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On Sunday afternoon in downtown Nashville, the Florida men’s basketball team celebrated an SEC tournament championship with the expected zeal and frivolity. Players made snow angels in the confetti. A 7-foot-9 freshman center cut the net without using a ladder. With a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament secured by the win, star guard Walter Clayton Jr. moved about the Bridgestone Arena floor, reminding everyone that the team had six more victories to go in its quest for a national title.
Absorbing the scene with a blue championship shirt slung over his shoulder, Todd Golden stood still and smiled when he wasn’t taking pictures or hugging someone. At 39, in just his third year as head coach, he’d led the Gators to their first league tournament championship in more than a decade. By 2:43 p.m., his time had come: Golden reached the top of the ladder, cut the last strands of the net and then smacked it against the backboard before turning to the crowd below.
“Let’s f—ing go, man!” Golden screamed, in a moment of uncensored joy.
The climb to that point had been complicated throughout the 2024-25 season, for reasons that extended beyond the strongest league in the country. While Florida evolved into a team capable of competing for a Final Four berth, the school was conducting a four-month long Title IX investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and stalking involving multiple women by its men’s basketball coach. In mid-January, ESPN reported a university employee filed a sexual assault complaint to the school’s Title IX office against assistant coach Taurean Green, a former all-SEC point guard on the Gators’ back-to-back national title teams.
In late January, Florida closed its investigation into Golden, saying it found “no evidence” the coach violated Title IX. The Green case remains open. The team, meanwhile, traveled to Raleigh, N.C., this week to begin its NCAA Tournament run against 16th-seeded Norfolk State on Friday. The Gators, at 30-4, stood as the favorites to celebrate another title in San Antonio, per BetMGM odds.
“We never really let it affect our play on the court,” junior center Micah Handlogten said Thursday. “Even (Golden) — he brought it up to us one time, and we didn’t talk about it for the rest of the year. We just went and just focused on basketball, because that’s what we came here to do.”
But the allegations followed the program and its head coach for more than half the season. On Sept. 27, the school’s interim Title IX coordinator, Jackie W. Moran, informed Golden she filed a formal complaint involving him based on an anonymous report that accused him of violating school and federal policies regarding sex discrimination, such as harassment. That report, according to a letter to Golden obtained by The Athletic through a public records request, “named multiple potentially impacted persons.”
The investigation became public in November through a story published by the school’s student newspaper, The Alligator. It reported that Golden was accused of misconduct by multiple women and that its reporters spoke to two unnamed former Florida students. One accused Golden of sending unsolicited lewd photos of himself, including during work. The other said Golden stalked her on Instagram.
A day later, Golden acknowledged the investigation on social media and said he was being advised by a defamation attorney. Golden continued coaching amid the probe.
“My family and I appreciate the support we have received,” Golden wrote then, “and remain confident the university will continue its efforts to finish its review promptly.”
Golden said little publicly about the investigation as it unfolded. One exception was in mid-January after ESPN reported that an athletic department employee accused one of Golden’s assistants — Green — of kissing her and trying to put his hand down her pants in March 2024. Golden said he was “frustrated and disappointed” that a process that’s supposed to be confidential continued “to be abused.” Green did not respond to requests for comment for that story.
The Golden investigation closed Jan. 27 after dozens of interviews, according to the school. Moran determined there was “no evidence to indicate that sexual harassment, as defined by Title IX, occurred within a university program or activity.”
When Golden was cleared, he thanked fans for their support for the players and program.
“The last several months have been a challenge for my family and me while this process dragged on,” Golden said in a statement posted on X. “We asked for the public to allow this process to work through to its conclusion and not rush to judgement based on allegations. The (athletic department) and so many at the University have been tremendously supportive — my family and I are extremely grateful.”
Karen Truszkowski, an attorney for two complainants in the Golden case, said Thursday that her clients did not appeal the ruling and that they have not seen Florida’s investigative report.
“What could we appeal?” Truszkowski said. “They just said, ‘No evidence.’”
One of Golden’s attorneys, William Shepherd, said in January that Golden would “consider his legal options in the offseason — but now it’s time to move forward.”
On the court, Florida became a deep, balanced unit capable of reaching the school’s sixth-ever Final Four – with a realistic chance at winning the program’s third men’s basketball national title, adding to the trophies from 2006 and 2007.
The Gators arrived at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh on Thursday with a top 10 offense and defense and sat at No. 2 in KenPom.com’s overall efficiency rankings; 19 of the past 22 NCAA champions have been ranked among KenPom’s top six teams entering the postseason.
“We went into Nashville still feeling like we had a lot to prove and that we maybe weren’t getting the respect nationally that we deserved,” Golden said during his NCAA Tournament news conference Thursday. “After three great games in three days there, it’s flipped, and now we have a different challenge ahead of us, and that’s handling success. Being in the eye of the media and having people talk about us.”
Inside the locker room on Thursday, Florida players stared at their phones or took videos of other players doing interviews, even giving walk-on Bennett Andersen a round of applause when the 6-2 guard found a microphone in front of his face.
At 2:42 p.m., the team walked onto the Lenovo Arena floor for an open practice to cheers and Gator chomps from fans scattered in the lower bowl. Golden made his way from player to player during stretching, idly blowing bubble gum every now and then. The band played the fight song about five minutes in. With a minute left in the allotted practice time slot, the entire Florida men’s hoops operation gathered at midcourt for a photo to commemorate the moment.
It was the usual NCAA Tournament day-before-game choreography; standard operating procedure for a No. 1 seed with its sights set dead ahead.
“We did a great job as a team just coming together, kind of just turning off our phones,” sophomore forward Alex Condon said. “Obviously, we all saw it. It was just coming together as a team and continuing to hoop.”
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photo: Matt Pendleton / Imagn Images)
