OCALA —It was like old times again, but without one of the old friends.
In the 15 years Billy Donovan has coached at Florida and attended the Ocala tipoff club event, this was the first without seeing his good friend Augie Greiner, whose comedic interaction with the Gator coach was classic and unique to anything done at a booster’s event.
Just getting to this point, however, following the death of Greiner in August, was a bit of an accomplishment. Donovan said he had left it to the Greiner family whether they wanted to continue the club. They did. And so it was decided the club would be named after the founder of it.
“The Augie Greiner Ocala Gator Tip-off Club” read the new logo/banner which was hung from the lectern Monday night at the Hilton Hotel, in honor of the former Florida player whose passion to promote basketball in the state was unrivaled. Donovan posed with the family after his talk.
“He was my friend – and I miss my friend,” Donovan said of Greiner, who died two months ago after a long illness. “I miss him coming up to practices and calling.
“But this is a way to keep his memory alive. And so many people in this community and people who are Gator fans have a great deal of respect and admiration for him and what he’s done for basketball. Because he really has, to me, in this area, promoted college basketball and especially Florida basketball, in a way probably like no other.”
With Augie’s son, Augie Jr., handling the emcee duties and shepherding the Gator coaches through the annual auction to raise money for basketball scholarships, the 29th tip-off club event came off splendidly before an audience of more than 200.
The good news, which Augie Sr. would have been excited to know, is that Donovan is cautiously optimistic about this season with all five starters returning and some newcomers who very well may have an immediate impact on the program.
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“We are a ‘feel good’ team right now,’” said Donovan. “In today’s day and age of college basketball, where so many kids leave early and your team, that’s (maybe) pretty good, can get dismantled pretty quickly.
“And we’re a team that’s got all five starters returning, all from a team that went to the NCAA tournament. So in today’s environment in college basketball, a lot of times that generates and creates a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about a team.”
Donovan has tried to explain to his players this year how close they came to not making the NCAA tournament last year, but for a 75-foot shot by Chandler Parsons against N.C. State or his a last-second trey against South Carolina “we would be feeling a little bit different about this team.”
While it’s true Billy’s team did get into post-season, he also points out that nobody on the team has ever won an NCAA tournament game – and every year they are distancing themselves more and more from the greatness of back-to-back national championships.
Those post-championships years were some tough times. Like his counterpart Urban Meyer, Billy actually quit for a day to coach the Orlando Magic and came back the next day. But he knows the feeling of the downside when the winning doesn’t come so easily – as does Urban these days.
Billy’s neighbor and friend has been experiencing some of the “post championship stress syndrome” that Billy endured after winning back-to-back titles. Donovan said the two coaches visited briefly on Friday. And clearly he understood what his football counterpart was experiencing.
“Obviously I was disappointed for the LSU loss for him and the team,” said Donovan. But Billy said Urban was “at a place for himself emotionally and mentally and spiritually” where he has prepared himself for the long haul.
“Because it is a long season. And when you’re in the midst of it, it’s about getting your guys to handle that adversity.”
Donovan seems to have handled his well and is on the road back.
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Ever so slowly the pieces are getting put back together, but the exodus of the “Oh-Fours” to the NBA after the 2007 national title took its toll. Their exit was expected, in fact, that they had come back for another season “was a miracle itself.”
What wasn’t expected was the sudden departure of big man Marreese Speights to the NBA, followed shortly thereafter by Nick Calathes’ jump to Greece in May 2009.
Donovan has been scrambling to fill holes ever since – and he thinks maybe he finally has them filled. Three freshmen went a long way toward that: Patric Young, Will Yeguete and Cody Larsen. Young is 6-feet-9, 225 pounds of intensity. In fact, Donovan said if left to his own devices, “he would foul out in the first five minutes of the game.”
With a thin roster last season, Donovan was forced to play guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker too many minutes, which left them too tired to press – a staple of Donovan’s defense. This year the Florida coach thinks he’ll be able to do more of that by sliding Parsons over to the point sometime, plus addition of 6-foot-6 guard/forward Casey Prather from Jackson, Tenn. and Scottie Wilbekin, the young 6-2 guard who left high school early from The Rock in Gainesville to join the Gators.
With a tougher pre-season schedule this year that includes Ohio State, Kansas State, Xavier and Rhode Island, there won’t be time for much on-the-job training, but the freshmen figure to fit right in.
“Our freshmen have been very impressive, the fact that they bring in added toughness to our team,” said Donovan. “Larson, Young and Yeguete are physical guys who are going to be good, good players for us. What kind of impact they’re going to make we’ll see.”
The strength of his team is clearly the veteran front line of Parsons, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin. “Older guys who want to win,” said Donovan.
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One era ends, another begins. When Augie Greiner first met with Norm Sloan 29 years ago, only a handful of locals showed up for the breakfast, but Greiner was relentless, befriending every Gator coach – all of whom came to know and admire the basketball man from Ocala.
Oddly enough when Donovan was announced as coach 15 years ago, Greiner told me the club might not last because he wasn’t sure the new coach would support it. Instead, the two men became close friends, as did their families. The club flourished like no other period in history.
Ironically, it was then left to Billy Donovan to decide whether he wanted to continue the three meetings a year, highlighted by the annual pre-season dinner and auction. Donovan, in turn, left it up to Augie’s three sons (Augie Jr., Curt and Michael), daughter (Nancy) and widow (Sue) if they wanted to continue it.
Everything came full circle Monday night. The tribute was complete when the man who always wanted to honor all Gator coaches was, himself, the person honored by the coach of the program he so treasured.