Despite a resurgent campaign, Todd Golden was not named SEC Coach of the Year

Florida Basketball coach Todd Golden has revitalized the Gators in 2025. Florida is ranked 4th in the country, finished 2nd in the SEC, and capped off a 27-4 regular season. Given the upward swing of the program since he took over, Golden felt like he would be a lock of SEC Coach of the Year honors in 2025.

Well, that award was announced today, and let’s just say Bruce Pearl is a weird way of spelling Todd Golden.

Florida Basketball: Recount

Pearl, not Golden, was named SEC Coach of the Year today.

It’s not to say Pearl is a bad coach, and considering Auburn won the regular season title in the SEC, it was the easy choice for the conference to make.

It’s also not how the conference has doled out the award in the past.

Last year, the award was given to South Carolina coach Lamont Paris, and the year before that, it was split between Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams and Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse.

Typically, the award is given out to the program that surpassed expectations the most. Florida was 21st in the preseason AP Top 25 and was picked 6th in the preseason SEC poll.

Not only did Florida crush those expectations, but Golden did so with the backdrop of an investigation that could have sent things off the rails quickly but ultimately never looked like it phased Golden or the Gators.

Combine that with Florida beating Auburn head-to-head this year on the road, and it felt like voters this year took the easy road out to pick Pearl.

Golden will have his chance to prove the voters wrong this week at the SEC Tournament. Florida is the No. 2 seed and has a double bye until Friday, when they will play either LSU, Mississippi State, or Missouri.