Apr 3, 2006 4 min read

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – On coasts 3,000 miles apart, Ben Howland and Billy Donovan grew up obsessed gym rats, sweating away a good chunk of their childhoods in search of the perfect jumper. As a boy, Howland, the current caretaker of UCLA’s unmatched tradition, dreamed of being either Jerry West, Gail Goodrich or wearing the Bruins’ blue and gold. He was never quite good enough.

All Florida’s Donovan ever wanted was to play on his high school’s varsity team. And, after two years of sitting on the bench, he finally did and eventually shot his way to a scholarship at Providence.

These two intense 40-something coaches who love to talk, love to work hard, love to recruit and love to teach, will match wits tonight for college basketball’s biggest prize: an NCAA championship.

Only one of them, though, will get it.

“This is not about me,” said Donovan, who in 10 years has transformed Florida into more than an SEC football factory. “If we are fortunate enough to win tomorrow night, it’s over. Tuesday morning, it’s gone, on to the next thing.”

Someday, that could mean a coaching job in the NBA for the 41-year-old Donovan, whose coaching profile will certainly soar if he’s climbing a ladder and cutting down the nets after a victory.

But for now, Donovan couldn’t be happier in Gainesville, Fla., where basketball season was once regarded as little more than the months bridging a Gators’ bowl game and the start of spring football.

Known as “Billy the Kid” during his days as a hot-shooting guard for the Friars, Donovan has given Florida basketball a name – one that would grow in stature with the school’s first national title.

A coach’s son, and amazingly, now the dean of SEC coaches, Donovan has done his finest job this season with the youthful Gators. This young group figured to be a year or two away from contending with the big boys, but Donovan, who has posted eight straight 20-win seasons, has molded them in his image.

Like their coach, the Gators have a little attitude, and a lot of ability.

“He’s really focused and really intense,” said guard Lee Humphrey, whose six 3-pointers helped end George Mason’s magical tournament odyssey. “He prepares for games really well. He has a tremendous work ethic. He does his homework, so as a player that shows you that you need to work on your game to improve.”

Donovan only got into the coaching game after pushing his playing career as far as he could. He knew the NBA was a long shot – at best. In the CBA, he figured he could hang on for a few years.

Italy. Greece. Turkey. Anywhere. Donovan just wanted to play. Eventually, he had no choice but to pass the ball and move on.

Howland knew early on that basketball would be his life.

As a kid in Goleta, Calif., he and his friends would sneak into the local Boys Club to play pickup games. He listened to Dick Enberg do play-by-by on the radio of another UCLA championship season.

Howland was a two-time defensive player of the year at Weber State and played one season of pro ball in Uruguay before taking a job as an undergraduate assistant at Gonzaga, where one of his primary duties was to chase around soon-to-be NBA star guard John Stockton during practice.

From there, he went to Northern Arizona and turned a squad that won a total of 16 games in his first two years into a 21-7 team – the 10th best turnaround in NCAA history. At Pittsburgh, the Panthers went from afterthoughts to Big East champions in his four years there.

And then, UCLA called.

“The only job I would have ever left for,” he said after the Bruins wore out LSU in Saturday’s Final Four.

Now, exactly on the third anniversary of taking over UCLA’s program, Howland is one win from giving the school its 12th national title.

The 48-year-old has never shied away from Wooden’s colossal aura or the impossible expectations that go hand in hand with coaching or playing for the Bruins. Instead, Howland and his team have accepted the duty with open arms.

“We’re playing for the program and UCLA,” he said. “There’s no program that has more tradition or history of winning. These kids know that and embrace that. They represent those four letters. They’re part of a very special fraternity.

“It’s a motivator. I’m sure for Florida it doesn’t matter. For us, it matters.”