Best Wishes, Coach Donovan

A couple of days ago, two-time defending national champion University of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan decided to leave UF to pursue coaching on the professional level. He is joining the NBA’s Orlando Magic as their new head coach with a five-year contract exceeding twenty-five million dollars. It is sad that he is leaving, but for his sake, this was the perfect time for him to take such an action, with his recent incredible two-year championship run giving him the optimum prospects for moving up in his career. I appreciate that he turned down an earlier offer given him to coach at the University of Kentucky. Not that I have anything against UK, but I would not have wanted my own school’s former coach as a rival coach in the same division of the same conference. That’s already going on in football, with former Gator coach Steve Spurrier coaching South Carolina.

I wrote in an earlier entry how I wasn’t really following the Magic. Now, given its new coach, I’m going to have to reconsider that. I’d love to see some of the former Gator star players get on the Magic roster, but since Orlando has no first round pick in the upcoming draft, that will only happen through a trade or if someone like Taureen Green or Chris Richards gets selected by them. They were good enough to get into the playoffs this past season, and it will be interesting to see what Billy Donovan will be able to do with them to make them better.

As for the Gators, they are currently seeking Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant to take Donovan’s place (and with his highest recommendations). Grant worked with Donovan for several years at UF as assistant coach, including their first national championship season in 2005-06. I don’t know how it will all turn out; getting Coach Grant on board would go a long way toward reassuring the current Gator basketball players and the new recruits that they will be able to continue playing in a top-quality program with a sense of continuity. So, I’m definitely rooting for him. I just hope people around here give him some time (if he’s hired, that is) to develop the Gators into a championship-caliber team without making undue comparisons with his predecessor.