The Golden Era begins: Gators host Stony Brook

THE GOLDEN ERA BEGINS: GATORS HOST STONY BROOK

By Franz Beard

Years ago when he was the football coach at North Carolina State, Lou Holtz was thought to be the logical successor to his former boss, Ohio State legend Woody Hayes. Asked one day after practice if he had thought about the possibility of following in Hayes’ footsteps, Holtz replied, “I would never follow a legend, but I wouldn’t mind following the guy who follows the legend.”

There is some relevance to that statement with the Florida basketball program. Mike White chose to follow in the footsteps of Florida’s only basketball coaching legend, Billy Donovan, who won two NCAA titles, got the Gators to the Final Four four times, the Elite Eight seven times and won six SEC championships. White never won a conference championship and though he got the Gators to the NCAA Tournament four times in his seven seasons, only once did UF get past the first weekend.

After seven years and a 142-88 record, White resigned abruptly and within a matter of a couple of days was named the head coach at Georgia.

Enter Todd Golden, the guy who replaced the guy who replaced the legend and who makes his head coaching debut at Florida tonight (8 p.m.) against Stony Brook as part of an opening night basketball doubleheader. Kelly Rae Finley and the Florida women will face Florida A&M at 5:30.

Golden believes everything is in place here at Florida to turn the Gators into a program that expects to get to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament yearly and is capable of competing for Final Four appearances. Although the Gators have been predicted a middle of the pack finish in the Southeastern Conference this season, Golden expects the Gators to make the NCAA Tournament this year.

After years of a program whose transmission seemed to be jammed in neutral under White, Golden brings a fresh approach. As the head coach at San Francisco, Golden went 57-36 in three seasons, taking the Dons to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998 last season when they went 24-10. That’s a tough 24-10 because San Francisco plays in the same West Coast Conference as perennial Final Four and national championship contender Gonzaga as well as highly respected west coast powers Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara and BYU.

White’s offenses were unimaginative and regularly hit stretches of four or five minutes in games when the Gators couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean from the end of the pier. Golden favors a very fast paced offense where the floor is spread and the ball moves quickly. There is a lot of pick and roll action that’s designed to get people to the rim off the bounce or wide open shots, particularly from beyond the 3-point line.

The base set will have one big guy surrounded by three capable shooters who can hit 3-pointers. In All-SEC center Colin Castleton (6-11, 250, 5th YR), Golden has one of the nation’s elite big men. The other key to this offense will be point guard Kyle Lofton (6-3, 188, GR), a three-time All-Atlantic 10 Conference selection at St. Bonaventure. The way this offense spreads the floor, it will be difficult for opponents to double down on Castleton, particularly with Lofton able to deliver the ball to shooters on the perimeter.

Golden has 13 scholarship players on the roster: six he inherited from last year’s team, four who transferred in and three true freshmen.

Florida expected starting lineup: Colin Castleton (6-11, 250, 5th YR); CJ Felder (6-7, 240, SR); Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 192, SO); Will Richard (6-4, 206, SO); Kyle Lofton (6-3, 188, GR)

Stony Brook expected starting lineup: Frankie Pollicelli (6-7, 215, GR); Keenan Fitzmorris (7-0, 235, GR); Tyler Stephenson-Moore (6-3, 186, SR); Dean Noll (6-2, 180, GR); Aaron Clarke (6-1, 185, GR)