After Missouri parted ways with Cuonzo Martin on Friday, athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois is in search of a new basketball coach. Martin's replacement will take over a program that made the NCAA Tournament twice during his tenure, in 2018 and 2021, but went just 12-21 a season ago.
A list of potential replacements for Martin can be found within our most recent hot board. Each day, we'll go a little bit more in depth to break down candidates in whom Missouri has expressed interest.
Yesterday, we broke down the resume of Murray State coach Matt McMahon. Today, we take a look at the file for the coach who will face McMahon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament: San Francisco head coach Todd Golden.
Sources have indicated to PowerMizzou that Missouri has contacted Golden, while Stadium's Jeff Goodman tweeted that Golden is "in the mix" to replace Bruce Weber at Kansas State. Any in-person interviews with Golden likely would not occur until after San Francisco's NCAA Tournament comes to a close.
Todd Golden
Age: 36
Current position: San Francisco head coach (third season)
Past head coaching experience: none
Salary: unknown
Buyout: unknown
While only 36 years old, Golden has emerged as a trendy candidate to fill high-major coaching vacancies because he just accomplished something that hasn't been done at San Francisco since before he was born. The Dons' NCAA Tournament appearance this season marked the first for the school since 1998. It's the first time San Francisco has earned an at-large berth since 1982.
Golden is a longtime disciple of Washington State coach Kyle Smith, who he replaced as head coach at San Francisco. Golden and Smith first connected during Golden's playing days at St. Mary's from 2004-2008. Smith was an assistant coach during Golden's years there. As a player, Smith helped lead St. Mary's to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.
Following two years of professional basketball in Israel, Golden reunited with Smith, then the head coach at Columbia. Golden served as an assistant coach for the Lions for two seasons. In 2014, he got his first taste of high-major basketball when he was named the director of basketball operations at Auburn. After one year in that role, Bruce Pearl promoted Golden to full-time assistant.
When San Francisco hired Smith as its head coach in 2016, Golden left Auburn to reunite with him. According to his bio on the San Francisco website, Golden led the Dons' recruiting efforts and headed the team's defense as an assistant. San Francisco ranked No. 291 nationally in defensive efficiency prior to the arrival of Smith and Golden but jumped to 59th in their first season. The Dons have ranked among the top 100 teams nationally in defensive efficiency in each of Goldens' three seasons as head coach, peaking at 21st this year.
San Francisco won 20-plus games in each of Smith's three seasons at the helm but could never break into the NCAA Tournament. Once Smith left for Washington State, San Francisco wasted little time promoting Golden to the head chair. The Dons went 22-12 in his first season as head coach, then fell back to 11-14 a year ago.
During the offseason, Golden added three key transfers to the roster and San Francisco jumped out to a 10-0 start to the season. It won non-conference games against Arizona State, Davidson and UAB. The strong start, combined with impressive efficiency metrics, helped the Dons sneak into the NCAA Tournament field.
In addition to his team's defense, Golden has developed a reputation for his use of analytics. He has an assistant coach, Jonathan Safir, who oversees all analytics and strategy for the team. Golden has used analytics to make a few non-traditional in-game decisions that have paid off. For instance, in his first season, San Francisco led BYU by two points with 22 seconds to play and Golden instructed his team to foul BYU's Yoeli Childs rather than simply try to get a defensive stop. Childs missed the front end of the one-and-one and San Francisco held on to win. That same year, Golden's team fouled Pacific's Pierre Crockrell, a 36 percent free throw shooter, with 11 seconds left in the first half in order to get another offensive possession. Crockrell made one of two free throws and the Dons hit a three-pointer on the other end of the floor.
If San Francisco were to beat Murray State Thursday, it would mark the program's first NCAA Tournament win since 1979.
Previous Candidate Profiles:
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