would magically turn UF around and get them to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

It doesn’t help either that Golden lost his best player right in the heart of their run to make the tournament. Especially when your best player is your big man, and you have just about no shooting to fall back on.

The loss of Colin Castleton just about broke this team, and their final record won’t be reflective of what they could have been. Granted, they “could have” been a few games over .500, which isn’t remarkable.

But you can’t look at UF’s losing record and say it’s on Golden.

We saw Todd, without Castleton, coach the Gators to a close game against the legendary John Calipari last week. It would have been so easy for him to roll over and accept his fate, but instead, he coached circles around Calipari and almost pulled off the win.

Before people start calling for Golden’s head, he needs a few more years. Let him get his players in and fully establish his culture and coaching style. If he keeps bringing in guys like Riley Kugel in recruiting and Will Richard in the portal, this team will get really talented, really fast.

If in 2-3 years the Gators still haven’t made the tournament, you can come back to this article and call me an idiot.

But no, Todd Golden is not on the hot seat. At least not yet.

Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail. 

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