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 15^th-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.”

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 (Duke) and Dan Hurley (Connecticut) as the only coaches to win consecutive NCAA crowns. The second of the UF’s two came 18 years ago and stood as the greatest moment in Florida basketball history. 
 
It got some company last April 7. 
 
“Coach Donovan set the standard,” Golden said. “He is the face of Florida basketball and there are some pretty high expectations now because of what he was able to do during his time here.”

Golden met that standard with the program’s third NCAA title in San Antonio, Texas. It just so happened that the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 – Donovan, along with Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Micky Arison and the 2008 USA men’s Olympic Team – was announced during the run-up to the 2025 Final Four. The timing proved perfect, of course, as Donovan, the ultimate Florida basketball gatekeeper, got to watch in person from behind the UF bench as the Gators rallied to defeat Auburn in the NCAA semifinals. 

Two nights later, he was back tending to duties with the Bulls when the top-seeded Gators’ unleashed their thrilling, come-from-behind national-championship defeat of 1-seed Houston. UF, in fact, trailed in the second half of four its final five NCAA wins; by double-digits in two of them, including a 12-point deficit in the final. 
 
“I watched the second half of the national-championship game and the announcers made a comment: ‘This is Florida’s first lead of the game.’ Your first lead? With a minute to go in the game? Incredible,” said Donovan, referencing the moment the Gators overtook the Cougars with just 46 seconds to go. “Talk about the idea of just going for it. You have to have guys that have that kind of mentality. Sometimes the moment is too big, but those guys immersed themselves in the moment.” 
 
Donovan, like everybody else, took particular note of Walter Clayton Jr., the Final Four Most Outstanding Player and first-round draft pick he’ll soon be seeing up close with the Utah Jazz. 
 
“I always loved him and the thing I loved about him was he just seemed really competitive, fearless and had great belief,” Donovan said. “That’s what came across to me. A big shot-maker who really leaned into the biggest moments. I just love that in guys. The confidence. He always appeared on the court very calm, under control and never rattled.” 
 
Donovan, who turned 60 in May, heaped tons of praise in the direction of Golden, a name unfamiliar to him – “I really didn’t know Todd or much about him,” Donovan said – when the Gators went looking to replace Mike White in 2022. 

When UF athletic director Scott Stricklin and his search committee zeroed in on Golden, then a third-year head coach at San Francisco, he gave Donovan a call that doubled as a courtesy and request. 
 
“He wanted me to be a resource,” Donovan said. 
 
Specifically, someone (an expert, actually) who could speak to the challenges of not just being at Florida and competing in the SEC, but doing so successfully and consistently. 
 
Donovan didn’t have experience dealing with the transfer portal, but his advice was to recruit the best players in the state, get involved with some of the best players in the country and – above all – reconnect with the great players of the past and get them back on campus to be around his program. 
 
Not only did Golden embrace the latter suggestion (multiple former players have returned during his three seasons), he hired Taurean Green, Donovan’s championship point guard, as director of player of development and eventually promoted the UF Hall of Famer to assistant. Green became a pipeline to former players and helped invigorate that orange-and-blue hoops fraternity.
 
“We’ve welcomed guys back with open arms and it’s been great. Plus, we’re winning and we got a really good buzz right now,” Green said. “I think it’s also a testament to the guys on the team last year. They lived up to the standard that Coach D set when he was here.”

Then came a smile, followed by the famous phrase that bridged two championship generations.

“Those Gator boys stayed hot,” Green grinned.

In his brief homecoming, Donovan should expect to be asked to compare his champions to Golden’s. He’ll be diplomatic, but he’ll also be honest. 
 
“I’m biased,” Donovan said.
 
And that’s OK. 
 
Donovan’s first championship team began the season unranked, with no expectations, and climbed the mountain. His second one started the season ranked No. 1, with all the pressure to repeat, and no way to go but down. 
 
“We did it both ways,” Donovan said. 
 
In the bigger picture, though, they showed it could be done. Twice. At Florida. It’s one of the most amazing achievements in the lengthy list of UF athletic lore. 
 
What happened five months ago was no less invigorating, but every bit as validating in re-establishing the baseline of championship pedigree Donovan brought to the Gators nearly three decades ago. 
 
Welcome back, Billy D.

And thank you. 

 

“To me, the program doesn’t get enough respect because it’s not a quote-unquote blue blood school,” Donovan said. “You can sit there and say, in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, Florida didn’t have UCLA and Kentucky and Kansas had. That’s fine. Those places had done it for a hundred years. But look at what Florida has done over the last 30 years. You can say, yeah, Florida is right there.”

 

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu