The first post in this series is here.
I will keep this one relatively brief. I was telling someone just the other day that, for me, many of the reasons for Billy Donovan to go to Kentucky were the same reasons for him to stay at Florida, professionally speaking (in other words, not taking into account his family, which he must do. But families do move without getting screwed up and sometimes moves are good for families, so that’s not completely straightforward as an automatic tally for the “stay” side of the ledger.)
Those reasons were:
1. He had been at UF for 10 or 11 seasons in which he built them into a basketball powerhouse with (best I can recall) 3 Final Four trips and 2 national titles.
2. He is fresh off of winning back-to-back national titles, leading a school to that feat in college basketball for the first time in about 15 years.
3. All of his top players are leaving to the NBA or graduation.
Now, those facts could be read as reasons to stay or leave, depending on the slant you take.
Leave:
1. If I can do this at UF, why not go do this and more at UK?
2. 2 titles, back-to-back, no less…I’ve done as much as I can do here, time to move on to a greater challenge.
3. I’m starting over in terms of fielding my starting 5, and even my 6th man. Why not start over at UK?
Stay:
1. I’ve done this at UF already, why not stay and become the Adolf Rupp of Florida? Build my own dynasty.
2. I’ve won 2 titles. Stay and build on this and I’ll win more after we reload recruit-wise
3. You’re always recruiting anyway. It’s unusual to have a class leave all together, but it’s not unexpected by any means. I’m not caught be surprise with this.
Obviously, Donovan’s decision was to stay made sense, but going could have made the same kind of sense.
Guy M Williams 