Todd Golden offers unique perspective on mid-major struggles in March Madness
By Mark Kern
Published:
Todd Golden and the Florida Gators are in pursuit of a second consecutive national championship as they take on the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday. However, before he was the coach at in Gainesville, he was the head coach at a mid-major in San Francisco.
During his three years there, he led the team to a 57-36 record, while making it to the NCAA Tournament in his final season. He understands what is like to coach at that level, and he had an interesting take on why the mid-majors have struggled in the Big Dance the last couple of seasons. Specifically, Golden is looking at the style-of-play — which has shifted high major programs to favor a more physical system with 2 bigs rather than a 5-out offense that has been all the rage in seasons past, especially among mid-major programs.
“That was kind of the wave for a couple years, teams that sold themselves as playing a ‘pro-style’ offense and spread out … but when you play that way, you allow a lot of volatility to enter the equation,” Golden says, via Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated. “When you have the opportunity to recruit bigger, stronger, faster athletes and play a style that allows you to raise your floor with high two-point field goal percentage and get on the glass, that just gives you a better chance to be consistently successful.”
In so many instances, the moment a really talented player at a mid-major has a big season, then the Power-4 schools are going to come and try and bring him in.
There were still a few upsets in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, as High Point and VCU knocked off Wisconsin and North Carolina respectively. College basketball is changing every year, and this could just be a small sample size. However, it hasn’t been better to be a big dog in the NCAA Tournament in quite some time.
Florida faces off against Iowa on Sunday night for a shot at the Sweet 16. Here’s a look at the odds for tonight’s game, via Kalshi:
