A Good Year To Be A Gators Fan

This has been a very good year to be a Gators fan.  The Florida Gators Men's Basketball team just won the NCAA National Tournament last night but first I want to mention something else very much related to the Florida Gators.  

Just a few short days ago, Billy Donovan (photo at right) was just selected to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  Billy is the person who brought me to become a Gators fan.  He was the Gator coach for 19 years and, during that time, he built a basketball program that remains to be a first class program.  Billy and I met in the town where we grew up, Rockville Centre.  

I've been a fan of Billy Donovan since he started playing basketball in Rockville Centre where we both grew up.  Back then, Rockville Centre was known as the land of basketball very much the way high school football is in the south.  When Billy started playing basketball, I was one of the assistants at a basketball clinic he attended and then I later went on to coach at the high school level.  

The first year I assisted at this clinic, Billy was one of the new kids in the program.  I have to say that I saw something special in him even back then even though he was a mildly pigeon-toed little kid.  What was special is that he had an obvious thirst and willingness to learn.  I was young and it was my first year assisting in a coaching position but even I could see that Billy was different than everyone else on the court.  At that time, he wasn't what I would call a natural talent but he worked hard and clearly wanted to be the best he could be.  It was pretty obvious even to me (I'm only a few years older than Billy) in those early years assisting in this clinic that he was going to develop into one of the top basketball minds.  

By the time Billy was in high school at St Agnes High School, he was one of their star guards.  I was at every one of his home games that I could attend while he was at St Agnes.  I even traveled to watch him play in State Championship tournaments.  

He continued on to star at Providence College and then played for a short while with the New York Knicks.  He would eventually land a job as the head coach of the Florida Gators and built a tremendous basketball program.  He coached the Gators to two national titles and four Final Four tournaments during his 19 years coaching at Florida.  Until the Gators won the national tournament last night, Billy was the youngest coach to win the tournament.  Todd Golden, the current Gators coach, is just slightly younger so he now holds that "youngest coach" title.   

One thing that I always noticed while Billy was at St Agnes was that his dad was at every game in that tiny St Agnes auditorium gym.  This small, cramped gym was always at "standing room only" capacity with very loud and very animated fans and Mr Donovan always did the same exact thing my own dad would do which is why it has always stood out to me...  He would step into the gym, walk the few feet to the corner of the court and watch the game while standing there at the corner of the court.  Mr Donovan was at every one of Billy's games...  well, every one of the games I attended.  My dad always did the same.  As long as my dad wasn't working a night shift, my dad would stand at that same corner of the court and watch my game.  This similarity between our fathers has always intrigued me which is why I remember this to this day.  Of course, we're from the same neighborhood too and I, too, attended St Agnes before transferring to South Side High School so our backgrounds are alike.  

Today, Billy is the head coach of the Chicago Bulls.  Admittedly, I am not a fan of professional sports but I have continued to follow the Florida Gators even after Billy left for an NBA coaching position.  One of Billy's assistants at Florida, Anthony Grant, went on to coach at the University of Dayton and I happen to be a Dayton fan also.  My ever-so-slight association with Anthony Grant and much greater association with the University of Dayton is another story for another time though.  

Congratulations to Billy the Kid for being elected to be inducted to the Hall of Fame later this year!

Last night, the 2024-2025 Florida Gators team just won the NCAA National Tournament and it was quite an amazing tournament for Gator fans.  By the time January rolled around, the Gators had this innate ability to just take control of the game in the last few minutes of each game.  They would play only as hard as necessary to stay in the game and then suddenly turn up the heat in the last few minutes to win.  It didn't matter how far behind they were, they always seemed to find a higher gear to completely control the last few minutes of the game and pull out a spectacular and surprising win.  

They beat top ten teams throughout the season.  They went on an exciting winning streak to win the Southeastern Conference Championship.  Honestly, at the time, I was a bit surprised they pulled that off because the Southeastern Conference had quite a few of the national top 10 teams but, naturally, the Gators fans were quite ecstatic to win the conference championship.  

After the conference championship, they were one of 68 teams in the NCAA national tournament.  A single loss means you go home but they continued to pull out win after win making it to and through the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight, the Final Four and then they won the national championship game last night!

The thing worth mentioning about last night's championship game is that the Gators were losing almost the entire game.  They were leading for only one single minute of the entire game!  As a fan, this was pretty brutal.  They were even down by 12 points in the second half and, honestly, things were appearing pretty grim for us.  At this point, it was hard to see how the Gators would pull this one out for a win but, once again, like just about all of their games late in this season, they suddenly shifted into overdrive late in the game to pull out a win in the last seconds of the game.  

In this particular Championship game it was very clear that they stunned their opponent, Houston.  The comeback happened so quickly, so abruptly and so unexpectedly that it left Houston visibly stunned.  Quite literally, for 39 minutes, Houston was seemingly in complete control of the game while Florida struggled....  the next minute, in the last seconds of the game, the Gators won by two points!  This sort of comeback seemed to be the way this particular Gators team operated throughout this season though so, for Gators fans, it wasn't a stunning surprise.  We've been seeing this type of play for months but we were very happy to see this unfold again in the NCAA Tournament Final. 

Congratulation to the Florida Gators for another championship title!  The fact that Billy Donovan was also elected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame during this tournament made this win even more sweet for Gators fans.  It has definitely been a good time to be a Gators fan! 

Here are a few more photos that I shot of our television so the quality isn't all that great...

Below, cutting down the net, is Todd Golden, the Gators' coach...

The Final Four tournament was in San Antonio.  I've been to a basketball game here once before and then, more recently, we visited San Antonio for Adam's graduation from Air Force Basic Military Training so we were very familiar with all the sites being shown on television.  After Florida won, they had a parade through the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio.  The team arrived back at the Florida campus this afternoon but still had not yet had a chance to sleep.  I suspect sleep won't occur until sometime after more partying tonight on campus!