They have come back sporadically in the last several years. But the long list of great basketball players that played for championships and huge seasons at the University of Florida haven’t been around much. A bunch of them made a video welcoming new head coach Todd Golden when he was hired last month. It was a great sign to see them all want to be involved and maybe a sign that they might be doing so in the near future as well.
Florida Basketball didn’t start when Billy Donovan was named the head coach at Florida back in 1996, but the prolonged success of Donovan’s 19-year career resulted in a great number of players that would go on to play professionally, more than any other similar timeframe in UF’s basketball history.
And those players of course are still very popular among the rabid fans of the program. But the program is also important to those great players that have come through Gainesville. A testament to that was a short video montage of 12 former Billy Donovan era players and one from the Lon Kruger era (Craig Brown) that was put together just three days after the Golden hire at Florida. Al Horford, Patric Young, Corey Brewer, Erik Murphy, Marreese Speights, Craig Brown, Chandler Parsons, Bradley Beal, Billy Donovan III, Jason Williams, Matt Bonner, Andrew Declercq, and Lee Humphrey let Golden know that they are ready to help where they can with the program.
Golden is really appreciative of the former players.
“They’ve been great. I’ve talked to a lot of them,” Golden said in an exclusive interview with Guide to Greater Gainesville. “We’ll start having some guys pop around as their schedules permit over the summer and into the fall. But they seem excited. I’ve tried to make a concerted effort to get in touch with as many of them as I can to just let them know that obviously they are welcome to come back home at any given time and that they’ll be welcome with open arms.”
It’s obvious that at least some of them made an effort to find out about Golden as well. Well known for his use of analytics in his coaching, one former magician with the basketball let him know where he stands with that.
“I see you’re a big analytics guy,” Jason Williams said in the video. “I just want you to keep in mind that behind-the-back passes are sometimes good in the analytics world.”
Golden could be seen chuckling at that comment, but he knows he is at a place that now has a standard when it comes to the basketball being played on Billy Donovan Court. And the players are a huge part of what has been built along the way.
“I’m trying to do everything I can as well as my staff to embrace the past success of this program,” Golden said. “I think of guys like Chandler Parsons, guys like Joakim Noah, even Jason Williams, he’s going to come up in the next week or so. I want them to be super excited about Gator Basketball again.”
Get your guys playing like those guys, and it’s game on coach.
By Bob Redman