The Gator Empire Crumbling?

Today, Billy Donovan will announce that he is making the best decision, that I didn’t want him to make. This is really a no-brainer decision, considering that his stock will never be as high as it is right now and he only has a 90 minute commute to work. At the Gators championship celebration, Donovan announced that he wasn’t taking the Kentucky job, saying “Money can’t buy happiness, and I’m happy in Gainesville.” Well now he can pretty much have both… good for him.

After dominating the college sports world for the last 18 to 24 months, the University of Florida will take a serious blow… but not as big as you might think. I’m not saying we are at Duke’s level of invincibility, but the momentum generated by winning back-to-back national titles will not be hurt that much by Donovan leaving. All 5 of our starters (and sixth man) will be gone this year, so it would take at least a year to build a team worthy of being nationally ranked anyway. But all it takes to get back to elite status is one Greg Oden or Kevin Durant to decide to spend a year of college in sunny Florida before making the big bucks in the NBA.

The tandem of Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer at the same university is one of the best college sports coaching duos ever. However, when looking at their coaching styles, you can understand why Donovan would be foolish for not going the NBA, and why Meyer would be a fool for going to the NFL. Donovan improved the state of Gator basketball so much that UF owes him nothing less than to name the court after him. However, this magical team over the past two years was not created by Billy, as much as it was exploited. Like the NBA slogan “These guys are good,” so were the champion Gators. Donovan had the perfectly balanced team… and then some. He used every player appropriately on offense and defense. He even had the luxury of allowing a Lee Humphrey pull up a seat outside the 3-point arc and let the other 4 guys develop plays. Plus, these kids were so self-motivated, that they turned down entering the NBA last year, just to repeat. It’s not like he had to discipline them or motivate these kids… just like he’s not going to have to in the NBA. In professional leagues, these guys don’t always give their all, don’t like practice, and even skip voluntary training camps. And really… I think Donovan will handle this well and just focus on optimizing the potential of his team. Whereas, Meyer is way too much of an old-fashioned disciplinarian to ever be able to deal with the egos and money of the NFL. And I think he knows this… as does JoePa, who would never be able to use his old school tactics (such as damning the whole team to clean-up duty the day after home games).

Billy will be missed at UF, but this just gives me more of a reason to closely follow the Magic in the increasingly exciting National Basketball Association.