Attention basketball enthusiasts

This autographed ball is a must have for any Gator fan!

“Billy” Donovan, Jr. – born May 30, 1965 in Rockville Center, New York – is the head coach of the University of Florida Gators basketball team.  He has taken the Gators to 3 NCAA championship game appearances, in 2000, 2006, and 2007.  The Gators lost to the Michigan State Spartans in the 2000 NCAA Men’s Div I Basketball final.  The Gators won the national championship in 2006 with a 73-57 win over UCLA and again in 2007 with an 84-75 win over Ohio State, making Donovan the first coach since Mike Krzyewski to win back-to-back titles.  He is one of only four (Dean Smith, Joe B. Hall and Bobby Knight being the others) to participate in the final four as player and win the national championship as a coach.

Donovan played under the legendary Frank Morris at St. Agnes High School.  He then went on to play for Rick Pitino at Providence College.  Fans soon nicknamed him “Billy the Kid” – he averaged 20.6 points per game as a senior, when he took the Friars to the Final Four and earned the Southeast Regional MVP.  He had a short lived career in the NBA, which included a year under coach Pitino with the New York Nicks.

Donovan then worked for a Wall Street investment firm before joining Pitino as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky in 1989.  His success there secured him the head coaching job at Marshal University (1994-96).  He then headed off to the SEC as the head coach at the University of Florida in 1996.

As the Gators head coach Donovan has two National Championship and three appearances in the title game, three consecutive SEC Tournament titles, the only three in UF history, the No. 1 ranking in the nation in four of the last six years, including starting and finishing the 2006-07 season in that spot, ten straight 20-win seasons, two 30-win seasons, including a school record 35 wins in 2006-07, and eleven consecutive postseason appearances.

Billy Donovan is already a coaching legend!