Billy Donovan probably isn’t going anywhere. But he has to at least think about the opening at UCLA, right?
The reasons he won’t leave are fairly obvious. According to USA Today, his total pay of $3,639,800 for the 2011-12 season ranked behind only Kentucky’s John Calipari, Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. Donovan has had nothing but glowing things to say about living in Gainesville. His oldest son, Billy, plays for UF and will be eligible through 2014. His youngest son, Connor, is still a few years away from high school. His 72-year-old father, William, coaches the seventh and eighth grade basketball team at Gainesville’s Queen of Peace Academy. The UF practice facility underwent a $1.8 million renovation in Sept. 2007. Athletics Director Jeremy Foley has shown a commitment to winning and building a successful program. Very few coaches have ever won a national championship, let alone two, at one school before choosing to leave for another. Donovan spent five years as an assistant at Kentucky, so UK would make sense as his dream job. But, when the position opened in 2007 and 2009, Donovan publicly shot down the rumors.
The job of Florida’s men’s basketball coach is a great one, especially for Billy Donovan.
But Donovan is in his 17th season at Florida. He’s only 47 years old, so he could easily have another 20 years left. Do we really expect that he’ll be the coach at UF for 37 seasons?
Jim Boeheim, the longest-tenured coach in the NCAA, is about to finish his 37th year at Syracuse. Krzyzewski is in his 33rd season. Judging by their success, lengthy tenures aren’t unreasonable. But coaching at Syracuse or Duke is different from coaching at Florida.
Trying to rank the most desirable jobs in college basketball would do little more than make people angry, but there’s a pretty solid top tier. In alphabetical order: Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Syracuse and UCLA.
You can make arguments for a few others, but there aren’t any false positives on that list. Those programs have all won at least 1,700 games. Florida has won 1,293.
With the exception of Duke, which plays at historic Cameron Indoor, each program’s stadium holds more fans than the O’Connell Center. With all due respect to the O’Dome, each is considerably nicer and/or more storied.
National attention and prestige are a given at each of those seven, and every recruit is within reach.
An opportunity to coach one of those teams rarely arises. Since the NCAA Tournament field expanded in 1985, those programs have held a combined 16 coaching searches.
Calipari, Indiana’s Tom Crean and Kansas’ Bill Self figure to be around for a while. Whoever UCLA hires should get at least three or four years. UNC’s Roy Williams is 62, Krzyzewski is 66 and Boeheim is 68, so those jobs could open in the foreseeable future. That being said, each coach will be around for however long he wants.
So the UCLA opening could be one of very few chances for Donovan. And what an opportunity it is, even compared to what he has now.
UCLA won 10 championships before Florida even reached the NCAA Tournament.
John Wooden and his Pyramid of Success came from UCLA. Donovan is already far and away the most successful coach in UF’s history.
UCLA produced Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Joakim Noah and Al Horford may be the two best players UF has ever had.
From 2003-2014, the state of Florida did not once produce more Rivals 150 recruits than California. The states tied once, in 2010. Overall, California produced 158 top-150 players against Florida’s 98.
Of course, the reason there’s an opening at UCLA is the same reason the job may not be all that desirable. Ben Howland was fired after making seven NCAA Tournaments and three Final Fours in 10 years. Recruiting well enough to nab Shabazz Muhammad, the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2012, wasn’t enough to save him.
The standards are unreasonably high. If you don’t win — and win in entertaining fashion — Bill Walton will lead a throng of people publicly trashing you. Fixing the recent dip in attendance might take more than a new coach.
Still, the allure of such a legendary program has to be hard to deny.
The coaching search that would ensue if Donovan left says a lot about the state of UF’s program.
Florida would probably target Alabama coach Anthony Grant, as it did when Donovan briefly left to coach the Orlando Magic in 2007.
UF would likely have no shot at Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens. If Donovan’s replacement made a couple Final Fours and won a title, maybe Florida would be capable of hiring the next generation’s Stevens or Smart.
Donovan is a good enough coach to permanently elevate the program to an elite level, but he can’t do it alone. Becoming an elite program requires not just a buy-in from those within the program — which he has — but from the fans, too.
Even after winning back-to-back titles, Donovan and the basketball program will always play second fiddle to football. Few pay the hoops team any mind until after the Super Bowl. The O’Connell Center was sold to about 85 percent capacity for November’s marquee nonconference games against Marquette and Wisconsin, but in reality the building was no more than two-thirds full.
Even in March, the football team’s meaningless spring practices receive nearly equal coverage.
Donovan doesn’t strike me as a selfish, egocentric man. Far from it.
But anyone who takes his job seriously and strives to be successful values prestige, respect and, to some extent, recognition.
If I were so lucky to write for the Gainesville Sun, I’d leave in a heartbeat if offered a job at the L.A. Times. Even if I loved Gainesville and would be covering the same sport for the same wages. The Sun has a circulation of 215,000 and has won two Pulitzers. The Times has a circulation of 572,998 and has won 39 Pulitzers. I’d want to work under that banner, with those people, in the place so many great writers have worked before.
In the same way, you’d rather play for the Lakers than the Magic. To perform in the Dolby Theatre rather than the Hippodrome. To curate at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art rather than the Harn Museum.
Even if the UCLA job isn’t right for Donovan, the point remains that certain jobs have more to offer than UF, especially as it applies to prestige and building a legacy.
So could you really blame Donovan if he someday wanted to leave?
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org.
Coach Billy Donovan watches from the bench during Florida’s 66-40 win against Vanderbilt on March 6 in the O’Connell Center.
