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Florida Gators assistant Kevin Hovde hired as Columbia coach

On3 imageby: Zach Abolverdi03/24/25ZachAbolverdi
Kevin-Hovde-Florida-Gators
Florida Gators assistant coach Kevin Hovde talks with Florida Gators center Rueben Chinyelu (9) after a timeout against the Oklahoma Sooners during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. (Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators men’s basketball assistant coach Kevin Hovde has been named head coach at Columbia University, the school announced on Monday.

Hovde is the second member of the UF coaching staff to take a head coaching job, as John Andrzejek was recently named head coach at Campbell.

With their departures, Florida coach Todd Golden now has to replace his offensive coordinator in Hovde and his defensive coordinator in Andrzejek.

A native of Kennett Square, Penn., Hovde (pronounced HUV-dee) was hired at Florida by Golden in 2022 and has been on UF’s staff ever since, overseeing the team’s offense. He previously worked at Columbia for five seasons from 2011-16, four of those as an assistant coach.

Under Kevin Hovde’s guidance, Florida has posted the two highest-scoring seasons in program history, averaging 85.6 points per game last season and 85.4 to date this season. The Gators’ 356 3-point field goals is one away from matching the program record of 357, set in 2011-12.

“Hov and I have worked together five out of six years I’ve been a head coach,” Golden said at a recent press conference. “He’s just an incredible basketball mind, but an even better person. Again, just incredibly mature, responsible. Always being ahead of the game with what he does. He deserves a lot of credit for how explosive our offense is.”

When Gators Online asked Golden about Andrzejek in Raleigh, N.C., he identified Jonathan Safir as his likely replacement. Safir has been director of basketball strategy and analytics for the past three seasons under Golden and worked with him at San Franciso and Columbia.

“You want your coaches to be able to get opportunities like that. Just like you want your players to grow and become NBA players, you want your staff to grow and become head coaches. It’s going to be really difficult losing him, but at the same time, when you’re able to have coaches in your program move on to head jobs, there’s a lot of really talented people that want to come work for you also,” Golden said.

“We’ll have to look around and see who’s the right fit. We have really good guys in our program like Jonathan Safir, who I’ll likely promote to an assistant to take John’s spot. We’ll continue to add bright young guys that are all about our program moving forward.”

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