Twenty miles and a few lifetimes later, Todd Golden was back in a San Francisco Bay Area arena Wednesday afternoon, a one-time player turned coach, a former mid-major rep now heading one of the favorites for the national championship.
What started with 109 games at guard for Saint Mary’s in nearby Moraga and later continued as associate coach and then head coach at the University of San Francisco reached a different level when Golden walked into Chase Center with his top-seeded Florida squad. The circuitous offseason – Nashville for the SEC Tournament, Raleigh, N.C., for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, Northern California for a West Region Sweet Sixteen game Thursday against Maryland – just became a full circle.
“It’s been amazing,” Golden said. “When the bracket came out and we saw we were the 1 seed in the West, and obviously you see that the regional’s in San Francisco, you can’t help but think about how awesome it would be to be able to experience that. But there’s two games before that that you have to find a way to advance. And once we were able to get past UConn on Sunday, it kind of all hit me and (wife) Megan and our family that we’d have a chance to come back to the Bay Area. Just landing in San Francisco yesterday and just kind of driving back through the city, I had to pinch myself a little bit.”
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Yes, he grew up in Phoenix and, yes, he works in Gainesville. But four seasons at Saint Mary’s, finishing second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio as a senior captain in 2007-08, three seasons as associate head coach at USF some 4 miles from Chase Center and three more years as the Dons’ head coach qualifies Golden as local boy made good.
So he had the Gators practice at USF on Tuesday. He took them to North Beach, the neighborhood filled with Italian flavors, and one of its best-known restaurants, Original Joe’s. Golden went with the prime rib. Wednesday morning, the team stopped at Crissy Field with its large grass areas, bike paths and views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“I think he tried to stay away from talking about his playing days a little bit because of how much we joke around,” 6-foot-3 senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. said. “We have a couple of jokes, so we don’t talk about it too much. But we definitely know that Coach was a good player, though.”
“It definitely meant a lot just with that being a part of him getting to the University of Florida, which is why it was so special to go there and work out and see him back in his old element,” 6-foot-4 senior guard Will Richard said. “It was definitely special for him.”
To 6-foot-2 graduate-student guard Alijah Martin, “It was great. He had a smile on his face. His energy was great as well. It’s always good to go back home.”
Thursday at Chase Center brings the entirely different emotion of a game against a quality opponent, fourth-seeded Maryland, a team that is even more at home in San Francisco. The Terrapins beat Colorado State on Sunday in Seattle and chose to stay on the West Coast rather than return home, then make a quick U-turn to California.
“They run consistently,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said of Florida. “They’re fresh. They’re as good a basketball team as I’ve seen on film all year.”
A Terps victory spoils the Golden homecoming, of course. That is why when the coach-slash-tour guide was asked Wednesday about the return to the Bay Area, the response included a disclaimer.
“We’re trying to soak it all up the best we can while maintaining our focus,” Golden said, “but it’s been a great trip so far.”
So far.
