GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Todd Golden already has a spot picked out for the Final Four net he cut down in San Antonio.
On Saturday, though, it felt right at home around his neck.
Golden and the Gators were revered in another national championship celebration, this one in front of nearly 60,000 fans at Florida Field during an extended halftime of the annual football spring game. The hoops team has one more get-together on tap: at the White House, presumably this summer.
“It’s just absurd,” Golden said. “Today was awesome. … Our guys, especially our older guys, are going to be moving on to go train for the draft. You don’t know if they’re going to be around.
“To be able to put something like this together on kind of short notice and do a great job honoring our players in front of our fans, which to me is the most important thing. People that have been supporting us really all year got to see these guys together again one last time. It was special.”
Golden wore the remnants of one of the nets from the Alamodome; center Micah Handlogten wore the other. Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard carried trophies into the Swamp.
Highlights from Florida’s six NCAA Tournament victories flashed on the stadium replay boards as players and coaches were introduced one by one. Clayton, named most outstanding player of the Final Four, and Golden — hardly surprisingly — received the loudest ovations.
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward presented Golden with a key to the city “so you’ll always know where home is.”
Golden might not be going anywhere anytime soon. The coach said he and athletic director Scott Stricklin are close to a contract extension. Four of the past five national championship-winning coaches at Florida — J.C. Deacon (men’s golf), Mike Holloway (track and field), Kevin O’Sullivan (baseball) and Tim Walton (softball) — signed 10-year deals in the wake of their titles. Could Golden be next?
“My family and I love being here,” said Golden, who made $3.6 million this season and ranks 12th in the Southeastern Conference in annual salary. “In three short years, we’ve been able to meet a lot of great people and get comfortable. Florida’s a place that we can win national championships, as we just proved. Yeah, we love being here.
“Scott and I have been talking a lot. I feel like we’re very close to putting something together that will keep the Goldens in Gainesville for quite a while. I think in the next week or two, we’ll get to the finish line on that.”
Golden unveiled a working poster of the program’s third championship banner, which will be hung in the O’Connell Center to open next season. He also took time to thank fans and several key boosters, one of whom donated $1 million to the program this week. The Gators also have an $8 million renovation to their practice facility on tap this summer.
“At this point in college athletics, it’s the lifeblood,” he said. “And the reality of it is we need a lot more. We need a lot more to retain our players. We have a good problem right now. We have a lot of great players in our program that we need to support and retain, and we need to get a couple guys.”
Clayton, Martin and Richard have exhausted their eligibility and will moving on, and Golden said big man Alex Condon will go through the NBA’s pre-draft testing process to see whether he turns pro or returns to school.
“If we’re fortunate enough to get Alex back, I think we’ll have one of the strongest front lines in America,” Golden said. “We’re deep there. We’re athletic now. We’re very accomplished. Guys have played a lot of minutes on a really good team.”
The Gators finished 36-4 and won their final 12 games. They won four of six in the tournament by rallying late: “Beat the odds to say the least,” Golden quipped.
The 39-year-old Golden became the youngest coach since North Carolina State’s Jim Valvano in 1983 to win it all. Golden flung what was left of the net around his neck Monday night and still had it on when the team returned home Tuesday afternoon.
He insisted Saturday he hasn’t slept in it or even thought much about it since.
“But I wanted to bust it out for today,” he said. “This will be, along with some other important mementos over the last month, in my office at home. … This is a little more important and a little more impactful on the trophy shelf now.”
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Florida head coach Todd Golden celebrates after Florida beat Houston in the national championship at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, April 7, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Florida head coach Todd Golden rides to the locker room after their win against the Houston in the national championship at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, April 7, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Florida head coach Todd Golden celebrates after Florida beat Houston in the national championship at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, April 7, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday inserted himself directly into trade talks with Japanese officials, a sign of the high stakes for the United States after its tariffs rattled the economy and caused the administration to assure the public that it would quickly reach deals.
The Republican president said in a post on his social media platform that he’ll attend the meeting alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, top economic advisers with a central role in his trade and tariff policies.
“Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!” Trump wrote in the social media post.
The president's choice to get directly involved in negotiations points to his desire to quickly finalize a slew of trade agreements as China is pursuing its own set of agreements. It's an open test of Trump's reputation as a dealmaker as countries around the world seek to limit the potential damage unleashed by his import taxes.
The sweeping tariffs that Trump announced on April 2 triggered panic in the financial markets and generated recession fears, causing the U.S. president to quickly put a partial 90-day hold on the import taxes and increase his already steep tariffs against China to as much as 145%.
The pause temporarily spared Japan from 24% across-the-board tariffs, but there continues to be a 10% baseline tariff and a 25% tax on imported cars, auto parts, steel and aluminum exports.
With Japan charging an average tax rate of 1.9% on other countries' goods and having a longstanding alliance with the U.S., the talks on Wednesday are a crucial indicator of whether the Trump administration can achieve a meaningful deal that reassures the markets, American voters and foreign allies.
U.S. economic rival China, meanwhile, is trying to capitalize on the turmoil around Trump's announcements, with its leader, President Xi Jinping, touring nations of Southeast Asia and promoting his country as a more reliable trade partner.
Japan is among the first countries to start open negotiations with the U.S. Trump and other administration officials have said the phones have been “ringing off the hook” with dozens of countries calling, eager to strike deals with a president who views himself as a master negotiator to avoid tariffs when the 90-day pause ends. Israel and Vietnam have offered to zero out their tariff rates, but Trump has been noncommittal as to whether that would be sufficient.
Japan, like many other nations trying to minimize the possible economic fallout from Trump's tariffs, has been scrambling to respond. It has set up a special task force to assess the impact of the tariffs and offer loans to anxious companies.
Although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been working hard to coax exemptions out of Trump, the government has said little officially on what concessions it might offer during these talks.
Nor has the administration been transparent about its asks. The Trump administration is seeking to close the $68.5 billion trade deficit with Japan and seeking greater access for U.S. goods in foreign markets, yet the president has also insisted that tariff revenues can be used to pay down the federal budget deficit.
“Japan is coming in today to negotiate Tariffs, the cost of military support, and ‘TRADE FAIRNESS,’” Trump posted on Wednesday.
U.S. officials will be meeting in Washington with Japan’s chief trade negotiator, Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa.
“I am prepared for the talks,” Akazawa told reporters at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport before boarding his flight. “I will negotiate in order to firmly protect our national interest.”
He said that both Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are “known to be pro-Japan and professionally talented” and that he hopes to build a relationship of trust with them.
“I believe we can have good talks toward a win-win relationship that will serve national interest for both Japan and the United States,” he said.
Japan has contended that Trump's tariff measures are likely to violate bilateral trade agreements or World Trade Organization rules. While Ishiba has said he opposes retaliatory tariffs, he also has said he is in no rush to push for a settlement because he doesn't want concessions.
Xi, meanwhile, stopped in Malaysia on Wednesday and told its leader that China will be a collaborative partner and stand with its Southeast Asian neighbors after the global economic shocks.
Xi is touring Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia this week on a trip that likely was planned before the tariffs' uncertainty but that he's also using to promote Beijing as a source of stability in the region and shore up relationships in that part of the world as he looks for ways to mitigate the 145% tariffs that Trump is keeping on China.
“In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical ... confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism,” Xi said in remarks at a dinner with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
“Together, we will safeguard the bright prospects of our Asian family,” he added.
Xi has promised Malaysia and Vietnam greater access to Chinese markets on his visits, although few details were shared.
In Washington, Trump has indicated that he also wants to discuss how much the Japanese contribute to the cost of U.S. troops stationed there, largely as a deterrent to China.
Trump’s demand for more defense spending concerns the Japanese.
Under its national security strategy, Japan aims to double annual defense spending to nearly $10 trillion, or 2% of GDP, in 2027, while there is a concern that Trump may ask for that to be increased to 3% of GDP. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tuesday that the military budget for this year is about 1.8% of Japan’s GDP.
Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
Japan's chief trade negotiator and Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa, center, speaks to the reporters before this departure for the U.S., at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
FILE - Ryosei Akazawa, newly appointed Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization, arrives at the prime minister's office Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walk to speak with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he departs after welcoming the 2025 College Football National Champions, the Ohio State University football team, during an event on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he departs after welcoming the 2025 College Football National Champions, the Ohio State University football team, during an event on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
