(Hartman left Columbia for a third stint at Rice in 2014 Safir only joined the Lions in 2015.) While McCray does not have the same ties to the Smith/Golden coaching tree, his time in the SEC and the SEC’s footprint are probably more important than his lack of familiarity with his new colleagues, as he’s the only coach to have consistently been working in the region for most of the last 20 years.Īnd while Hovde presumably coordinates Florida’s offense, it would seem likely that Golden, Hartman, and McCray will do significant work with position groups: Golden is a former point guard, Hartman has often worked with bigs, and McCray has generally tutored guards. Golden is also bringing some familiarity to Florida with Hovde and Hartman, as all three of them worked at Columbia with Golden under Smith - which Safir did, too, albeit as a staffer and not a coach and with only Golden and Hovde.
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While Hovde gets strong reviews for his offensive design, he’s simply not as experienced a recruiter as either Hartman or McCray, and didn’t really get to reveal his quality as a recruiter of what should be Florida’s more fertile grounds south of the Mid-Atlantic in a single season at Richmond. This staff construction could be something of a coup for Florida, and might protect Golden’s program against attrition of assistants, one of the problems successful programs quickly face.įirst and most importantly, pairing Hovde - renowned as a fine offensive coordinator under both Golden mentor Kyle Smith at San Francisco and then Golden himself, and a somewhat surprising hire because of his departure from San Francisco to work at alma mater Richmond a year ago - with McCray and Hartman, who both have more than a decade of experience recruiting the East Coast and Southeast, would seem to provide coverage of various needs. New Florida Gators men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden’s first major task in the role is apparently done, with his coaching staff now filled officially or reportedly.Ī Thursday report from Jeff Borzello of ESPN adds UNLV assistant Carlin Hartman to a staff that had already added Richmond assistant Kevin Hovde and Mississippi State assistant Korey McCray, each of whom was announced as part of Florida’s staff earlier this week.īorzello also first reported that San Francisco assistant Jonathan Safir, who served as a bench coach under Golden for the Dons, is also joining Florida’s staff, but not as an assistant coach, which implied that Safir - renowned as an analytics-minded coach, but still very young for the profession as a 2015 graduate of Vassar - was likely to serve in a behind-the-bench capacity for the Gators.įlorida confirmed that report later in the afternoon, announcing Safir as director of basketball strategy and analytics, a title not previously existent in Florida’s program.