Think Donnovan will bolt Florida for UK?

I hope so, but I don't see it happening. Especially if Florida repeats as national champions. The pressure will never be as high at Florida as it is at Kentucky. Say what you will about Tubby Smith, but the fact of the matter is, a coach who won a national championship, multiple SEC titles, and consistently led his team to the NCAA tournament every year, was basically run out of town. Who wants to coach somewhere where you're in the hot seat if you don't win the national championship at least once every 4 years? Not even Duke has those kinds of expectations.

Man, if Donnovan leaves Florida, with the players they're going to lose to the NBA this year, it's gonna be back to the glory days of Florida basketball, 10-19 seasons.

Donovan will ONLY leave UF if he can coach the NY Knicks.

Thought that I would pass this along. This sportswriter is a graduate of UF, and a friend of mine. Anyway, this is getting national coverage. Good read from an outstanding reporter.

By Pete Kerasotis at Florida Today

Go, Billy.

Go to Kentucky.

Go now, with the door and arms wide open.

This is your destiny, your calling, your birthright, your opportunity.

You know what time it is, Billy?

The time is now.

Tubby Smith has motored to Minnesota, leaving behind the keys to the kingdom of college basketball that is Kentucky.

Is there is a better program with better tradition, history, aura, passionate fans? If Kentucky isn't the best, then it's definitely in the final four (pun intended).

Go, Billy.

Go to Kentucky.

Let me tell you a little story about Billy Donovan and his first SEC Tournament as the Florida Gators basketball coach. This was 11 years ago, and a huge contingent of Kentucky fans waited for him to emerge from the Georgia Dome tunnel.

Florida wasn't even playing Kentucky that day. Didn't matter. Billy D, or Billy the Kid, as he was still called then, was a former Kentucky assistant coach. Spent five years at UK. Helped Rick Pitino win a national championship.

You know what that means, don't you? It means that no matter where Billy had been, where he was going or even where he was at, Kentucky was always home. His blood would always be blue.

Kentucky blue.

That's why, when Billy emerged from the tunnel that day, the head coach of a truly pedestrian Gator basketball team, a roar erupted. Fans stood, clapped, cheered.

Guess what?

It was the Kentucky fans.

Now think of the cheer that Billy would hear if, after winning back-to-back national championships at Florida, he announced he's headed to bluer pastures.

Go, Billy.

Go to Kentucky.

Don't think it'll happen? Don't be so smug. A lot of Gator fans are acting that way today. Smug. They think that Florida is actually a better place to coach college basketball than Kentucky.

It isn't.

Goodness, have you been to the O'Connell Center lately? It feels like the old Florida Gym -- i.e. Alligator Alley -- did back in the '70s. In other words, ancient.

Kentucky's Rupp Arena is almost twice the size. And, of course, almost twice as loud.

It's also named the Rupp Arena because Kentucky has something Florida doesn't. It has tradition, history. Rupp Arena is named after legendary coach Adolph Rupp. The O'Connell Center is named after, um, a former UF president.

But it isn't just the arena that's bigger. It's the fan base. Basketball is king in Kentucky. The state has no professional sports and no college football to speak of. Oh, Louisville every so often will put together a solid season with the pigskin. But you know what I'm talking about. When you think of Kentucky, you think of horses and hoops, though not necessarily in that order.

Florida is a football state. It also has three NFL teams, two MLB teams, two NHL teams and two NBA teams . . . well, two if you still want to count the Orlando Magic.

But I'll give you one, indisputable reason why Kentucky basketball is still bigger than Florida. The rationale follows the same logic people are advancing as to why Billy would stay at Florida. And you know what I'm talking about. People are saying Billy would never leave Florida for Kentucky because there's less pressure at Florida.

Well, what does that tell you? It tells me Kentucky is more passionate about basketball than Florida. Less pressure means less expectations. Less interest.

And to say that Billy Donovan would shy away from pressure does him a disservice. If you think the man is afraid of pressure, then you really don't know the man. If he can win two national championships at Florida, then how many do you think that he thinks he could win at Kentucky? Pressure? The man eats it for breakfast.

Interesting, then, that we're 72 hours away from Tubby Smith announcing his departure, and Billy Donovan still hasn't issued a statement saying he's not interested in Kentucky. Instead, after beating Butler on Friday night, Billy fumbled around while trying to fend off questions about Kentucky, looking about as comfortable as a man in a burlap suit.

\"I'm not in control of their decision-making process,\" he said.

Au contraire. He is in total control. We'd all be fools to think that Kentucky's list of coaching candidates doesn't start with Billy Donovan, and then work its way down.

Go, Billy.

Go to Kentucky.

The flip side of all this is that pressure and expectations are precisely the reason why the time is now for Billy D to head to Kentucky.

Have we forgotten that it was barely more than a year ago when so many Gator fans were saying that Billy's time was up at Florida? Couldn't get out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament came the constant criticism.

And have we forgotten how angry Billy was with Florida's fan base when the sniping came after he lost to Manhattan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament back in 2003? He retreated to his beach home after that season. Later, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley openly talked about how he thought he'd lost Billy, that surely he was going to leave.

He didn't. But do you think he's forgotten?

Sure, Kentucky fans are arrogant, but it's not like Florida fans have cornered the market on humility, either.

Billy was around when Steve Spurrier was winning SEC football championships for UF with alarming efficiency. Yet, toward the end, Spurrier often talked about how there was no pleasing Florida's fan base anymore. They'd become spoiled.

After his father died, I was sitting with Spurrier in his office, listening as he related stories about his dad. His father had been a minister, and Spurrier equated his dad's profession to his.

\"If you're a preacher, after awhile the congregation gets a little tired of your sermons,\" he said. \"That's why it's good to move around, not stay in one place too long. It's the same with coaching. They get tired of you. You shouldn't stay in one place too long.\"

Less than a year after that conversation, Spurrier bolted Florida for the NFL.

Digger Phelps, the former college basketball coach-turned ESPN analyst, echoed those same sentiments the other night on TV.

\"I tell coaches all the time,\" Phelps said, \"that seven to 10 years at one program is long enough. Then it's time to move on.\"

Billy's been at Florida 11 years.

Time to go.

Go, Billy.

Go to Kentucky.

Great article Buc, thanks. Still think he would jump at the Knicks job if he had a chance.

wlayton wrote:

Great article Buc, thanks. Still think he would jump at the Knicks job if he had a chance.

wlayton, thanks for the quodos (sp?) for PK and the article. For what it is worth, there is a lot of talk about Donovan going to the Heat. When you think about it, not too far fetched, Riley likes this guy a lot. I think it would be a mistake for him to go to Kentucky, they have no pro teams there, football, still licking my wounds, is not top of the ladder. Kentucky basketball is what the state is all about. Also, for midnight madness, Kentucky had over 26,000 fans there. Florida being a national champion had games here that were not sold out, plus their following in this years run to the final four, not near the support that teams like Kansas, UCLA, and others are garnering. He is a dynamite coach, if I were Billy, would stay with the Gators and build on the tradition somewhat like UNC, Coach Smith did. I am a huge supporter of UGA, however, do like to see people rewarded for good, solid, hard work, and BD has done that. Guess that Tubby got to taste the good and bad at Kentucky, know that it is a high priority there to win. Go Dogs!

Buc, my guy knows someone in Gainesville that's very close to one of the BB coaches and he also made the same comment you just made.....that BD is very interested in the Heat job. And yes, it does make sense.