As Billy D Says 'Goodbye,' Search for His Heir Begins
Monday, May 4, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Billy Donovan's farewell news conference Monday lasted about 30 minutes. The short walk from the Gator Room to his SUV parked outside nearly took as a long. There was one more interview to do, plus a conga line of well-wishers who after nearly two decades wanted one more piece of Florida's basketball icon.
As in a hug.
“It's unbelievable,” senior associate athletic director Mike Hill said. “I've worked with the guy for 19 years and I've never seen him angry at me.”
Hill is the UAA senior administrator who oversees men's basketball. Rest assured, there have been disagreements over the years between the program and the Florida administration. But Donovan always dealt with such manners professionally and never let them affect relationships. In fact, the only Gators he ever truly showed his anger to probably were his players (and that was mostly behind closed doors).
And so it was, one of the classiest and, yes, the most beloved coach in University of Florida history officially and formerly said goodbye to the Gators before diving head first into the pursuit of his NBA dream as head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was important for Donovan, 49, to leave on this note; with a chance to face the cameras, tape recorders and notepads -- not to mention several dozen longtime UAA colleagues -- before riding off into an orange and blue sunset.
Gainesville media gathered Monday in the Gator Room for Billy Donovan's farewell news conference.
“I would not have felt comfortable leaving without at least addressing so many people here that I love so dearly,” Donovan said. “Our team gets covered 30 or 40 times out of the year by all of you, but there are also 365 days in a year, and those other days for me and my wife and my kids have been filled with nothing but joy and pleasure and incredible working relationships.”
Paramount to those, of course, was the one Donovan shared with Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, who in 1996 took a flyer on a 28-year-old with two years as a head coach at Marshall on his resume. In introducing Donovan in the very same room (albeit renovated and much larger) he did 19 years ago, Foley choked back tears as he thanked the winningest coach in program history -- 467 wins, 186 defeats, a winning percentage of .715 -- for everything he'd done for the Gators. 
“The basketball piece he delivered in spades and we thank him for that,” Foley said. “What we really didn't know 19 years ago was the type of person we were getting.”
Someone who got along with everybody ... and won big.
Now Foley (right) is faced with the daunting task of replacing a coach who is virtually irreplaceable.
The Gators are coming off a 16-17 season that marked the program's first losing record since 1998. The ensuing 17 seasons brought 14 NCAA Tournament berths, including a pair of national championships. A nice nucleus of players, defections notwithstanding, could await the next coach, given the eligibility of center John Egbunu and guard Brandone Francis, and assuming the four incoming freshmen make good on their letters of intent.
Donovan has lobbied for Foley to give serious consideration to assistant coach John Pelphrey, who with two stints alongside Donovan (1996-2002) and (2011-15) is both engrained and aligned in the “Billy D” culture.
For Foley (right) and his search committee, the goal is to find a coach who will ride the momentum and tradition created by Donovan had a place put at a place that had next-to-nothing of either before he arrived.
“There are a lot of people doubting we can do that, and that fires us up because we have a good job here,” Foley said. “We have a great institution, great commitment, great support. The same conversation we had with Billy 19 years ago we're going to have with another coach, saying, 'Let's keep this thing going. Let's build this thing.' ”
Since being named AD in 1992, Foley has embarked on numerous coaching searches, including a replacement for football icon Steve Spurrier, whose ties to the Gators were incalculable. Because of Foley and Donovan's personal relationship, this one hurts deeply. Foley admitted as much.
But also has a job to do.
“I'm not energized when a guy like Billy Donovan walks out of the room. As you can see, I'm trying to control my emotions on that,” Foley said. “You know what excites us? When people say it can't continue because Billy is leaving. It can't continue because it's not a great job. I don't buy that for one second. It's a really good job.”
The same assumptions were made about Florida basketball -- when Lon Kruger bolted for Illinois -- the last time the Gators went looking for a basketball coach (then/now photo, right).
Foley's search committee convened for the first time Monday afternoon. Though it is operating on no timetable, the heir to Donovan figures to be in place in time for the Southeastern Conference meetings in Destin, Fla., at the end of the month.
The heir to Billy Donovan.
Thank about that.
It's hard. But at long last, it's real.
“It's hard to predict and project the future ... things change,” Donovan said. “It's very rare as a head coach to have the same athletic director for 19 years. I've had the same administrative assistant, the same secretary. ... [The NBA] is something I've always been intrigued by, but I also knew it wasn't something I wanted to do for the sake of doing it. It had to be right all the way around for me.”
