Gator Chomp - Men's Basketball

Men's Basketball

Main article: Florida Gators men's basketball See also: List of Florida Gators basketball players

Florida enjoyed very limited success in men's basketball before the mid-1980s. Coach Norm Sloan led the program to its first post-season appearance in 1984 when the Gators made the National Invitation Tournament. They again competed in the NIT in 1985 and 1986 and made their first appearance in the NCAA Basketball Tournament in 1987, when star guard Vernon Maxwell led the team to the Sweet Sixteen. The Gators made the NCAA Tournament again the following two years. But after a scandal broke involving alleged NCAA rules violations and pregame drug use by Maxwell, Sloan resigned during the 1989-90 season and the program was placed on NCAA probation. Maxwell was retroactively declared ineligible by the school and his statistics were erased from Florida official athletic records.

Coach Lon Kruger brought renewed success and reached the NIT final four in his second year. During the 1993–1994 season, Andrew DeClercq and Dametri Hill led the Gators to their first NCAA Final Four following a dramatic victory over Connecticut in the Regional Final. Two years later, Kruger's final Gator squad had a losing record and he left to coach at Illinois.

Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, looking for a young coach with a proven track record, hired Billy Donovan, then the head coach at Marshall University, as Kruger's replacement. Donovan's recruiting prowess was evident early, bringing future NBA star Jason Williams with him from Marshall and having early recruiting classes with future NBA players Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and Matt Bonner. The Gators received invitations to the NCAA Tournament every year from 1999 through 2007, an eight-year streak that is a school record.

Despite several regular-season titles under Donovan, Florida had never won the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament until the 2004–2005 season, when they beat the rival Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC title game.

The 2005–2006 team's 17–0 start was the best in school history, surprising many with a young, selfless squad led by four sophomores. The team started the season unranked, but managed to win its second consecutive SEC Tournament championship. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the UCLA Bruins 73–57 in the NCAA Tournament championship game to win the school's first men's national basketball championship. All five starters announced they would return for another season to try to win back-to-back championships.

Before the start of the 2006–2007 basketball season, the Gators were ranked first in both major preseason media polls for the first time in school history. The Gators won their second consecutive NCAA National Men's Basketball Championship on April 2, 2007, defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 84–75. They became the first team since the 1991–1992 Duke Blue Devils to win back-to-back tournaments and the first in history to do so with the same starting line-up. After the 2007 National Championship game, Florida's four star juniors announced they would enter the NBA draft.

After accepting the head coaching job with the NBA's Orlando Magic on June 1, 2007, Donovan asked to be released by the Magic and return to Florida. On June 6, 2007, the Orlando Magic released Donovan, and he signed a new contract with Florida on June 7, 2007 to become the highest-paid coach in college basketball.

Donovan's Gators returned to championship form in 2010–2011, winning the program's fifth regular season SEC championship and fighting their way to the NCAA regional semifinals (the "Elite Eight") before losing 74–71 to the Butler Bulldogs in overtime. Incidentally, the 2010-2011 Gators were the only team in the nation not to have a single player foul out throughout the course of the entire season. In the 2011-2012 season, the Gators earned a 7 seed in the NCAA tournament. They beat all odds and prognosticators who predicted early exits for the guard-oriented national leader in 3-point baskets made and advanced all the way to the Elite 8, headlined by the play of star freshman Bradley Beal and the fearlessness of 5'7 point guard "Big Shot Erv" Erving Walker, before succumbing to Louisville.

The Gators men's basketball team plays its home games in the O'Connell Center.

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