RALEIGH, N.C. — In the 10th game Todd Golden coached at Florida, in early December 2022, his Gators were stomped at home by Dan Hurley and UConn.
Looking back now, said Golden, whose Florida team will face the Huskies in the round of 32 on Sunday, that was a turning point — when he decided the best way to build a winner was to build a team that looked an awful lot like UConn.
“It definitely opened my eyes to how much we needed to improve to be able to compete at the highest level,” Golden said. “It provided a good — not necessarily the blueprint, but our goal was to try to build something similar. I feel like we are in a really good spot right now three years in, in the sense of building a team that enjoys playing together that’s really deep.”
The Gators are the 1-seed and a heavy favorite for Sunday’s showdown, but UConn has won 13 straight NCAA tournament games and, as head coach Hurley said Saturday, “still has that DNA” of the team that beat Golden’s 2022-23 Gators en route to back-to-back national titles.
That makes Sunday something of a full-circle moment — for both coaches.
Golden said he’s not trying to turn the matchup against UConn into a referendum on who’s at the top of the college basketball food chain, but he understands what’s at stake against the two-time defending champs.
“Even though we might be favored, I think a lot of people still believe that UConn is going to win this game because of their track record,” Golden said. “It gives us an opportunity to keep the chip on our shoulder. I do still think the main people that think we’re going to advance is the people in our locker room. We’ve got to make sure that we play that way tomorrow.”
For Hurley, he’s not eager to play the underdog card, he said, but he recognizes much of what made his program so successful over the past few seasons in what Golden has built at Florida.
That’s part of the game, Hurley said. Creating a road map to a national title invites imitation — but only the best coaches can take the blueprint and implement it at such a high level.
“I’ve looked at the best teams in the country and how they’ve constructed this year, and I’ve envied some of the teams that I’m now facing,” he said. “What [the Gators] have in terms of their frontcourt is obviously similar to what we’ve had in our run. Then obviously the perimeter firepower and the veteran guards, us with Cam Spencer, Tristen Newton, you know, big physical guards, Steph Castle. We’ve had the formula the last couple years, and it looks like they’ve got a pretty good formula.”
If Golden aped a bit of what he saw from UConn to build his program, however, Hurley said he can point back at Florida’s history to find some of the initial seeds of what he’s created at UConn, too.
Hurley said one of his biggest professional idols is former Florida coach Billy Donovan, who took the Gators to back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007.
“Those Florida teams, those are some of my favorite teams I’ve ever watched play,” Hurley said. “To have accomplished the things that my coaching idol has accomplished, and how much I love those Florida teams, and we’ve been able to do what they’ve been able to accomplish, it means a lot to me.”
Still, for all the mutual admiration, Hurley said Donovan has been uncharacteristically hard to reach in recent days — a not-too-subtle suggestion the former Florida coach has been ducking any debate over Sunday’s matchup.
“He’s not responding to texts or phone calls from me,” Hurley joked. “But the relationship means more to me than anything because he’s helped me so much. Billy, he’s incredible … and he’s impacted me in terms of mentors as much as anyone outside of the Hurley clan.”
