10-Year Reunion: Billy D, 2006-07 Gators to be Honored at Football Game
Thursday, June 23, 2016 | General, Men's Basketball, Football, Chris Harry
UF's back-to-back NCAA championship teams will be recognized at the Sept. 10 football game against Kentucky.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As time goes by, their legacy will only grow. When Billy Donovan's incomparable basketball teams of 2006 and '07 won back-to-back NCAA championships — only the third program in the previous half-century to do so — they did it with the same starting five. Check back when another school does that.
Like in … never.
In the 10 years since, the admiration for Billy D and his "04-led" bunch has only appreciated.
Which brings us to Sept. 10.
That's the day Gator Nation gets to show and shower that appreciation when Donovan, Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey and the rest will be back on campus for a celebratory reunion weekend, including an on-field salute during the UF-Kentucky football game. The event will mark the first time since the wrap of that historic '07 season that this bunch of Gator greats — the only team in Southeastern Conference history to win consecutive national basketball crowns in college basketball's modern era — have been together.
"It's going to be great," said Donovan, who left UF in 2015 to become coach of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder. "After that second [national] championship, once the school year ended, those guys had to travel all over the place, get ready for the draft, go to summer league, so there wasn't much time after that to be around one another. It'll be nice for all of us to catch up."
And by the sound of things, it will be virtually all of them.
Single-game tickets for UF-Kentucky go on sale for season-ticket holders on July 13 and for the general public July 18.
Commemorating those two hoops teams — arguably the most popular group of athletes ever to wear UF uniforms — has been on the radar of the University Athletic Association for some time. The challenge, though, was finding a time convenient for the entire crew to get back, what with so many of them still playing professionally. Eventually, the Sept. 10, 2016 date was landed on.
It is by sheer coincidence the football opponent that day will be the SEC basketball kingpin.
Worth noting: the '06-07 Gators went a combined 5-0 against the Wildcats.
"The bottom line, because of [the players'] schedules, it had to happen the first two weeks of the season, regardless of the opponent," UF executive associate athletics director Mike Hill said. "But, yes, there is some irony that it will be the weekend the conference's standard-bearer for basketball will be here."
No one will argue Kentucky's place — far and away — atop the SEC basketball hierarchy, but the Wildcats never had back-to-back seasons like the Gators did. Few teams not named UCLA ever did.
Consider:
"I really believe they need to be considered as one of the greatest college teams of all time," said Donovan, adding those squads were 18-0 in the postseason, counting the SEC tournaments. "It's been said that if you replayed the NCAA Tournament every year, you probably end up with a different winner. But looking back, knowing what those guys did to block out things and focus on the things they needed to focus, I think they would won it those tournaments if they replayed it."
Who's to argue?
Like in … never.
In the 10 years since, the admiration for Billy D and his "04-led" bunch has only appreciated.
Which brings us to Sept. 10.
That's the day Gator Nation gets to show and shower that appreciation when Donovan, Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey and the rest will be back on campus for a celebratory reunion weekend, including an on-field salute during the UF-Kentucky football game. The event will mark the first time since the wrap of that historic '07 season that this bunch of Gator greats — the only team in Southeastern Conference history to win consecutive national basketball crowns in college basketball's modern era — have been together.
"It's going to be great," said Donovan, who left UF in 2015 to become coach of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder. "After that second [national] championship, once the school year ended, those guys had to travel all over the place, get ready for the draft, go to summer league, so there wasn't much time after that to be around one another. It'll be nice for all of us to catch up."
And by the sound of things, it will be virtually all of them.
Single-game tickets for UF-Kentucky go on sale for season-ticket holders on July 13 and for the general public July 18.
Commemorating those two hoops teams — arguably the most popular group of athletes ever to wear UF uniforms — has been on the radar of the University Athletic Association for some time. The challenge, though, was finding a time convenient for the entire crew to get back, what with so many of them still playing professionally. Eventually, the Sept. 10, 2016 date was landed on.
It is by sheer coincidence the football opponent that day will be the SEC basketball kingpin.
Worth noting: the '06-07 Gators went a combined 5-0 against the Wildcats.
"The bottom line, because of [the players'] schedules, it had to happen the first two weeks of the season, regardless of the opponent," UF executive associate athletics director Mike Hill said. "But, yes, there is some irony that it will be the weekend the conference's standard-bearer for basketball will be here."
No one will argue Kentucky's place — far and away — atop the SEC basketball hierarchy, but the Wildcats never had back-to-back seasons like the Gators did. Few teams not named UCLA ever did.
Consider:
- The '05-06 team began the season unranked and won it all.
- The '06-07 team began the season No. 1, with its top seven players back and with the incredible pressure (both internal and external) to repeat — and won it all again.
"I really believe they need to be considered as one of the greatest college teams of all time," said Donovan, adding those squads were 18-0 in the postseason, counting the SEC tournaments. "It's been said that if you replayed the NCAA Tournament every year, you probably end up with a different winner. But looking back, knowing what those guys did to block out things and focus on the things they needed to focus, I think they would won it those tournaments if they replayed it."
Who's to argue?
Players Mentioned
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