Early Departures of the Donovan Era, Part I

Written by James Brown, Gatorsfirst.com Co-Founder

I began writing this piece, thinking that Nick Calathes could actually go to the NBA, and it would be chronologically relevant. Since that time, Allan Chaney and DeShawn Painter have assured that it is a pertinent topic whether Calathes stays or goes. After I completed all my research, and dove into the writing, I realized it would be easier to follow in a series format. This is the first in that series.

I have been a lifelong Gator fan.  I may be "only" 26, to sports historians, but I had season tickets to Gator basketball games for probably 18 or 19 of those years. I have now been in Texas for 3.5 seasons, and while I've only attended probably  fiveGator games (home,away) in that time, I buy the packages to watch every game they let me. I even DVR them and watch them multiple times, in extreme cases.

Why is all this relevant?  For two main reasons. 

The first of these is that I feel like a huge storyline of Florida Gator basketball under Billy Donovan has been the early departures of his players, whether by transfer, the lure of the NBA, or by recruiting misfortune. 

The second main reason I've told you the history of my fandom is that I was a Gators fan, first.  I only learned to love the rest of college basketball from this perspective, rather than the more casual fan who watches all the teams in primetime games, follows March Madness, and eventually settles on a favorite team, by scholastic choice, geography, or bandwagon-ism. 

So I have no idea if these trends are at all atypical, or are reflective of how we should evaluate the relative success and failure of college basketball programs.  I am hoping you will help me figure it out.

Along the way, we'll uncover some truths about how full or bare the cupboard was for Billy D each season.

My only real goal is to be slightly more accurate than this guy.

In this first section, I am going to talk about the beginning of the Billy Donovan era, and his recruiting during the late 90s.

1996-97

Donovan comes in and immediately introduces an up-tempo style, and the UAA sells this fact with a ‘Ready to Run’ preseason schedule poster.  LeRon Williams is the only player to take up a transfer offer to avoid the conditioning program, as he heads to South Carolina.  And you thought Steve Spurrier was the first Gator-Cock.  Ok, maybe Steve’s been a cock since like, 1945.  But that’s just speculation, and I love the guy.  And I’m rambling.

Incoming freshmen: Kenyan Weaks, Obiora Nnaji.  I’m almost positive that when these guys signed, Lon Kruger was still the coach.  But, they did stick around the entire four years.  So maybe that’s further evidence that they can’t be counted as ‘Donovan recruits’.

97-98

Donovan gets some in state talent and begins to make some recruiting noise, getting 6A player of the year Brent Wright and 4A player of the year Major Parker.  This is actually the first class in which I found evidence of Sylbrin Robinson.  At this point, I’m willing to believe anything as far as how old he actually is. 

But the only evidence that Robinson was ever part of this class is from a geocities site, as unfortunately even stuff from 10 years ago is too old for much reliable internet information.  And I’m going with my memory here, Sylbrin was supposed to come in the same time as Haslem, and so was not part of this class… 

Marshall transfer Jason Williams is also eligible this season after following the staff to Gainesville.  He gets thrown off the team for ‘violating team rules’- rumored (not sure if it was ever confirmed) to be a failed drug test.  Jamaal Horton is a Junior College transfer who appeared in 13 games, averaged 12.5 minutes and 5.7 points and I can’t find any other evidence about him. 

I’m going to assume he left early, as by all accounts he was a junior in 97-98 and does not appear on the 98-99 roster.  Robinson not making it to Florida is somewhat of a harbinger of what is to come throughout much of Donovan’s career at Florida to date.  In the sense that neither he, Williams, nor Horton exhausted their eligibility at Florida.

98-99

Donovan, John Pelfrey, and Anthony Grant flex their recruiting muscle by bringing in a vaunted freshman class.  Before Donovan’s arrival, the Gators had just three McDonald’s All American recruits- this class boated two (Mike Miller and Teddy Dupay).  The recruiting class was to be an entire five men deep, but Miami Senior product Sylbrin Robinson does not qualify. 

This vaunted recruiting class includes: Dupay, who averaged over 40 points for his high school career; Miller, who’s commitment to Florida caused college basketball blue bloods such as Roy Williams and Mike Krzyskdjski (spelling approximate) to wrongly accuse Donovan of cheating (Donovan was cleared, but these things don’t leave the national conciousness easily- explaining at least a portion of my personal reaction to Lane Kiffin’s idiocy); Udonis Haslem, now starting at PF for the Miami Heat, was a HS teammate of Wright and Robinson; and LaDarius Halton, who once scored 70+ in a HS game.

I have mixed feelings about Halton.  He punched Brett Nelson in the face when he probably deserved it.  He had a degenerative knee condition which meant he had 50+ year old knees at 20 (I’m paraphrasing, I’m not a doctor and haven’t been at Holiday Inn Express in years). 

My buddy Ken named an award for each season’s worst Gator player after him.  And, of this first great freshman class, he was the player with the longest streak of double-digit scoring games to open that freshman season.

99-2000

Sylbrin Robinson was again listed as a signee, at least in this SI piece I dug up  (I didn’t remember that, myself. And I remember everything, like Hosie Grimsley once dunking the ball on his own head). 

But the other guys in this top 5 class were: Justin Hamilton, Florida’s Mr. Basketball; Matt Bonner, a giant, goofy redhead who grew into a fan favorite in Gainesville and is currently emerging as one in San Antonio; Donnell Harvey, whose arms were actually part of recruiting legend for their length; and Brett Nelson, aka the ‘next Jerry West’ from West Virginny who didn’t fulfill that promise, but once battled Tayshaun Prince for the SEC scoring title, and played a key role in the NCAA run.

00-01

Mike Miller and Donnell Harvey bolt for the NBA following the Nation Runner Up season of 2000.  Donovan, after getting talent from around the country in two consecutive classes, keeps it in-state.  Scholarship limits kept this class at two.  Incoming freshmen: Orien Greene, Bonnell Colas.

Look for Part II here.

Any Thoughts?

You can view the original article here.