SAN FRANCISCO — Florida coach Todd Golden’s Sweet 16 in Northern California began with a celebration he hopes ends with a coronation.
Golden’s Gators arrived Tuesday following a cross-country flight from Gainesville and hit the ground running as the 39-year-old returned to his ol’ stomping grounds and set his sights on advancing to the Final Four.
UF practiced at the University of San Francisco’s War Memorial Gym, where Golden coached six seasons — three each as a Dons assistant (2016-19) and head coach (2019-22). The intimate 3,005-seat setting allowed friends from the Bay Area to visit and see what Golden is building back at UF.
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Later, the Gators dined at Original Joe’s, Golden’s favorite restaurant in a city famous for its cuisine.
Owner John Duggan, a 6-foot-7 former Dons forward with 1,165 career points, greeted Golden with a bear hug — the two men’s first meeting in more than three years. Duggan then ushered a party of around 30 to the bar area roped off as a last-minute reservation to accommodate his friend.
“It’s surreal having him back in the restaurant,” Duggan told the Orlando Sentinel. “I haven’t seen him since he left for Florida. I root for him from afar. It’s exciting.
“But it doesn’t surprise me.”
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Golden himself was caught off-guard by the swirling emotions, “probably a little more than I thought it would be.”
“You come back and you just realize we spent six great years of our life here and started raising our family here, and grew a lot as a coach and a person here,” he told the Sentinel. “It’s pretty neat.”
Duggan, though, figured Golden would not be long for USF once he became head coach.
“We knew it was going to be a short runway,” Duggan said.
Golden’s charisma and personality along with his basketball acumen were hard to hide from the world.
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“Best press conferences in the country,” Duggan said. “I saw that at the University of San Francisco from his first day, 33 years old. He handled himself with such intelligence, precision and confidence, it just oozes through. That always stuck out to me.”
Stanford head coach Kyle Smith, Golden’s mentor and boss at both Columbia and USF, also could tell early on Golden was special.
“He kind of had this ‘it’ factor as a leader, as a player,” Smith told the Sentinel. “Yet his spirit about him, he’s just got a quality. He’s just always upbeat. He’s always energetic. He’s always coming at you in a good way.
“That’s probably resonates with his players. Florida really responded to him: the community, what he does on the court and the ways his teams play. He was like that for us.”
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Smith, 55, sat at the head of the table Tuesday night and at times held court while flanked by Golden and his staff. Smith had to make a last-second adjustment to avoid missing dinner.
“We thought it was at six o’clock,” Smith said. “So we showed up at USF. ‘Hey, where’s the practice?’”
Otherwise, a meal at Original Joe’s with his staff, players and mentor capped a memorable day for Golden, who had his go-to chicken parmesan at a spot where he dined every week or two, brought USF recruits and had date nights with wife Megan.
“Today’s been awesome,” he said.
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Golden now aims to stick around the Bay Area awhile.
No. 1 seed Florida (31-4) faces No. 4 Maryland (27-8) Thursday at Chase Center for a spot in Saturday’s Elite Eight after each slipped into the Sweet 16 during nail-biters — the Gators’ 77-75 grind-it-out win against UConn and the Terps’ 72-71 buzzer-beating victory against Colorado State.
Even with Stanford set to play in the NIT Sunday night, Smith said he tuned for the noon tip, or 9 a.m. PDT, to watch.
“I usually never watch a game on the day,” Smith said. “I don’t want to get emotionally involved in anything before our game. But I couldn’t help myself, and I emptied the tank rooting for Todd.”
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Physically draining, too, is traveling six hours cross country two days after beating the two-time national champion.
Sending UF coast to coast hardly seems like a reward for the top seed in the West Region. Maryland, on the other hand, won two games in Seattle and stayed out west.
“Not ideal, but at this point it’s like, screw it,” Golden said Monday in his office. “That’s kind of how I feel.”
If nothing else, Golden should have a homecourt advantage more than 2,700 miles from Gainesville.
“There’s a lot of people in San Francisco rooting for Florida just because of Todd’s connection,” Duggan said.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
Up next …
No. 1 Florida vs. No. 4 Maryland
When: Thursday, 7:39 p.m., Chase Center, San Francisco
TV: TBS, truTV
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