It’s a Big Blue hoops world
by Pat Dooley
I get that Billy Donovan is less-than-thrilled about the SEC scheduling and that he is not alone in believing Kentucky gets preferential treatment by avoiding the Thursday-Saturday curse.
He’s looking out for his own team and his own sport.
But the average Gator fan has nothing to complain about. You can’t have it both ways.
You can’t brag about the amount of money your league pulls in and then complain because TV dictates scheduling. And you can’t get preferential treatment in football and then complain when you don’t in basketball.
Well, maybe you can but it will do you no good.
Florida has played its last two football bowl games at a slot well above its deserved spot. The Outback Bowl after a 7-5 2010 season and the Gator Bowl after a 6-6 2011 season were not what the Gators deserved.
But Florida has a football brand that is among the best in the nation. As a result, the Gators are held in a higher esteem when all things are equal and sometimes even when they are not.
The same doesn’t hold true in basketball, despite the best efforts of Donovan to turn Florida into a basketball school. It’s not one and never will be one. It’s a great basketball program and he is a tremendous coach but when you can’t sell out conference games and a quarter of the fans don’t hang around until the game is over, you are not a basketball school.
Kentucky is a basketball school. It’s the only true basketball school in the league. But more than that, Kentucky is a stronger brand than any other SEC schools and it’s not even close. ESPN wants Kentucky on Tuesdays and Wednesdays which are its biggest basketball nights. Thursday is filler programming.
It’s just the way it is. Learn to live with it.
Pat Dooley shot an 85 at Augusta National. Tripled the 18th. Other than that, there’s not much to tell. Great wife, two beautiful daughters. Been at The Sun since 1987 and worked in Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale before that. Spent a year in Storrs, Conn. Actually, it was only five days but it seemed like a year. Likes Tom Petty, The Beatles, Weezer and long walks on St. Augustine Beach as long as they end at the Beachcomber. Reads every e-mail except those sent with Russian alphabet. Favorite sports are college football, college basketball, golf and cooking chili.
Geez Pat…..”Learn to live with it?” I bet if you covered basketball full-time or if it was your boy Meyer you would have a different approach. It is understood that Florida is a football school first, but you act like nothing holds a candle to it. Billy D is simply a great coach who cares about winning, creating quality kids, and UF athletics in general….I know you are not questioning him as we are very, very lucky to have Coach Donovan. A suggestion, maybe a future coumn you should challenge the UF fan base and it’s support of all the programs so that we don’t have to “Learn to live with it.”
by JMD
Pat,
Donovan is one of the best in the country and we are VERY fortunate to have him. Yes, we are a football school first and will always be, but basketball isn’t thought of as the “red-headed step-child” like you insinuate above. UK has nothing but hoops. We Gators are fortunate enough to have it all.
Go Gators!
by Beast from the East
Florida is STILL THE ONLY SCHOOL in the SEC to have won Football & Baketball in the same year: “GATOR-SLAM” in 2006…
So, while I agree Kentucky is a Basketball School…FLORIDA is the only FOOTBAALL AND BASKETBALL SCHOOL in the SEC…CHOMP-CHOMP!!!
by gatorgi70x7
I’ll take the two championship banners hanging in the O-Dome over reputation. Remind me again…when was the last time UK won an NCAA title?
by Stephen
Did Billy snub you, Pat? You don’t want to be considered a Homer, when everyone knows you are, of the Simpson style? DUH!
Dude, the SEC, SEC, SEC gets preferential treatment in football because the only league better than the SEC in football is the NFL.
You don’t judge a program by its fans. You judge it by its character, and Billy has that. Ask to borrow a cup from him to season your humble piehole.
by Brr-bon Phil
UK, the “basketball school,” hasn’t won an NCAA championship since 1998 while UF, the “football school,” has been to the final four three times, winning the National Championship twice. Up Yours UK.
by william