Dooley: Donovan plans return

Florida coach Billy Donovan was enjoying some beach time while the national media was speculating about his NBA future.
File
By Pat Dooley
Columnist

Published: Monday, April 6, 2015 at 3:02 p.m.

It got really interesting last week with all of the Billy Donovan speculation and the constant crawl on ESPN. I’m not going to be critical of the way all of the talking heads took a story with little if any substance and ran with it for two days. I’ll just say this — I talked to a bunch of people over the weekend including some exchanging texts with Donovan and I can tell you that nothing has changed. If an NBA team comes to Billy and wants to talk, he’ll listen just as he always has. But all of his efforts right now are centered on getting this Florida basketball team turned around for next season. Donovan has never closed the door on the NBA and it is still open. But his interest isn’t heightened this season. And don’t think there aren’t college coaches who are speculating about it because they are recruiting against Florida. When I asked Donovan about the NBA rumors, he texted me back, “Not sure where all that stuff comes from.” The bottom line is this — Florida fans should always be concerned Donovan could leave, but no more concerned right now than a year ago or two years ago.