Thursday, as SEC coaches and players gathered in Birmingham for the 2009-10 preseason media day, Donovan was an afterthought in the day-long gathering. The Gators were the final team to appear before members of the print media, and by then the room that had been packed earlier for new Kentucky head coach John Calipari was largely empty.Barely a dozen reporters bothered to stick around to hear what Donovan had to say, and only a few ventured over to talk with junior forward Chandler Parsons.
Whatever fame the Gators found from their title years has quickly disappeared following consecutive seasons in which they missed the NCAA Tournament entirely, a fact that Donovan acknowledged Thursday.
"You look at Kentucky's tradition over the years or Arkansas' tradition or the tradition of different programs, I can't sit here and say that Florida's tradition was a great tradition," Donovan said. "We were fortunate over the last 10 or 12 years to have some really good players and some good teams. Now the challenge is to try to get back to that." Click below for more thoughts from Donovan about KY.
Florida’s Donovan: Don’t worry about health of UK basketball program
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4 comments:
The Brunjes will tell you that if Kentucky doesn't win back-to-back championships, they're still looking up to the Gators. I guess that's the new, be-all, end-all qualifier of successful basketball programs.
We'll try to catch up to you someday, Gators. :-)
(p.s. Kentucky won the title in '48 and '49. They also went to three straight championship games from '96-'98, winning the '96 and '98 titles and losing in OT in '97.)
I think you guys are obsessed with the Gators and the Brunjes. It seems like there is alot of talk about both coming from you guys.
Obsessed? Nope. Just pokin' fun but I'll stop.
That article further proves to me that Billy Donovan is a class act. He leads with humility, and he also knows how to win games. We'll get back to greatness, Billy d is in it for the long haul.
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