Chris Harry's column on the recruitment of Xaivian Lee... Anatomy (and Numbers) of a Portal Pitch - Florida Gators
I hope he's here for a long long while, and whenever he decides to go I'm pretty certain it will be in the NBA.
Great article. Part of me dislikes that we give away the secrets of how we are successful. I know other coaches already do this and there’s probably even more depth into how it goes….plus you have to be able to execute it. But let us become a dynasty before we start giving other tips on how to coach!
Yeah, I had the same thoughts about giving up the trade secrets. But on the other hand, there's the old strike-while-the-iron-is-hot adage, and we're the hottest brand in the country right now. They can send this article to every portal dude (and his mom) out there and suddenly be getting kids begging for a visit. Really great article by Mr. Harry.
I was surprised and excited to read that that we're the only team in the nation since 1985 to win a national championship without a single Top-100 high schooler on the roster. That's gotta widen the eyes of a bunch of low-and-midmajor guys.
In my years, I've seen that most can be handed the blueprints to someone's success and are still unable to use them . . . at least not the same ways. I like it. This is swagger. "We're going to tell you the play we're about to run . . . and we'll still beat you with it!" LOL!
Damn, that got me fired up! I can only imagine how excited Lee is about the opportunity in front of him. Next 1 Up!
A coach that understands analytics and can connect with kids and get them to buy in is amazing. You can win without having the very top recruits but undervalued recruits with that formula. Now the game changes.
I get that as well. Todd seems like he’s very quick with his thought process and does very well processing the info in real time. Obviously having like minded assistants help in that as well. So hopefully we’ll always have that upper hand. But in a general sense I’m not a fan of showing my competition on how I do my job better than you.
Watching the games, you can see that his assistants are all heavily involved in real time action. I suspect he's getting analytics feedback as the game progresses, and this contributes to the strong showing in the 2nd half.
Golden has it all when it comes to the transfer portal, navigating NIL, analytics, and managing youth in the 21st century. The fact he was able to out-coach his mentor Pearl and Sampson in just over 48 hours says a ton.
Seriously, if you care even a little bit about the behind-the-scenes stuff, read this piece. It’s incredibly impressive how thoughtful and thorough Golden and his staff are. And it’s not just having the data, which just about anyone in the country with access to a couple paid subscriptions can get. They do a great job taking that data and packaging it in a way that connects with players. Major kudos to Chris Harry for writing this piece, too.
