Should He Stay Or Should He Go?
For a guy who just won his second consecutive NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Billy Donovan can't win.
How can he stay at a football school when genuine basketball royalty beckons?
How can he leave the program that he built from the ground up for the unreasonable expectations and white-hot glare of a historic powerhouse?
And, adding to that, there's the further issue of the loyalty that his players have already shown him, foregoing millions of guaranteed NBA dollars and risking career-threatening injury to get that second title. What message do his actions send now? If he stays, he's saying that loyalty means more than money. If he goes, he's saying that money means more than loyalty.
And we are talking about a LOT of money here. Either way, he figures to get paid outrageously, because Florida has the means to match whatever Kentucky offers...which brings us right back to square 1: stay in the home you built with these two hands, or move into the mansion down the road?
I believe that he should stay at Florida. I will not hear any more about basketball being second fiddle at a football school. Yes, Urban Meyer is there and yes, Meyer did bring a second championship to the rabid fans at The Swamp. But Dononvan has perservered through all of that, through Steve Spurrier and Ron Zook and now Meyer, and, as a result, has built a program of such magnitude that NBA first rounders decided to stay rather than bolt. That's HUGE.
Florida is now in a position to recruit itself, much like Kentucky does, and perhaps even better. If Donovan stays, he has guaranteed himself a seat at the Blue Chip Banquet with North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, and Kentucky, because kids will see him and see stability. Donovan won't have to fight to get McDonald's All-Americans (kids that John Thompson once called "hamburger heroes") to come to Florida; they'll put his team on that short list of ideal programs like the ones already mentioned when they're asked about their college options.
But, more important, at Florida, he's the first and ONLY Billy Donovan. In Kentucky, he'd only be the latest in a string of championship coaches, and all of them still in the shadow of Adolph Rupp. Roy Williams may have finally won his national championship at North Carolina, but he did it playing in the Dean Smith Center. Ben Howland is the first UCLA coach to have real success after the legend that is John Wooden. Donovan could make NBA money at the program he built, with recruits coming to him, and compete for basketball titles in a football conference for the rest of his life.
I'm not saying that he wouldn't be challenged; of course he would. Anyone who works with 18-year-old men on a regular basis is challenged daily. And he would fight for the spotlight with the football program, which is not a bad thing. That kind of thing would keep him motivated to make his program the best, not that he needs any additional motivation beyond what already drives him.
All in all, given money, stature, and recruits, the Kentucky job might be a lateral move at best, and, considering that the pressure to win in Lexington will be a thousand times worse than it is in Gainesville, it might even be a step down.
Billy Donovan should stay at Florida.
How can he stay at a football school when genuine basketball royalty beckons?
How can he leave the program that he built from the ground up for the unreasonable expectations and white-hot glare of a historic powerhouse?
And, adding to that, there's the further issue of the loyalty that his players have already shown him, foregoing millions of guaranteed NBA dollars and risking career-threatening injury to get that second title. What message do his actions send now? If he stays, he's saying that loyalty means more than money. If he goes, he's saying that money means more than loyalty.
And we are talking about a LOT of money here. Either way, he figures to get paid outrageously, because Florida has the means to match whatever Kentucky offers...which brings us right back to square 1: stay in the home you built with these two hands, or move into the mansion down the road?
I believe that he should stay at Florida. I will not hear any more about basketball being second fiddle at a football school. Yes, Urban Meyer is there and yes, Meyer did bring a second championship to the rabid fans at The Swamp. But Dononvan has perservered through all of that, through Steve Spurrier and Ron Zook and now Meyer, and, as a result, has built a program of such magnitude that NBA first rounders decided to stay rather than bolt. That's HUGE.
Florida is now in a position to recruit itself, much like Kentucky does, and perhaps even better. If Donovan stays, he has guaranteed himself a seat at the Blue Chip Banquet with North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, and Kentucky, because kids will see him and see stability. Donovan won't have to fight to get McDonald's All-Americans (kids that John Thompson once called "hamburger heroes") to come to Florida; they'll put his team on that short list of ideal programs like the ones already mentioned when they're asked about their college options.
But, more important, at Florida, he's the first and ONLY Billy Donovan. In Kentucky, he'd only be the latest in a string of championship coaches, and all of them still in the shadow of Adolph Rupp. Roy Williams may have finally won his national championship at North Carolina, but he did it playing in the Dean Smith Center. Ben Howland is the first UCLA coach to have real success after the legend that is John Wooden. Donovan could make NBA money at the program he built, with recruits coming to him, and compete for basketball titles in a football conference for the rest of his life.
I'm not saying that he wouldn't be challenged; of course he would. Anyone who works with 18-year-old men on a regular basis is challenged daily. And he would fight for the spotlight with the football program, which is not a bad thing. That kind of thing would keep him motivated to make his program the best, not that he needs any additional motivation beyond what already drives him.
All in all, given money, stature, and recruits, the Kentucky job might be a lateral move at best, and, considering that the pressure to win in Lexington will be a thousand times worse than it is in Gainesville, it might even be a step down.
Billy Donovan should stay at Florida.
posted by van walker | 8:42 PM
1 Comments:
Everybody, including yourself Mr. Walker, seems to have missed the boat a bit here. Billy Donovan should stay at Florida, that much is true, but the reason requires no equivocation (or column, for that matter). The Florida job is better than the Kentucky job. It was not in 1998 or in 1962, but it is now. Donovan made it that way. If he wants to jump to the NBA, that's fine (I mean, I guess it's fine, I have no idea what would make a human being do such a thing), but Donovan has made Florida a destination job. With apologies to Leonard Hamilton and Florida State, Donovan has the whole talent-rich state to himself and he now has as good a shot in New York and Chicago as, say, Roy Williams or Mike...you know, the Duke coach.
And Florida backed up the truck for the man. You knew they had to, they knew they had to. They will continue to back up the truck for the man.
Ben Howland? Dude. Seriously. You don't want to admit that Jim Harrick won the national title at UCLA in 1995?
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