Colleges

No rest after title on tap for Donovan

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published April 11, 2006

GAINESVILLE - One might think that winning Florida's first basketball national championship and spending the past week on a whirlwind tour might earn a coach a few days off.

Not in Billy Donovan 's world.

Following an extremely hectic month, culminating April3 with the team's championship victory, Donovan and his staff are on the recruiting trail this week.

He's been so busy Donovan hasn't had an opportunity to reflect on the Gators' historic accomplishment.

"I really haven't had time, because of everything that's going on, to sit back and look at the magnitude of what happened," Donovan said. "The magnitude of what happened is huge. It's great. One of the things in my job that I'll always take a great deal of pleasure and pride in is starting out with something from the ground floor, having a chance to build it all the way to the top floor and be a part of that."

Donovan and the team returned to Gainesville about 4 p.m. Tuesday, then he spent most of Wednesday accepting and returning phone calls from friends and well-wishers. He and the team left at 8:30 a.m. Thursday for a trip to the White House, and he didn't return until about 8:45 p.m. Friday morning he spent time in recruiting meetings with his staff, then attended the national championship ceremony at the O'Connell Center that night.

When he does finally sit down to reflect, the introspection won't be about the coach himself. That's just not his style.

"I've said it many times before, it's not about me," he said. "I just hope that I give back to these (players). I understand from the media point of view, what happened to Billy Donovan is historic because so few coaches have been able to experience what I've been able to at the age of 40. But I always want to keep it in the right perspective of why I do what I do. Sometimes in my position it's hard because so much comes down to wins and losses. But ultimately, the national championship game is over. The season is over right now and what we have is a memory. It's a very lasting memory and all these kids will be part of history.

"But I'm much, much more concerned about how does (senior Adrian Moss ) talk about me the next place he goes? You know what? Billy Donovan's impact could maybe trickle down onto his family. What happened is a historic and great event, but the event is over. Next year they'll crown another national champion and the next year there will be another national champion crown. But (players) will always have the fact that they played for me."

Several members of the 2006 recruiting class were on hand for Friday night's ceremony, but Donovan said he doesn't believe a national title alone will boost the Gators' recruiting; instead he hopes it's a culmination of the program's success during his 10-year tenure.

"For high school basketball players and coaches, you try to talk about what's happened over the last 10 years in the program. The national championship is a great thing, but I still think that Florida has a lot to offer academically, athletically, facility-wise, weather, conference, it has so many things to offer. So I don't ever feel like in recruiting that all the sudden guys now are going to be jumping to come to Florida. You've still got to do your job, you've still got to work hard, you've got to do a good job evaluating and making sure you get guys you feel would be the best fit for the system and the program.

"We'll go about recruiting like we always have. Hopefully the success we've been able to have not only this year, but over the last eight years, is something the kids can look at and say Florida is a team that competes nationally and in their league."

WINDFALL: The final amount has not been tallied, but the SEC stands to pick up a nice chunk of change from the NCAA Tournament, particularly having two teams (Florida and LSU) make the Final Four. The league receives money from the NCAA based on the number of games played in the tournament during a five-year span. The NCAA sets the dollar figure for each "unit," then distributes to individual conferences.

The SEC distributes money like this: $50,000 for first- and second-round games; $50,000 for region appearances and $50,000 for the Final Four. Schools also get $100,000 in travel costs. The remainder of money gets split 13 ways - between the 12 schools and the conference office. Last year, the SEC distributed $17.8-million back to its member schools from NCAA basketball Tournament revenue.

--Antonya English covers Florida athletics. She can be reached at 813 226-3389 or english@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 11, 2006, 18:59:52]