Florida's Donovan Earns Mid-Season Coaching Honor
Saturday, January 7, 2006 | Men's Basketball
The Florida Gators entered January with a perfect 12-0 mark, which is the best start in school history and the 12 wins are the most for a Gator team before January. The record-breaking start to the 2005-06 season has earned head coach Billy Donovan the Jim Phelan mid-season coaching honors.
After opening the season with wins over St. Peter's and Albany, the Gators had two impressive performances in New York in the Coaches versus Cancer tournament. Donovan's club downed Wake Forest in the semi-finals and came back the following night to beat Syracuse in the championship game.
And with each win the Gators have been more impressive and have now run their mark to 13-0 entering SEC play.
"Despite all he has accomplished I still don't believe he gets enough credit" said CollegeInsider.com's Matt Drake who is on the 20-member voting panel.
Donovan has guided the Gators to seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances and seven straight 20-win seasons. The University of Florida had only five 20-win seasons and five NCAA Tournament appearances in the 77 years prior to Donovan's arrival.
In 2000 Donovan guided the Gators to their first appearance in the National Championship game. En route to the Championship game, the Gators became the first program to defeat both Duke and North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.
Donovan received five first place votes and 43 total points. Ohio State's Thad Matta was second with 31. Illinois' Bruce Weber (29 points), Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (24) and Memphis' John Calipari (20) round out the top five.
The CollegeInsider.com Coach of the Year award was renamed in honor of Jim Phelan who retired at the end of the 2002-03 season. The Jim Phelan Award is presented annually to the National Coach of the Year. Previous winners include Mark Slonaker (Mercer, 2003), Phil Martelli (St. Joseph's, 2004) and Tubby Smith (Kentucky, 2005).
The final voting results: http://www.jimphelanaward.com/donovan.html
