Billy Donovan to Kentucky????

Question

If Florida is in the FInal Four and Kentucky isn't than why would Billy Donovan go to Kentucky? It seems ridiculous to me, can someone please explain this.

Answer 1

It is ridiculous. But here are the reasons he might consider it:

1. Donovan graduated from UK
2. Florida is first and foremost a Football School.
3. UK has the reputation.
4. Donvan's recruit class for last year and this year is bad*
*this is a guess not facts.
5$$$ - UK may just offer crazy money that Florida won't match for a basketball coach.

Personally I think Donavan has a chance to turn Florida into a powerhouse long term and be the guy that did that. If I were him it would take reason # 5 to pull me away.

Answer 2

Even though Billy Donovan is a very good coach and his team has had recent success second to none, I feel his career could be taken to another level by leaving for Kentucky. Both financially and conceptually he will have a better chance of being conisdered in the elite coaches of college basketball present and past by leaving for Kentucky. In my opinion, the timing couldnt be more perfect because before the last two years his results with great talent had been mediocre and in post season dissapointing. At the conclusion of this year, he is sure to lose almost all of his starters from this year. With a very limited rotation, he will have to depend on a great recruiting year and he only has one mcdonalds all american coming in. If the comes back he is sure to sign patrick patterson because how could patterson turn down the opportunity to develop under donovan and have immediate playing time but if he goes to kentucky he will still sign patterson and probably sign lucas as well. He will have a better core returning at Kentucky and for the next 10 years he has a better chance of winning 2 more ncaa championships at kentucky than at florida.

Answer 3

First, it's not about the money. Even if that were Donovan's only motivation, either school can come up with enough to sway him. According to one reporter, a big-time UK booster said that he and a few others came up with $5 million in ONE DAY to buy out Tubby Smith's contract. Presumably they would come up with more to bring in who they want. UF can probably match any offer Kentucky makes, so it could become a game of chicken.

But money is not the only factor, and a prestigious program is not necessarily an incentive. You only have to look two doors down from Donovan to see that -- Urban Meyer turned down Notre Dame to come to Florida. (Note that Meyer once was an assistant at ND, just as Donovan was an assistant at Kentucky.) Likewise, Alabama and Miami didn't get their first choices for their football programs.

I think it has to do with the pressure to win, as well as a potential place in the school's legacy. There are scores of colleges that would like to have a basketball program as successful as Kentucky has been under Tubby Smith, but in Lexington it got him a line of people paying to get rid of him. Nobody has survived Bear Bryant's shadow at 'Bama -- Mike Shula went 10-2, but a year later he was fired, even though he had been hampered by NCAA sanctions brought about by his predecessor.

At Kentucky, Donovan would have a lot more pressure to win than at Florida, and even if he was wildly successful, he would just be another in a line of great coaches who followed Adolph Rupp. At Florida, Donovan has a chance to BE Adolph Rupp.

But there's no telling what he will do. I thought Spurrier would stay at UF until he died or retired, basically for the same reason, but he eventually tried the NFL. And there is never a shortage of people who will risk what they have in hopes of being the next John Wooden or Woody Hayes.

Answer 4

Simple: Kentucky is the winningest basketball program in the country. And it is also pays basketball coaches more money than any other college. Along with their salaries and bonuses and endorsements, they can make a fortune. Tubby Smith (and this was reported on ESPN) made 11 million dollars last year as coach of Kentucky. Sometimes money talks and also since Billy Donovan was assistant coach at Kentucky under Rick Pitino, he knows that Kentucky basketball coaches are treated as gods in the state. Some Kentuckians may not know who their Governor is, but every Kentuckian knows who the basketball coach is and he is always far more popular than the Governor.