• Billy Donovan, two-time NCAA champion coach with Florida, has been elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame.
• Donovan led the Gators to consecutive titles in 2006 and 2007, the last program to achieve this feat until UConn in 2023 and 2024.
• Before coaching, Donovan was a standout player at Providence College, leading the Friars to the 1987 Final Four.

Billy Donovan’s place in basketball history was secured long before Saturday. This latest honor further separates him from the majority of his peers.

Donovan was elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame, news revealed at the Final Four in San Antonio. It seems appropriate Donovan can watch the team he led to glory compete again on the grandest men’s college stage this weekend.

The former standout guard at Providence College won back-to-back national championships with Florida in 2006 and 2007, the last program to accomplish that feat until Connecticut matched it in 2023 and 2024. Donovan was a four-time SEC Tournament champion, three-time league Coach of the Year and won 502 games over 21 seasons with Marshall and the Gators.

“When I started playing the game and even coaching the game, you never think about something like this,” Donovan said to Westwood One and the NCAA on Saturday. “To be honored this way, I’m so humbled. I’m grateful.”

Donovan’s journey started with his own transformation in college. He went from little-known point guard to star and leader of the Friars during their run to the national semifinals in 1987. Donovan was driven by Providence coach Rick Pitino, who later offered an entry into coaching on his Kentucky staff from 1989-94.

“You’re only going to be as good as the people around you,” Donovan said.

Donovan helped the Wildcats reach the Final Four in 1993 and recruited the backbone of their eventual champions in 1996. He was gone by that point, leaving Lexington for the Thundering Herd in 1994-95. Donovan became the youngest head coach in Division I at just 28, going 35-20 in two seasons before heading to Gainesville.

Donovan was in the Sweet 16 by his third year and lost to Michigan State in the national championship game in his fourth. That was in 1999-2000 – he was back in the title round six years later with a recruiting class that became known as The ‘04s. Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Al Horford and Joakim Noah – with some help from Lee Humphrey and Chris Richard – downed UCLA for the school’s first title and completed a rise from outside the preseason top 25.

“A lot of the things going on in the college game right now – it’s probably in flux,” Donovan said. “With that group there was a pureness and an innocence to it.”

Brewer, Green, Horford and Noah all returned to school the following season as marked men. Florida was named preseason No. 1 in the polls and lived up to it, sweeping SEC regular season and tournament titles. The Gators won each of their last 10 games, including a victory over Ohio State for a second straight crown.

“They all had opportunities to go to the NBA,” Donovan said. “And if they went to the NBA nobody would have begrudged them. It would have been a good decision. But they loved playing with each other and they wanted to stay together.”

Donovan reached three more Elite Eights and another Final Four in 2013-14 before making his own move to the professional level. He accepted an offer from Oklahoma City to become its head coach in 2015-16 and spent five seasons with the Thunder. Donovan is currently late in his fifth season with the Chicago Bulls, who he joined in 2020-21.

“It’s really hard to believe,” Donovan said. “I certainly reflect back to a lot of people in my life who have guided me and directed me.”

Donovan returned to Providence in February to see his No. 34 raised to the rafters at Amica Mutual Pavilion. He was honored at a gala dinner on a Friday night and watched the Friars beat Villanova the following Saturday afternoon. Donovan was joined by a host of former teammates and his family, a travel party that included one of his grandchildren.

“I said out there it was one of the greatest places to play in my mind,” Donovan said. “It was four of the greatest years of my life. It was a special place to play every night.”

Donovan will be joined in this class by NBA standouts Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, long-time league referee Danny Crawford, WNBA stars Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore, Miami Heat owner Micky Arison and the 2008 Team USA men who claimed gold at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Award recipients who will be honored alongside the latest class include long-time Boston Celtics public relations leader Jeff Twiss, Clark Kellogg, George Blaha, Adrian Wojnarowski and Michelle Smith. Enshrinement Weekend tickets are currently on sale, and ceremonies will be held the weekend of Sept. 5-6 in Springfield, Mass.