Donovan’s comfort zone Donovan’s comfort level still high

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —- What’s a comedy club without a little heckling? Billy Donovan took the stage at Palm Beach Improv understanding his audience and figuring that, sooner or later, a zinger would come.

About 12 minutes into a question-and-answer session with members of the Palm Beach County Gator Club, that’s exactly what happened.

“We all know the success that you had when you recruited Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer and the rest of that group,” said a booster who rose with microphone in hand. “Why can’t you do that again?”

Donovan didn’t flinch. Dressed in shorts and with his polo shirt untucked, the 44-year-old coach of Florida’s most beloved indoor team still looks like he can take a charge, and might even welcome one.

“I just realized how lucky I was,” Donovan said, waiting just a moment for the nervous laughter to die down in the room. “So be thankful for the fact that we won two national championships.”

This will make a good story to tell out on the boat this weekend when Donovan, Urban Meyer and their sons get together for a rare moment of relaxation. They’ll be fishing for walleye and pike in Minnesota, looking as always to land the big one. After four national titles since 2006, two each in football and basketball, it’s a Gator tradition that has come to trump all others.

Donovan shouldn’t have to apologize for two NIT appearances since Florida last cut down the nets at the NCAA Tournament. College players who are good enough to win it all are generally good enough to come out early to the pros, too, and Donovan has been bruised more than most in that area recently.

Still, there is some convincing to do whenever Donovan wades into the recruiting pool, just as he had to convince himself that blowing off the Orlando Magic job and returning abruptly to Gainesville was the right thing to do a couple of summers ago. What a mess that was, but one more easily forgotten in Orlando, sudden showplace for the 2009 NBA Finals.

“Where we’re at right now is not a surprise to me,” said Donovan, who is banking hard on freshman guard Kenny Boynton, a Broward County whiz that Duke couldn’t steal, to restart the Gators’ postseason thresher. “It’s not like I thought we were going to be back competing for a national championship in a year.

“I think people look at it from an outside perspective, but for me, the opportunity to have my oldest boy be able to stay in one area and be a senior in high school, that means a lot. My kids have basically been born and raised in Gainesville. There’s going to be a time when I’m not coaching anymore and it’s not necessarily all about me in that decision.”

Maybe somebody wants to take a shot at that kind of reasoning, but you won’t hear it from me. Donovan’s getting $3.5 million to coach the Gators, more even than Meyer’s annual salary. Things could be worse, and if Donovan ever gets itchy again and jumps to the NBA, they will be.

Let John Calipari have Kentucky, too. He’s made for that job, fancy suits and all. Donovan, he’s the guy who comes to a speaking engagement in shorts, the guy who said no to Kentucky but yes to adding the son of former Wildcats icon Rick Pitino to the Florida coaching staff.

“My family would be supportive wherever I wanted to be,” said Donovan, “but also it’s me being comfortable in everything that I’m doing as well.”

The trick now is getting a new core of promising players to be as satisfied with hanging around campus for a bit. That’s the kind of continuity that no coach can promise these days of one and done, no matter how long they stay on the job themselves.