Auburn coach Bruce Pearl and Florida coach Todd Golden know each other well. Golden played for Pearl in the World Maccabiah Games in 2009 and was one of the first assistants hired by Pearl at Auburn five years later.

Golden’s first role with the Tigers was director of basketball operations from 2014-15 before serving as an assistant coach from 2015-16. His time in Auburn came to an end when he accepted the associate head coaching role with San Francisco, which later became his first head coaching job.

Before the 2022 season, Florida hired Golden to fill Mike White’s vacancy. Pearl assured Florida that bringing in Golden was the right choice.

“‘Who’s better,” Pearl said to Florida officials via AL.com. “One of my messages was just, ‘Stop. You tell me who’s better? Who’s got a better basketball mind? Who has a better relationship with the kids? Who’s got a better family? OK, maybe you’re not sure if he’s got enough experience. That’s fine.’ I didn’t have to convince anybody at Florida. I think they knew what they had.”

Pearl and Golden will have another opportunity to coach against each other on Saturday, this time in a top 10 matchup with the Tigers and Gators coming in at No. 1 and No. 6 respectively. Pearl and Tigers are 2-1 against Florida since it brought in Golden, their one loss coming on the road in 81-65 fashion in February 2024.

Pearl expressed how he does not exactly like taking on his protégé because of the quality of teams Golden brings into every contest.

“I probably don’t enjoy having to play against his teams, especially because both teams play so hard and so physical,” Pearl said. “I’d like to play him only one time a year and that’s in the SEC Tournament championship game if I could. Because we both would have gotten there and that would be great.”

Despite the long-lasting relationship between the two coaches, Pearl does not believe it makes a difference when preparing to face Golden and the Gators.

“I don’t think our familiarity with each other has anything to do with the scouting or anything like that,” Pearl said. “We’re familiar with them because we’ve played against them. And they’re familiar with us because they do a great job scouting and they do a great job knowing what we do. I guess the hard part would be that I root for Todd except when we’re playing against him.”

Tipoff between Pearl’s Tigers and Golden’s Gators is set for 3 p.m. CT on Saturday. ESPN2 will carry the television broadcast.