At least one apple didn’t fall too far from Billy Donovan’s coaching tree.
Anthony Grant, a longtime assistant under Donovan, has taken the reins at Alabama this season and will face his former mentor tonight at 7 when the Crimson Tide (13-8, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) host the Gators (15-6, 4-3 SEC) in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Grant coached under Donovan for 12 years, two at Marshall and 10 at Florida, serving as the associate head coach on the 2005-06 national championship team before taking his first head coaching job at VCU the next season.
After Grant left UF, Donovan told VCU athletics director Richard Sander he just made one of the biggest steals in the country, as Grant should have been a head coach long before 2006.
“I was really surprised in a lot of ways that earlier on, he was not approached more about being a head coach,” Donovan said. “I’d almost liken it to a little bit of the Charlie Strong situation, where Charlie probably should have been a head coach a long time ago. I think a lot can be said for Anthony in the same respect.”
Grant is one of four former assistants under Donovan to become a head coach in recent years, along with Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, Marshall coach Donnie Jones and Shaka Smart, who took over at VCU when Grant signed on at Alabama.
Donovan and Grant have remained friends and still speak with great admiration for each other, and both said this week that their close relationship has made the buildup to their first matchup that much more difficult.
“I don’t like it,” Grant said. “Obviously my relationship with coach Donovan is much bigger than basketball, but when the game starts, it’s a basketball game and it’s the guys on the court that really make the difference.”
Having worked together for more than a decade, Grant and Donovan developed similar coaching styles, and their teams run many of the same plays and defensive sets. Donovan said the Gators and Tide will employ most of the same concepts tonight, with the differences due to the teams’ personnel.
UF will look to get its guards back on track after a shaky performance against Tennessee on Sunday, while Alabama will rely on the inside-outside combo of guard Mikhail Torrance (15.1 points, 5.5 assists per game) and forward JaMychal Green (14.6 points, 7.2 rebounds per game).
“We’re doing a lot of similar things on offense and defense,” Donovan said. “In a lot of ways, preparation-wise, there will be some concepts that our guys totally understand.”
While at UF, Grant recruited guard Kenny Boynton as a ninth and 10th grader, and the freshman made strong comparisons between Donovan and his protégé.
“Alabama’s more of a team that plays just like us with coach Grant,” Boynton said. “He coaches just like coach Donovan.”
“They’re running basically the same stuff that we run,” Boynton added. “I think he’s a great coach — a lot like coach Donovan. That’s who he learned from, so they’re a lot alike.”
