Donovan deserves to be SEC Coach of the Year

Published Feb. 10, 2011 11:09 a.m. ET

foxsports

By BILL KOSS
Florida Gators Basketball Color Analyst
Feb. 9, 2011

So how are we doing now Gator fans? It was just a couple of weeks ago that we talked about the doom and gloom around Florida Basketball. What a difference a few wins can make. Since losing at home to South Carolina on Jan. 15, the Gators have won six of their last seven SEC games. Chandler Parsons has been named National Player of the Week and Billy Donovan has won his 350th career game as the University of Florida coach.

At the beginning of the year, the Gators were picked to win their fifth SEC East championship by a Donovan coached team and currently, with a 8-2 record, a win over Tennessee in Gainesville on Saturday could go a long way toward putting a check mark by that accomplishment.

Which then begs this pretty important question: Will Donovan finally be recognized as this year's SEC Coach of the Year? You realize of course that Coach Donovan has never received this award in his 14 years as the Gators' head coach.

Not in 2000 when he won the SEC regular season championship for only the second time in the school's history and took Florida to the NCAA championship game. LSU's John Brady won the award that year and is no longer coaching in the SEC. Same thing in 2001 when the Gators won the SEC championship for the third time and Rod Barnes of Ole Miss got the award.

So he had to win the SEC Coach of the Year award in at least one of the back to back years when Florida won National Championships. Nope