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Florida Gators: Billy Donovan “In Discussions” with the Oklahoma City Thunder

By Chris Godfrey

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Just when we thought the coaching carousel had taken its final turn, one of the biggest names in college basketball could be jumping to the NBA, leaving a high profile coaching vacancy in his wake. Billy Donovan, winner of two national championships at the University of Florida, is in discussions to take over as head coach of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.

Donovan has been courted by NBA teams before, and even accepted an offer to become the coach of the Orlando Magic in 2007 before reneging on the deal and returning to Florida.

However, this emerging opportunity comes under uniquely attractive circumstances. Taking over the Thunder as the replacement for the recently fired Scott Brooks would give Donovan the opportunity to make his NBA coaching debut at the helm of a loaded roster that would be anchored by perennial all-stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

The Thunder have a primary goal of retaining the services of their two superstar players well beyond the duration of their current contracts. Securing a respected name like Donovan could go a long way towards making that happen.

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If Donovan were to accept an offer from the Thunder, and leave his current post vacant, the most obvious candidate to replace him would be Shaka Smart — the former Florida assistant who has quickly become one of the brightest young stars in college coaching. Unfortunately for Gators fans, Smart recently accepted an offer to become the new coach at the University of Texas. The thought of Smart jilting Texas without coaching a game for the Longhorns is hard to fathom, but stranger things have happened, and it doesn’t require rocket science to know that Smart would probably prefer being at Florida instead of Texas.

Another highly sought after former VCU head coach is currently already on staff at Florida, but his credentials to replace a legend like Donovan are lacking. Anthony Grant is an individual who may have been able to stumble into the position of replacing years before, but that seems very unlikely now. His coaching star has cooled after a lukewarm tenure at Alabama that saw him fail to resuscitate the afterthought that is the basketball program in Tuscaloosa.

Florida is a high profile job in college basketball. If the position were to open, it would be sure to spark a large ripple effect in the college basketball landscape that would affect multiple schools if set into motion.

Though the Twittersphere is going crazy at the thought of Donovan finally trying his hand in the NBA (just as Pitino, Calipari, Westhead, and Brown did before him), whatever talks that are being had between the Thunder and Donovan at this point have to be firmly located in the preliminary stages.

Busting Brackets will be sure to stay abreast of the situation, covering as many angles as possible as the story develops.

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