Ad Disclosure
Bruce Pearl has Auburn in the Final Four for the second time after also taking the Tigers to this prestigious point in 2019.
Naturally, the 65-year-old coaching veteran would love to break through and capture that first national championship, for himself and for Auburn. He led the Tigers to the regular-season title this season in a historically good SEC, and now he’s at the precipice of something very special.
But Pearl also has a heart, and he knows that there is another head coach on the other side on Saturday night in San Antonio. And that head coach just happens to be former Auburn assistant and dear friend Todd Golden, who also has Florida on the brink of something very special. Golden is just 39 years old and hadn’t even won an NCAA Tournament game in his brief coaching career before leading the Gators to their first Final Four appearance since 2014.
Golden means a lot to Pearl, who had the young coach as an assistant at Auburn during his first 2 seasons on the Plains. Now, a decade later, the 2 coaches will lock horns for the right to play for the national title on Monday night. Pearl is happy for his own program, but if the Tigers lose to the Gators, as they did during the regular season, he would love nothing more than to see Golden’s team win it all 2 nights later.
And Pearl said so in a pregame interview with CBS Sports’s Tracy Wolfson, with Golden standing right alongside him.
“Hopefully, one of us gets a chance to cut down the nets on Monday,” said an emotional Pearl before leading his Tigers against Golden’s team in a matchup of powerhouse 1-seeds.
Golden was endlessly appreciative of everything Pearl had done to get him to this point in his young coaching career.
“It’s crazy. It’s surreal. This guy knows, if it wasn’t for him and what he’s done for me in my career, I wouldn’t be here,” said Golden. “I’m grateful for that.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
