GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When we last saw a Florida national-championship men’s basketball coach walk onto Steve Spurrier/Florida Field it was to commemorate a freshly minted NCAA title. That was just five months ago and Gators everywhere, including inside the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Complex, are still basking in that magical March Madness run.
But with apologies to Todd Golden – the reigning king of the college game (not a bad place to be, by the way) – the hoops coach in the spotlight Saturday will be the one who turned Florida basketball into a something-from-nothing destination spot and made unfathomable dreams of raising trophies at Florida a reality.
Next weekend, Billy Donovan will be inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts – the first player or coach with UF ties to be so honored – but this weekend he’ll stop by “The Swamp” and between the first and second quarter of the 15th-ranked Gators’ season opener against Long Island give a wave to the sell-out crowd and what surely will be a thunderous ovation for the winningest coach in program history.
The UF-LIU game was Donovan’s only available home game weekend, what with the Hall ceremonies commitments Sept. 4-5 and his Chicago Bulls starting training camp Oct. 1. He’s got work to do, but Donovan’s roots here run deep strong. And the fanbase still loves him.
“It’s very humbling,” said Donovan, who went 467-186 over his 19 seasons at UF (and 502-206 in 21 overall) before bolting in 2015 for the NBA. “You don’t get into the game thinking that you’re one day going to be in any Hall of Fame. You do it because you love it.”
Billy Donovan hoists the first of his two consecutive NCAA championship trophies, this one after defeating UCLA in the 2006 title game.
Donovan definitely loved the game and it loved him back. A lightly recruited point guard from Long Island, “Billy the Kid” parlayed a fabulous career as a hot-shot point guard for Rick Pitino at Providence into a coaching career that began as an assistant alongside Pitino at Kentucky, branched out to his first head job at Marshall and landed him at Florida – historically, a basketball wasteland — where he turned the Southeastern Conference upside down on the way to six league titles, four Final Fours and back-to-back national championships in 2006-07.
In the so-called modern era of college basketball, Donovan stands alongside only John Wooden (UCLA), Mike Kzyzewski…
