Billy Donovan Not a Candidate at UK

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Written by James Brown, Gatorsfirst.com Co-Founder

Any time the Kentucky job becomes available (funny how that happens more often than with the Florida job), Billy Donovan is listed as a candidate.

So, when I received a message through the Gatorsfirst ballhype account that "a source tells me Billy Donovan is headed to Lexington" and speculation was that Billy Gillespie was out...let's just say, I wasn't worried.

If we learned anything about the "Donovan to UK...uh, the Magic...uh, he's not going anywhere" fiasco two years ago, it's that Billy D loves coaching college basketball.  And loves staying in Florida.

Admittedly, I don't know much more than that, as I was out of touch with the sports world on my honeymoon in Kauai during the week that it all took place, and nothing was any different when I got home—except a lot of interesting articles had been created in the meantime.

In today's Internet, no one is as concerned about being wrong as much as they are about being first.  So I don't go overboard until more than one source, or until a seemingly accurate source, is reporting the same thing.

During the Nu'Keese Richardson saga I didn't believe any of the speculation until the word was he was going to UT, from the Palm Beach Post, who had someone in the gym for his signing.  That's more reputable to me than some Orlando TV station trying to claim the Gators as a "local" team, or some message board guy digging up flight manifests.

NEWSFLASH: Airplanes travel from Gainesville/Ocala to Kentucky all the time.  It's a horse racing thing, and I don't fully understand it.

Add in the unfortunate fact that the NIT crew, from our home game Tuesday, flew to Notre Dame for the UK game, and apparently made the unfortunate refuelling stop in Kentucky, and we've got widespread Internet rumors.

Here find a summary of some of the flight-tracking rumors.

None of this really bothered me.  I saw the post on Clay Travis' site, as he's the de facto clearinghouse for fans of the SEC to send these sort of links to.  That was right after I got out of a meeting at work (an unfortunate consequence when you pay your mortgage based on engineering over your excellent Gator-centric sports coverage), so I thought maybe it was actually fact. 

A quick survey of gatorsports.com (who certainly would have something up, as this is a huge story) shot down those rumors, both here and here.  And then they had the story that Anthony Grant was headed to Bama, blowing up that half of the rumor.

The f***ed up thing through all this was what many Gator outlets (fans, commentors on the news sites, message board geeks) were saying about it.

"Good riddance, Anthony Grant will have the fire to suceed" and "good, now we can recruit something other than 6'5"-6'9" white dudes."

I have to say, I vehemently disagree with any scenario where Billy Donovan leaving is a good thing for the program, short of him getting into Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno territory. 

I will be posting another blog setting the Gator Nation straight on Donovan, but for now, know that he's right where he belongs—neighbors with Urban Meyer, and UF still holds the greatest men's basketball/football head coaching tandem.

Any thoughts?

You can view the original article here.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?