Men's Basketball

University of Florida

201 Criser Hall - Gainesville, FL - 32611
Team Office: Tel: (352) 375-4683 x4200 Fax: (352) 377-8483
Team website: www.gatorzone.com/

Founded in 1853, U. of Florida is the state's largest, oldest and most comprehensive university. It is also the 6th largest university in the country in terms of enrollment. As one of the nation's leading research universities, it ranks among the top three schools in the number of academic programs offered on a single campus. It offers professional degrees in law, medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. Florida offers over 100 Bachelor degree programs, over 50 Master's, and nearly 40 doctoral programs. Majors offered include Wildlife and Wildlands Science, Surveying, Photography, Landscape Architecture, Crop Science, and Audiology. US News 2008 report on America's Best Colleges ranked Florida #49 among national institutions.

Located in the north central part of the state at Gainesville (pop.93k), the school is 125 miles north of Tampa.

School website
www.ufl.edu

College Profile

Type:

Public, Co-ed

Religious Affiliation:

None

Enrollment:

42,000

Getting In:

Moderately difficult. SAT 25/75: 1140-1360

Tuition + Room & Board:

In-state: ~$10,000
Out-of-State: ~$23,000

Most Popular Majors

Business - Social Sciences - Engineering

Misc. Information

Head coach Billy Donavan completed his 12th season at Florida in 2007-08. A former standout player at Providence, Donovan led the Friars to the Final Four in 1987 and later played for the NY Knicks. Prior to his arrival in 1996-97, Florida had won only one conference title in 77 years while making just five NCAA appearances. Donovan has three conference titles and eight NCAA appearances already - including two National Championships! The Gators, particularly tough at home, play at the O'Connel Center, dubbed House of Horrors by visiting teams. Though Donovan had losing seasons his first two years, he has since come on strong, averaging 26 wins over the last eight seasons and living up to his reputation as one of the nation's top young coaches. Prior to accepting Florida's offer, Donovan was at Marshall University in West Virginia as head coach for two years. It is here at Marshall he began to apply what he had learned at the side of Rick Pitino while being an assistant at the University of Kentucky. Donovan, a champion of the Christian lifestyle, is not ashamed to focus attention on his faith and his desire to impart to his players that there is more to life than basketball. In 2007-08, the Gators finished at 24-12 advanced to the NIT Elite 8 before being upended by Arizona St.

Team Name	Gators
Colors	Orange and Black
Division	NCAA Division I
All-Time Record	1167-991 (.540)

Recent Record (Last 8 Years)

	Last Yr	Last Yr - 1	Last Yr - 2	Previous 5 Years
Overall	24-12	35-5	33-6	115-43 (.727)
Conference	8-8	13-3	10-6	55-25 (.687)
Conf. Finish	4	1	2	2, 3, 2, 2, 1
Post Appear.	NIT	Nat'l Ch	Nat'l Ch	NCAA 4x
Final 25 Rank	NR	#3	#11	4x

Coaches

Head Coach	Billy Donovan
	Birthday: 1965-05-30
Started at Florida	1996-97
Contract Expires	tbp
Record as Head Coach	320-135 (.703)
Record at Florida	285-115 (.712)
Coaching Awards	NABC District COTY (00), Southern Conference COTY

Asst. Coaches	Larry Shyatt, Lewis Preston, Rob Lanier

Recruiting Coordinator

Darren Hertz, (352) 375-4683, tbp

Conference and Schedule

Florida plays in the Southeastern Conference (www.secsports.com), one of the nation's premier leagues for Division 1 men's basketball. The conference is made up of 12 teams from nine states and is split into two divisions, east and west. Florida plays in the East. Florida plays a 16 game schedule, playing each team in the east twice and teams from the west once. League play commences after January 1 with most games played on Wednesday or Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. The season concludes with the SEC tourney with the winner of the 11-game tournament receiving the SEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament seeds, conference championship and division titles are determined by the 16-game conference schedule during the regular season. Teams are seeded by their divisional finish and features Eastern Division-Western Division matchups in every game should the higher seed win each contest.

Conference Opponents

East: Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. West: Mississippi St., Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missisippi.

Facilities

O'Connel Center
Capacity 12,000, Average attendance: 11,000

Style/Stats

Florida's up-tempo offensive style features high scoring and three point shooting. In 2006-07, they ranked 11th in scoring offense at 79.8 ppg.