Attending this school at the time and in the Senior Class is future Florida Gators Men's Basketball Head Coach, Billy Donovan.
Donovan is likely in the Senior Class group photo (page 7); shown dressed as a cheerleader (page 65); in the Varsity Basketball Team group photo (#34) (page 73); is in the corner of the Varsity Basketball Team action photo (#34) (page 73); making a basketball shot (page 76); has a Senior Class Photo (page 105); and he is listed in the Senior Directory (page 127).
Billy Donovan Senior Class Photo.
"Another deuce for Donovan!"
William John Donovan, Jr. was born May 30, 1965 in Rockville Centre, New York, and is the son of Bill Donovan, Sr., the third leading scorer in Boston College Men's Basketball history.
"Billy the Kid" Donovan attended Providence College where he played guard on the basketball team. His first two seasons with the Friars were unimpressive; he scored an average of two points per game as a freshman and three points as a sophomore. His junior year, however, Donovan excelled in the system of new head coach Rick Pitino. He averaged 15.1 points a game as a junior and 20.6 as a senior, when he led the Friars to the Final Four and earned the Southeast Regional Most Valuable Player honors.
The Utah Jazz selected Billy Donovan in the third round (68th pick overall) in the 1987 NBA Draft, but was waived after preseason. He then signed a one-year contract with the New York Knicks, now coached by Rick Pitino. With the Knicks, averaged 2.4 points and 2.0 assists over 44 games.
After the unsuccessful year with the Knicks, Donovan worked for a Wall Street investment firm before rejoining Pitino in 1989, who was now the head coach at the University of Kentucky. Donovan served as an assistant coach with Kentucky's Thundering Herd Men's Basketball Team from 1989 to 1994. In 1994, Donovan to the head coach position at Marshall University.
In his first season as a head coach, he turned around a Marshall team that had gone 9-18 the season before his arrival, into an 18-9 team and wno the Southern Conference North Division.
In his sophomore coaching season, Marshall went 17-11, led the conference in scoring and three-point field goals.
In 1996 Donovan took over head coaching duties at the University of Florida, where the Gators Men's Basketball team had fallen sharply from its 1994 Final Four appearance.
Under Donovan, the Gators reached the NCAA Tournament in every season between 1999–2007, making appearancing in three NCAA Championship games (2000, 2006 & 2007); and winning back-to-back National Championships in 2006, with a 73-57 win over UCLA, and 2007, with an 84-75 win over Ohio State. The team has ranked No. 1 ranking in three of the last four years.
Donovan one of only two basketball players to have reached the Final Four; as a player, an assistant coach, and a head coach.
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