Florida's Golden, Houston's Sampson on Opposite Ends Looking for Same Goal

SAN ANTONIO-- The Florida Gators and Houston Cougars may be similar on the court with both holding top 10 rankings in offensive and defensive efficiency in the KenPom, both holding a record of 35-4 and both using late comebacks in their runs to the national championship.

However, their head coaches find themselves on the opposite ends of the coaching spectrum, but both have a chance to make history should their teams win on Monday night.

Florida's Todd Golden is only in his third season leading the program with a record of 75-33 while leading the Gators. In six seasons as a collegiate head coach, Golden has acquired a career record of 132-69.

Should the Gators win, Golden, 39, would be the youngest head coach to win a national championship since North Carolina State's Jim Valvano did it in 1983 at 37 years old.

"The fact that we've been able to compete and stay alive through five games in the tournament, incredibly proud of that," Golden said. "This is a great opportunity again for us tomorrow night. Coach Sampson is a Hall of Fame head coach. If we're able to beat them, it will be a great honor."

Meanwhile, Houston's Kelvin Sampson is in his 11th season leading the Cougars with a record of 299-83. Across 36 seasons as a collegiate head coach, he's acquired a career record of 798-354.

Should the Cougars win, Sampson, 70, would become the oldest head coach to win a national championship in NCAA history while becoming the second head coach in program history to reach 300 wins with Houston.

"A lot of gratitude, a lot of appreciation for having this opportunity," Sampson said. "But you owe it to so many people. You don't do things like this in a vacuum. I got a great team, a great staff."

Sampson reached his third Final Four as a head coach this past season but remains ringless as a collegiate head coach. As one of the old faces in a new-blood era of college basketball, Sampson is representing something far greater than just himself.

"Over the years, things kind of come full circle in some ways," Sampson said. "Last night I got so many texts... I saw Tubby and Rick Barnes, Tom Izzo, Pop, a bunch of the older coaches. They all kind of had similar messages to me. Win one for the old guys, something like that . We were all young at the same time coming up. But I haven't thought a lot about what's next. I get so focused on the team, trying to figure out how to help them."

While Golden is finding his own immediate success as Florida's head coach, helping the program win its first SEC Tournament in 11 years and reach its first national championship game in nearly 20 years, he sees similarities in what Sampson has built at Houston with what he's trying to build at Florida.

"I love the way he talks about his team, the way he talks about his staff," Golden said. "I saw something that he doesn't take phone calls when he needs spots on his staff, he just promotes from within. You can tell by the way they recruit, they're not worried about rankings, they're worried about finding tough minded young men that are willing to put the Houston program above themselves...

"Being compared to Houston's program in terms of resilience is a huge compliment for us. It's what we continue to strive to build here in Gainesville."

While the respect for Sampson and Houston is great, Golden understands the stakes of Monday's game. Florida hasn't won a title since 2007 and hasn't been a consistent contender since the early 2010s.

A win would give Golden his first national title ever in his coaching career, but the obvious goal is to not be a one-hit wonder.

"It's a huge challenge for us. But for us to continue to put ourselves on the map and continue to get Florida basketball where we want it to be, tomorrow night is a great opportunity," he said. "We got 40 minutes for one chance to win a national championship, continue to put ourselves in that conversation."

Golden's Gators and Sampson's Cougars will each go for their first titles as a head coach at 8:50 p.m. ET with television coverage on CBS.

"But obviously he has a longer résumé than I do. He's been at it a little longer than I have," Golden said. "It's going to be a huge challenge for me to compete against him tomorrow night."

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