Donovan To Kentucky?

Since Tubby Smith left Kentucky to become the head men's basketball coach at Minnesota, last week, there's been rampant speculation that Billy Donovan may leave Florida to become Kentucky's coach. I really hadn't given much thought to Donovan's purported interest in Kentucky because...well, I really couldn't care less who becomes the next coach at Kentucky.

However, with three final fours and a National Championship (and a shot at another one this year), Donovan has proven himself to be one of the top coaches in the game. What's more, he's a young coach whose best years are still ahead of him. He can write his own ticket.

Florida is a football school. Florida will always be a football school. Basketball, despite all the recent success, will always take a back seat to football (in 1996, after having coached the Gators to the Final Four just two years earlier, Lon Kruger left Florida to take the head coaching position at Illinois-because he felt that football obscured basketball at UF). Billy Donovan is the hottest coach in college basketball right now. It would only make sense for him to capitalize on his current "it" coach status and earning power.


Despite being currently occupied with coaching the Gators in the Final Four, it appears that Donovan may, indeed, be headed to Kentucky.