Hopefully our AD is doing whatever it takes to hold on to our Golden boy! What he has accomplished in 3 years is nothing short of amazing. He has transformed the program and has pumped enthusiasm into uf basketball like we haven't seen in awhile. We need to do whatever it takes to hold onto Golden. I know our AD has gotten a lot of heat this past year but he struck gold imo. Kudo's to him.
I still believe that history will give us a different perspective of Scott. Golden is a star and I still believe Napier turns a corner if he uses DJ right.
I hope Napier does turn the corner. He has to do it now though. There can be no more Miami games. Unfortunately he has created a very narrow path for himself. His overall record is still very poor.
He should be in contention for national coach of the year. He's not doing this with national player of the year type players like Broome and Flagg. He won't get it, but should be in the conversation.
He would get the SEC Coach of the year for sure most years. Unfortunately what Gates has done at Mizzou is quite remarkable.
No, don't misinterpret the silence of the "I hate the UF AD" crowd. Their priors are so hard set I don't think they'll give any credit if his decisions are positive, and are merely biding their time until they find a justification to return. It's the way it is and it's much like politics: "Even if the politician / party I hate does something that benefits me, I won't give them credit."
I am not sure yet about Golden's ability to get highly rated high school basketball players. For instance, landing the top 25/ top 100 HS players and McDonald All-Americans who are often NBA lottery picks. Hopefully with the success of the last two out of three teams, Golden can ultimately begin signing more of those top end talent. Golden has done a remarkable job in getting players from the transfer portal which can be hit or miss: i.e Clayton, Zyon Pullin, Samuel, Handlogten, etc. He has also signed promising international players: i.e Condon, Rioux, Klavzar, etc. And finally, as for the NCAA Tournament, Golden has still to win his first NCAA game even though he will likely get his 2nd NCAA bid out of three years. While things do look promising, what kind of team will Florida field next season and beyond?
Fair observations and reasonable concerns, but one can never be certain what the future brings. We could make the FF this year and all your concerns are still there except the winning an NCAA tourney game. I'd say he has demonstrably shown that he has many highly desirable traits in a coach at this level. Namely: an outstanding "eye" for talent (and specifically the talent that fits his vision and the teams needs), the ability to coach em up (nearly universal improvement in individual players and teamwork), and the type of leadership that players seem willing to run through walls for. He's young, no doubt. Early in his career. Much left to prove. The wheels could still come off (on or off the court), but given what he's done to date (including two of Floridas top 10 HS players headed here next year) one has to feel exceedingly confident that we've found our guy
The game has changed with portal/NIL. Some of those elite 5* kids can work, but everyone is much older, deeper, and more developed these days. The only 5* on the floor between us and Auburn was Pettiford. The only 5* kids UConn had in two consecutive title runs were Clingan and Castle. IIRC, Bama hasn’t had one since Brandon Miller. That said, Ingram and Lloyd are consensus top-50 players who most consider underrated (Ingram because he hasn’t played basketball full time until now, Lloyd because he is very young for his age). We are clear leaders in 2026 for Bryant out of Tampa and Lloyd’s teammate Constanza, who are consensus top 20 players and would be our biggest recruiting catches since 2013. Golden will get his big fish, but they also don’t quite have the impact they once did with the changing landscape. As far as next year, we lose three terrific guards, but everyone else is due back. We definitely need another solid veteran guard from the portal, where we have hit big the last two years (Pullin, Clayton, Martin). But it is more of a develop-and-retain world than it has been in decades. We were all optimistic about the players we returned this year, but just look at the leaps Richard, Condon, Haugh, and Aberdeen have made. No one could have expected that a year ago. We can reasonably expect the same next year for some of these kids. Hoping Condon stays, but if he keeps playing like he did last week, he may not be around.
Baseball and softball made it to the semi-finals last year. Both have coaches with long winning resumes. Unless "few main sports" only means football?
-Well it is Coach of the Year, not decade. -Who are our misses in the Portal? -If everyone that can stay, stays, we will field another good team next year. It won’t be this years team but it will still have a good core of veterans.
