Raleight, NC – In the tenth game, Todd Golden trained in Florida, at the beginning of December 2022, his gators were trampled at home by Dan Hurley and Uconn.
Looking back now, Golden said, whose Florida team will face the Huskies in the 32nd round on Sunday, that was a turning point, when he decided that the best way to build a winner was to build a team that resembled Uconn.
“I definitely opened my eyes to how much we needed to improve in order to compete at the highest level,” Golden said. “He provided a good, not necessarily the plan, but our goal was to try to build something similar. I feel that we are in a really good place at this time three years later, in the sense of building a team that enjoys playing together, it is really deep.”
The Gators are the 1 seeds and a great favorite for Sunday's confrontation, but UConn has won 13 consecutive games of the NCAA tournament and, as the chief coach Hurley said on Saturday, “he still has that DNA” of the team that beat the 2022-23 Golden Gators on a route to the consecutive national titles.
That makes Sunday a complete circle, for both coaches.
Golden said he is not trying to convert the confrontation against UConn into a referendum about who is at the top of the University Basketball Food chain, but understands what is at stake against the two -time defense champions.
“Although we could be favored, I think many people still believe that UConn will win this game due to their history,” Golden said. “It gives us the opportunity to keep the chip on our shoulder. I still think that the main people who think we are going to advance are people in our costumes. We have to make sure we play like this tomorrow.”
For Hurley, he is not anxious to play Underdog's letter, he said, but recognizes much of what made his program so successful in the last seasons in what Golden has built in Florida.
That is part of the game, said Hurley. The creation of a road map to a national title invites imitation, but only the best coaches can take the plan and implement it at such a high level.
“I have examined the best teams in the country and how they have built this year, and I have envied some of the teams that I am now facing,” he said. “That [the Gators] Having in terms of your front track is obviously similar to what we have had in our career. So, obviously, the power of perimeter fire and veteran guards, we with Cam Spencer, sad Newton, you know, great physical guards, Steph Castle. We have had the formula for the last two years, and it seems that they have a fairly good formula. “
However, if Golden approved a bit of what he saw of Uconn to build his program, Hurley said he can point out the story of Florida to find some of the initial seeds of what he has created in Uconn as well.
Hurley said that one of his greatest professional idols is former Florida coach Billy Donovan, who took the Gators to consecutive national championships in 2006 and 2007.
“Those Florida teams, those are some of my favorite teams that I have seen play,” said Hurley. “Having achieved the things that my training idol has achieved and how much I love those Florida teams, and we have been able to do what they have been able to achieve, it means a lot to me.”
Even so, despite all mutual admiration, Hurley said that Donovan has been unusually difficult to achieve in recent days, a suggestion not too subtle that the former Florida coach has been looking for any debate about Sunday's confrontation.
“It is not responding to text messages or phone calls from me,” Hurley joked. “But the relationship means more for me than anything else because it has helped me a lot. Billy is incredible … and has impacted me in terms of mentors as much as anything outside the Hurley clan.”
