Golden hired as Director of Basketball Operations
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AUBURN | Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has hired Todd Golden has Director of Basketball Operations, AuburnSports.com first reported.
Golden just finished his first season as an assistant coach at Columbia after serving as the Director of Basketball Operations for the Lions in 2012-13. Columbia finished the 2013-14 season with a 21-13 record and 8-6 mark in the Ivy League.
Golden started his job in Auburn on Wednesday.
Pearl said during a campus event at Auburn on Wednesday that he's looking at around 12 candidates to fill his final coaching positions before or after the Final Four. Pearl will conduct interviews at the Final Four as previously planned. A Director of Scouting position, plus two full-time assistant positions still need to be filled.
Golden and the Pearl family have a connection that dates back to 2009. Golden and Steven Pearl, Auburn's new strength and conditioning coach, played under Bruce Pearl during the Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Golden played for current Columbia head coach Kyle Smith while he was the associate head coach at Saint Mary's. While there, the Gaels made a pair of trips to the NCAA Tournament becoming one of just six players in program history to go to the NCAA Tournament twice in his career.
In his senior year, he was second in the nation with a 3.68 assist to turnover ratio and led the West Coast Conference in three's (31) and was second in the league with a .574 three-point field goal percentage. Golden, a lone captain of the 2007-08 squad, finished his career as Saint Mary's all-time leader in free-throw percentage (.852) and ranks eighth with 269 career assists.
After earning his undergraduate Business Administration from Saint Mary's in 2007, Golden played two years professionally for Maccabi Haifa in Israel's top division. In 2009, he was co-captain of the 2009 USA Open Team that took the gold at the Maccabiah Games.
Golden is 28 years old.