Donovan's new approach may bring the Gators a title

	Billy Donovan changed Florida's approach and the Gators are reaping the benefits. Bob Rosato/SI
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Once upon a time, he was Billy the Kid, the breakout star of Providence's 1987 Final Four team. As the 34-year-old head coach who led Florida to the 2000 national-title game, he became the Boy Wonder.

And then, over the five often turbulent seasons that followed, he became something else entirely. The Coach Who Couldn't Win the Big One? The Coach Who Couldn't Get out of the Second Round? Great Recruiter, Average Coach?

So what are we to make of Billy Donovan now that he's here, back at the Final Four, this time as something of an elder statesman? In a field devoid of the usual heavy-hitters -- the first Final Four in eight years without a Krzyzewski, Williams or Izzo -- the head Gator is the only one of the four participating head coaches who's been here before, one of just five in the country to have made multiple appearances this decade in this, his eighth consecutive NCAA tourney.

Could it be possible that beneath the criticism, the innuendos and the hair jokes, we may just be looking at one of the top coaches in the game today?

"We've been hearing for years that he's a great recruiter but not a good coach," said Gators senior Adrian Moss. "He is a great coach. Hopefully, this [returning to the Final Four] will end all that."

In retrospect, Donovan's biggest mistake may have been achieving success too soon. Following Florida's surprising 2000 run, in which it advanced all the way to the title game against Michigan State as a No. 5 seed, the expectation was that the Gators would become the nation's next juggernaut. It's not like they fell off the map -- Donovan's next five teams all won at least 20 games, captured two division titles and twice reached No. 1 in the AP and coaches polls. But in today's college basketball, teams and coaches are measured almost entirely by the NCAA tournament, and Donovan and the Gators came to be defined by five straight first- or second-round exits, all of them to lower-seeded foes.

All the while, Donovan's stunning early success on the recruiting trail was coming back to haunt him, as a slew of high-profile signees -- Mike Miller, Donnell Harvey, Kwame Brown -- bolted early for the NBA (in Brown's case, before ever playing a game for the Gators).

"The perception has been that our roster is filled with McDonald's All-Americans, and that's the furthest thing from the truth," Donovan said Friday. "We've signed a lot of McDonald's All-Americans, but none of them stayed here.

"I was very, very proud of our previous teams. I really felt like a lot of those teams overachieved in a lot of ways ... I really believe that some of our teams were ranked high because of what happened in 2000. A lot of that was unjustly given to us; it wasn't earned."