Florida's Todd Golden, Auburn's Steven Pearl Set Aside Personal Friendship for Crucial SEC Battle

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Another chapter in Florida head coach Todd Golden's personal friendship and coaching rivalry with Auburn's Steven Pearl is set to be written on Saturday as the Gators play the Tigers for the first time since last season's Final Four.

It also marks the first time the two match up as SEC head coaches after Pearl took over for his father, Bruce, this past offseason.

Steven Pearl has been with the Auburn program in various roles, including six seasons (2017-23) as an assistant and two more as the associate head coach (2023-25). Two of those seasons were spent with Golden as the Tigers' Director of Basketball Ops (2014-15) and as an assistant coach (2015-16).

Their relationship goes well-beyond the two seasons together at Auburn.

Nine years before Bruce Pearl hired Golden, he coached the now-Gators' head coach at Maccabiah Games in Israel with Steven Pearl on the team. Those experiences has led to a tight bond between the Golden and Pearl families.

Nonetheless, those relationships will be set aside on Saturday.

"They’re like family to us. Two times a year – or one time plus the tournament – there’s an opportunity for us to compete against them," Golden said. "And, listen, we want to beat them pretty bad. They want to do the same to us. I think we can do a good job of separating that relationship from the competition this weekend.”

Pearl has certainly separated that relationship.

"It doesn't mean I don't want to go down there and kick his ass," Pearl said this week.

Auburn Tigers head coach Steven Pearl is in his first year leading the program. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This year's matchup also comes with other considerable changes between the two programs outside of the coaching change at Auburn. Florida is still finding consistency with its new guard rotation of transfers Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee and backups Urban Klavzar and Isaiah Brown. Auburn essentially rebuilt its roster through the transfer portal, the bulk of which was done with Bruce Pearl still as the head coach.

The two teams are also in different places than when they first met a year ago. After a rough showing in non-conference play, the Gators find themselves ranked 16th nationally trending upward after winning their last five. Auburn, meanwhile, finds themselves unranked with an 11-7 record.

However, Golden said the Gators understand that Auburn is better than the record shows, evidenced by wins over St. John's and Arkansas.

"It’s all about expectation, some of the stuff we dealt with early in the year, having high expectations and struggling to meet that," Golden said. "I think they also had a lot of similar issues that we had where they were pretty good early and lost some games against some good teams.

"... I think they're better than their record is right now in the league, and we're very mindful of that."

Pearl agrees when looking at the Gators, which has notable wins over three ranked opponents in Tennessee, Georgia and Vanderbilt, who was ranked 10th when Florida won in Nashville..

"They're a top-5 team in my opinion," Pearl said. "They've lost five games by a combined 17 points, all away from home. They're one of the elite in college basketball. He's one of the best coaches in college basketball."

Florida head coach Todd Golden is looking to lead the team to its sixth-straight win. | Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

While competitors, Pearl is trying to take after Golden while keeping Auburn as a title contender. So much so that when Pearl accepted the job, one of his first calls was to Golden. Golden has been quick to praise the first-year head coach, saying he "knows what it takes to be successful," while emphasizing his ability to navigate a difficult roster reconstruction and then keeping those pieces after the coaching change.

"He's been such a valuable resource to me," Pearl said. "Any chance I need to run something by somebody, he's been one of my first calls, and he's always been so gracious with his time."

Yet, none of those memories and shared respect will matter on Saturday as Florida looks to win its sixth-straight game and Auburn looks to turn its season around. Golden will look to navigate playing an Auburn team without his mentor. Pearl will look to snap Auburn's two-game losing streak to the Gators in his first try.

"I’m not sure how much different it’ll be," Golden said of the dynamic. "I think of Bruce as kind of like a second father, so that was a pretty close dynamic. So with Steve I don’t anticipate it being that much different. But again when we’re between the lines, it don’t really matter. There’s no dynamic it’s time to compete."

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