Billy Donovan

Billy Donovan

William John “Billy” Donovan, Jr. (born May 30, 1965 in Rockville Centre, New York) is the head coach of the Florida Gators basketball team. He has taken the Gators to three NCAA championship game appearances, in 2000, 2006 and 2007. The Gators lost to the Michigan State Spartans in the 2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball final. The Gators won the national championship in 2006 with a 73-57 win over UCLA and again in 2007 with an 84-75 win over Ohio State, making Donovan the first coach since Mike Krzyzewski to win back-to-back titles. He is one of only four (Dean Smith, Joe B. Hall and Bobby Knight being the others) to play in the Final Four and win the national championship as a coach.

On May 31, 2007, Donovan accepted the head coaching position for the NBA's Orlando Magic in a deal reported to be worth $27.5 million over five years. and announced his acceptance of the head coaching job on June 1, 2007. But on the morning of June 2, Donovan informed the Magic and the Gators that he was having second thoughts about leaving the University of Florida. On June 6, the Magic came to an agreement with Donovan to release him from his contract, leaving him free to rejoin the Gators basketball team. Donovan re-signed with the Gators on June 7, 2007, with a deal that makes him the highest-paid coach in college basketball, at $3.5-million per year.

Playing career

Donovan was born and raised in Rockville Centre, on Long Island, New York. The son of Bill Donovan Sr., the third leading scorer in Boston College men's basketball history, Donovan graduated from St. Agnes High School — a local powerhouse where he was coached by the legendary Frank Morris — in 1983 before going on to Providence College, where he played guard on the basketball team. His first two seasons with the Friars were unimpressive; he scored an average of 2 points per game as a freshman and three points as a sophomore. His junior year, however, Donovan flourished in the system of new head coach Rick Pitino. "Billy the Kid," as Providence fans soon nicknamed him (after the 19th century outlaw, Billy the Kid), averaged 15.1 points as a junior and 20.6 as a senior, when he took the Friars to the Final Four and earned the Southeast Regional MVP.

Donovan was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 3rd round (68th overall) of the 1987 NBA Draft. He was waived after the preseason and played briefly for the Wyoming Wildcatters of the Continental Basketball Association. He then signed a 1 year contract with the New York Knicks, coached by Pitino. Donovan averaged 2.4 points and 2.0 assists over 44 games.

Coaching career

After an unsuccessful year playing for Pitino on the New York Knicks, Donovan worked for a Wall Street investment firm before joining Pitino as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky in 1989. His success there secured him the head coaching job at Marshall University.

Marshall University

Donovan's first season as a head coach saw him turn around a Marshall team that had gone 9-18 the season before his arrival. The team doubled its wins from the previous year to go 18-9 and win the Southern Conference North Division.

His first full recruiting class at Marshall included a high-profile local recruit, point guard Jason Williams. In Donovan's second season, the team went 17-11, led the conference in scoring and three-point field goals. He agreed to take over coaching duties at Florida.

In two years at Marshall, he accumulated a 35-20 record and a league championship.

University of Florida

In 1996 Donovan took over head coaching duties at Florida, whose men's basketball team had fallen startlingly far from its 1994 Final Four appearance. Donovan took the team to the National Invitation Tournament in his second season, 1997-1998. The following season saw the team make its third ever Sweet Sixteen appearance and become only the second squad in school history to appear in the final Top 25 polls (17th in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and 23rd in the Associated Press Poll).

The next season, 1999-2000, saw Donovan lead the Gators to their second Final Four appearance, defeating North Carolina in the national semi-finals before falling to Michigan State in the championship game.

The team has reached the NCAA Tournament in every season since 1999, a streak of nine straight appearances; in eight decades of Florida men's basketball prior to Donovan's arrival, the school had never reached the Tournament more than three years running. On February 3, 2003, the team achieved a No. 1 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today poll for the first time in school history, returning there the following season on December 8, 2003.

In the 2005-2006 season, Donovan's young Gator squad posted the school's best-ever win streak to start a single season, reeling off 17 straight wins and reaching #2 in the nation in the AP Poll. However, the team failed to reach the top spot as it lost its first game of the season to the Tennessee Volunteers. This win was followed by a surprising season sweep at the hands of the eventual 2006 National Invitational Tournament Champion South Carolina Gamecocks. Florida avenged those losses by ending South Carolina's surprising SEC Tournament run in the finals, winning the SEC Tournament Championship, a first for the Gators. The 2005-2006 season was the most successful in the history of both Donovan and Florida basketball, as the Gators defeated UCLA 73-57 in the NCAA championship game, winning the school's first NCAA title.

On December 20, 2006, Donovan became the winningest basketball coach in Florida history, earning his 236th win as Florida's coach in a romp over Stetson and surpassing Norm Sloan's 235 wins. During the 2006-2007 season, with the return of all his starting five from the 2005-06 team (Lee Humphrey, Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, and Taurean Green), the Gators pulled off a championship trifecta by winning the Southeastern Conference regular season title, SEC Tournament title, and their second straight NCAA Tournament.

Short-lived Orlando Magic stint

During Florida's second title run it was rumored that Donovan may accept a deal from the University of Kentucky. After winning the National Championship, Donovan declined and said he wanted to work out an extension to stay at Florida. However, in late May, Donovan was offered the Orlando Magic head coaching job. He wavered over the decision for days, and on May 31, 2007, Donovan accepted the 5-year deal worth $27.5 million. Donovan replaced Brian Hill, who was fired after two consecutive losing seasons. Hill's ouster followed the Magic's first playoff appearance in four years, which ended in the first round against Detroit.

However, on June 3, several news services reported that Donovan was having second thoughts on his decision to leave Florida. The Magic agreed to release him from his contract on June 6. As a stipulation of his release, he is reportedly barred from coaching in the NBA for the next 5 seasons.

Coaching protégés

Like his own mentor, Rick Pitino, several of Donovan's assistants have become college head coaches in recent years. The following head coaches all spent time under Donovan at Florida:

• Anthony Grant, currently at Virginia Commonwealth University
• Donnie Jones, currently at Marshall University
• John Pelphrey, currently at University of Arkansas

Career coaching record

College

School	Season	Wins	Losses	Postseason
Marshall	1994-95	18	9	--
Marshall	1995-96	17	11	--
Florida	1996-97	13	17	--
Florida	1997-98	14	15	NIT
Florida	1998-99	22	9	NCAA Sweet 16
Florida	1999-00	29	8	NCAA National Runner-Up
Florida	2000-01	24	7	NCAA 2nd Round
Florida	2001-02	22	9	NCAA 1st Round
Florida	2002-03	25	8	NCAA 2nd Round
Florida	2003-04	20	11	NCAA 1st Round
Florida	2004-05	24	8	NCAA 2nd Round
Florida	2005-06	33	6	NCAA National Champions
Florida	2006-07	35	5	NCAA National Champions
Career	Totals	296	123	2 National Championships

External links

• Billy Donovan's website at the University of Florida athletics site