The Alligator spoke with two separate women who attested to Golden’s behavior and requested to remain anonymous for safety reasons. Since the investigation began, there was a small amount of action that was taken by UF, both women said.
The first woman, a former UF student, said that Golden stalked her in person, both in his car and on foot, and that this occurred “more than 10 times.” On one occasion, she said she posted her location on her Instagram story, and Golden messaged her shortly after saying that he was in the area “waiting for [her].” She also said Golden sent unsolicited photos of his genitalia to her. On multiple occasions, the first woman said she received the photos while the team was traveling on the road. The nature of Golden’s alleged stalking became more assertive over time, she said.
“At first, it starts off slow, like, ‘Oh, wow. That’s odd. This guy is showing us attention,’” the first woman said. “And then it becomes, ‘Wow, he’s kind of crossing a line. No, he didn’t mean it that way.’ Then it’s, ‘Wait, he’s fully stepping over that line.’ And then it’s, ‘Wow, there’s a picture of his d*ck.’ It was a full grooming process with all of us.”
Both the first woman and the second woman, also a former UF student, corroborated that Golden liked Instagram posts of theirs dating back to 2023, sometimes even older. Additionally, they said he liked multiple posts at once, supposedly in an attempt to get the women’s attention before going back and unliking them to avoid suspicion. “He would go at such lengths about it,” the first woman said. “He would go back, like a year back, and like 10 photos at once. Then, obviously, [he] followed up with a DM, always in vanish mode… Just really aggressive Instagram stalking is the best way to explain that.”
Golden had been in contact with both women for over a year before unfollowing them after they were told UF began looking into his behavior this past August, they said.
According to Snoopreport, a publicly accessible Instagram activity tracking software, Golden unfollowed 118 accounts on the platform between Aug. 1 and Sept. 1. At least 20, if not more, of these accounts appear to have been young women without connection to the Florida basketball program, or any other organizations that Golden had been previously affiliated with. The women separately confirmed that Golden had blocked them rather than unfollowed.
The second woman said Golden told numerous women that they were “his drug” or “his good luck charm” before games.
“He had this manipulation tactic over everyone,” she said. “And he sent us all the same sh*t. It was copy-paste to every girl.”
