Moving On: Shyatt's Impact At UF Immeasurable
Friday, April 1, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A week ago inside a banquet room at the New Orleans Sheraton, Florida assistant coach Larry Shyatt directed a personnel review meeting prior to the Gators' Sweet 16 matchup against BYU. He made sure the Gators knew all about the Cougars and scoring sensation Jimmer Fredette, providing a complete breakdown of each player.
He owned the room for a half hour. A week later Shyatt officially left the building.
Shyatt has left Florida, headed to Wyoming to become a head coach again, returning out West to the site of some of his most memorable stops during an amazing career that has spanned more than 35 years.
Shyatt, who will turn 60 next week, has already been Wyoming's coach once -- he led the Cowboys to a 19-9 record and NIT berth in 1997-98 – but he left after a season to take over at Clemson. Five years and a 70-84 record later, Shyatt was out of a job and wasn't sure what was next.
Shyatt and his wife, Pam, loved their year in Wyoming, the scenic mountains and friendly people making them feel right at home. Sometimes Shyatt wondered if leaving the Cowboys had been the best move. The administration treated him great, the fans supported his team, and the Cowboys responded well to his coaching, defeating eventual NCAA runner-up Utah in his only season in Laramie.
But Clemson was a bigger job and he had served as an assistant there under Rick Barnes, so the move back East seemed best at the time. Of course, things don't always work out like you hope – the same in coaching as in life.
After a year away from coaching, Shyatt got a phone call from Gators head coach Billy Donovan. He knew Donovan some from their ties to Providence. Less than two years after Donovan led the Friars to the Final Four as a sharp-shooting guard in 1987, Shyatt joined Barnes' inaugural staff with the Friars.
By the time Donovan called Shyatt, he had been Florida's head coach for eight years. He had built Florida into a national program – leading the Gators to the 2000 NCAA title game – but there was still work to be done and Donovan searched for a veteran coach to join him on the bench.
Shyatt was his man. He had a similar offer to join the staff at Virginia in a conference he was thoroughly familiar with, but in the end, he landed on Gainesville and the University of Florida. After a year away, Shyatt was back in the game.
“At a time when you are so beat up and embarrassed and belittled from what had happened, it's almost an amazing period for Pam and I and our family,'' Shyatt said Thursday. “Billy and Jeremy [Foley] came to me at an unbelievable time in my life.''
Shyatt didn't know how fortunate his seven-year run with the Gators would be when he accepted a position on Donovan's staff, but when he showed up for the first day of practice in 2004, he felt pretty good about what he saw. It was also the first practice for the Gators' Class of 2004 – Taurean Green, Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer.
The Gators won the SEC Tournament and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Shyatt's first season, but the next two ended with Shyatt and Donovan helping the '04s cut down the nets after winning back-to-back national championships.
“To have this Florida experience, and so many wonderful things happen to us, you know the old expression 'timing is everything.' In my world, it was amazing,'' he said. “Little did I know we had three lottery picks in that freshman class.
“The most [special thing] I take are the relationships. The rings and the nets and the celebration are things I think all of us will have for a lifetime, but what I'll take and what I'll miss the most is everybody.''
Shyatt's impact at UF is significant. He added a veteran voice of wisdom for Donovan to rely on, a former head coach who had walked in the same shoes as Donovan. He also brought a background built on tough defense, a trait Florida's national title teams were known for.
He also learned from Donovan, which he says will help him as he returns to Wyoming.
“He convinced me by virtue of watching in action that you can be a pressure-oriented team as well as a very good half-court defensive team,'' Shyatt said of Donovan's influence. “I learned a great deal of offense and why he has been successful. Hopefully I can take a small piece of each and become a better coach.''
Meanwhile, Donovan gained a lifelong friend. He expressed excitement in Shyatt's new opportunity and sadness in losing such a valued member of his staff on Thursday.
“He's one of the great minds in basketball and he deserves this opportunity,'' Donovan said. “I'm happy for both he and his wife Pam that they will be able to return to an area they truly enjoyed and a program that is very special to them both.”
Shyatt had had other opportunities to leave since coming to Florida, but none had the pull of returning to Wyoming.
This time, the offer just felt right. Actually, in some ways it feels perfect.
“Being a head coach and having the head coach's role – I can't say that's the No. 1 stimulation,'' Shyatt said. “It's more having a great year at Wyoming [13 years ago] but a lot of unfinished business.
“They were so kind to me for giving me my first opportunity [to be a head coach] that I thought, what would be more apropos to end our college coaching at the place that gave us our first start to see if we could recreate a competitive environment.''
So, off he goes once more to the Wild West, where buffaloes roam free and rodeo remains one of the most popular sports.
He hopes to make Wyoming's Dome of Doom a scary place for opponents once again after the Cowboys limped to a 10-21 record last season.
But before he shows up for his first practice at Wyoming, Shyatt has a lot of goodbyes to say at UF. He got some out of the way Thursday. There will be more in the days to come.
He found a home at UF and at the end of his time here, it seems fitting that he gets to go back to place that feels like home.
Shyatt will take all the memories with him, cherishing his final season with Donovan and the Gators as much as those national title years.
“I think sentimentally what Billy did this year is the greatest of the greatest,'' he said. “We may not have had a lottery or a first-rounder or second-rounder for much of this season, and what he did and what those kids did this year is remarkable.
“I've always been a 'we' guy. I like players that like being a part of something. I enjoyed just being a small piece of this for seven years.''
