re: Gator basketball history question?

Well remember that Norm Sloan left UF and went to NC State and won a national title but he might have "bent the rules just so slightly" and the NCAA came a calling (of course Duke or UNC would not have been blowing the whistle, would they do such a thing

So it was exit stage left and Sloan came back to UF. A very good coach who grew up in the sport and knew everyone cheated...Maxwell was suspended a few times...got more than 1 or 2 coeds pregnant and was a liability from the word go. But damn....at UNC or Duke or UK he would have been a golden child with his talent on the court.

Google Vernon Maxwell and see what you come up with...I have not done myself. Remember the old days when our court was called "Alligator Alley" BB was just not popular in Fla back then at all. I just googled Vernon and Norm...wow! Vernon played in 130 games for UF>>>>???
Sloan deserves a medal of courage to keep him all four years but remember those were different times back then

Norm took UF to three NCAA tourneys during his second tenure..and he was HC when UF won the regular season SEC in 1988-89....UF was also reeling from football probation when Sloan came back and when the NCAA police came...it was time to retire. Sloan had a trademark, he always wore plaid jackets and he was a riot in interviews. He was buried (RIP) in his plaid jacket btw. You had to like him if you met him.

From wiki

In 1960, Sloan became the first full-time basketball coach at the University of Florida.[4] His Florida Gators men's basketball teams tallied an 85–63 record in six seasons, including the school's first victory over an Adolph Rupp-coached Kentucky Wildcats team in 1965. He was unable to get the Gators into postseason play during this time; during the 1960s, only one team per conference was guaranteed an NCAA bid. Nonetheless, he revived a Gators program that had been, according to Florida historian Norm Carlson, essentially an intramural program playing at the intercollegiate level.[5] The Miami Herald dubbed Sloan the "father of UF hoops" for his achievements in the 1960s.[5]

Return to Florida[edit]
After a salary dispute with NC State, Sloan returned to Gainesville in 1980 and turned the Florida Gators basketball program around for a second time. Sloan's Gators won over twenty games and made the NCAA Tournament in each of his last three seasons—the school's first NCAA Tournament appearances ever—led by star guard Vernon Maxwell and center Dwayne Schintzius. This was capped off with Florida's first Southeastern Conference regular season basketball championship in 1988–1989. His teams compiled a 150–131 record in those nine seasons, giving him an overall record of 235–194 in fifteen years with the Gators. His reputation as "Stormin' Norman" continued during his feuds with LSU Tigers coach Dale Brown.

Resignation[edit]
Sloan was forced to retire on October 31, 1989—just days before the start of the 1989–90 season—in the wake of an NCAA investigation into the Gators program.[9][10]