Saturday night was a spectacle.
The 10,000 fans that loaded into the O'Connell Center weren't in attendance just to watch a basketball game. They came to help welcome home the pioneer who molded Florida basketball into an elite national championship-winning program.
The ovation for former UF head coach Billy Donovan when he entered out onto the court, the one that now showcases his name, at halftime was deafening.
And deservedly so.
During 19 seasons at Florida, Donovan accumulated 467 wins, four Final Four appearances and two national championship titles.
His assistant coaches admired him, his players loved him, and that was evident by the abundant amount of them that traveled to Gainesville just to support him.
"When I look at my name down there, I don't just look at my name, I look at a lot of other people and their names," Donovan said. "We've got an unbelievable group of guys that all made the trip and the effort to come here...For you guys to come back and share in this means the world to me."
Twenty-eight former Gator players — including Bradley Beal, Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Chris Chiozza — were courtside on Saturday to show support for a person that changed their lives in so many ways.
The honor was well deserved, and the commemoration of a Florida legend was flawless.
The current Gators, though, still had a game to play.
Despite the distractions, Florida (16-9, 8-4 SEC) denied any chance of a letdown against Vanderbilt (9-16, 1-11 SEC), upending the Commodores by 18 to place a figurative bow on a perfect night for the program.
UF showcased its ability to grasp the maturity necessary to win against an inferior opponent at home on a night overshadowed by things not really related to its basketball game.
"I was a little bit concerned," UF coach Mike White said, referring to all of the distractions. "But I also thought the whole deal with the renaming of the court would bring a lot of positivity into the environment and electricity."
Florida certainly fed off of that extra energy in the first half, taking a 29-point lead into halftime that helped cause Vandy coach Jerry Stackhouse and his flashy green suit to be escorted from the game late in the first half after two technical fouls.
The Commodores did make the game more interesting in the second half, but it didn't matter.
The game was already over and nothing was going to spoil what transpired at that arena that night.
UF has now won back-to-back games to help garner some momentum heading into the final six games of the regular season.
Two matchups with Kentucky, a rematch with LSU, and a home game with fellow NCAA Tournament hopeful Arkansas still remain ahead.
Offensively, the team has shown flashes of brilliance over the past week; averaging over 80 PPG combined in its last two contests.
That offensive input against some of the top-tier teams left on its schedule will be necessary to potentially pick up a couple of upsets.
A win over UK or LSU would put Florida in great position to lock up an NCAA Tournament bid, barring a setback against Georgia or Tennessee.
