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William John Donovan, Jr. is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach of the Florida Gators men's basketball team of the University of Florida since 1996. Donovan is the winningest coach in the history of the Florida basketball program. He led the Florida Gators to a NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in 2006 and 2007, and has coached the Gators to more NCAA tournament appearances and more Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament championships than every other coach in program history combined.
Donovan was born and raised in Rockville Center on Long Island, New York. As the starting point guard for Rick Pitino's Providence Friars men's basketball team, Donovan led the Friars to the 1987 Final Four. As such, he is one of only four men to appear in the NCAA Final Four as a player and win the NCAA national championship as a coach.
Before his tenure at Florida, Donovan spent most of the 1987-88 season as a reserve guard for the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks, who at the time were coached by his college coach, Rick Pitino. After leaving the NBA and briefly working as a Wall Street stock broker, Donovan followed Pitino to the University of Kentucky, where he served as an assistant coach for the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball from 1989 to 1993. He accepted his first head coaching position at Marshall University in 1994 and led the Thundering Herd to a 35-20 record over two seasons. .
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