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Auburn's Steven Pearl has dinner with Todd Golden before facing Gators

On3 imageby: Zach Abolverdi12/28/22ZachAbolverdi
On3 image
Florida coach Todd Golden (left) in 2014 with Auburn assistant Steven Pearl. (Photo courtesy of Pearl)

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Florida’s SEC opener on Wednesday night marks Todd Golden’s return to Auburn, where he worked on Bruce Pearl’s staff for two seasons (2014-16).

It’s also a reunion for him and Bruce’s son, Auburn assistant coach Steven Pearl, who considers Golden a brother. They played together as Jewish-Americans on the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team, winning a gold medal at the 2006 Maccabi Games in Sydney, Australia.

They were teammates again in 2009 on the USA Open Team, coached by Bruce Pearl, that won gold at the Maccabiah Games. Steven Pearl reunited with Golden when he joined Pearl’s first basketball staff at Auburn in 2014.

“We worked together for years, so this one is tough. He’s family. He’s like a brother to me. He’s like a son to BP,” Pearl said. “Todd was here in the first two years when we were rebuilding a program, and Todd really did an unbelievable job of helping us get our grounding.

“He brought in some guys at the last minute that helped us get connections in recruiting. And just his basketball mind, and his analytics, were a big part of why we’ve been able to have sustained success at Auburn.”

How close are Golden, 37, and the 35-year-old Pearl? The Golden family planned to spend Tuesday night with Pearl and his wife at their house. Golden jokingly said he was a “game time” decision for dinner, but Pearl quipped that he told his wife to have the red wine ready in case Golden does show up “because we’re going to try and get some of the game plan out of him as best we possibly can.”

“We’re going to have dinner with Megan, Maddie and Jake, then Todd will come over a little bit later after he’s done with the team,” Pearl said. “He’s probably the only coach in America that I would ever be willing to spend any time with the night before a game. I have some good friends in the profession, but he’s probably the only one I’d be comfortable doing that with. We just go so far back.”

For more on Golden and Pearl’s relationship, check out Justin Hokanson’s feature story at Auburn Live.

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