Florida Gators men’s basketball

The Florida Gators men's basketball team represents Florida's University . The Gators compete in NCAA Division I's Southeastern Conference (SEC). Home matches are played in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus.
Success was rare for several decades, although the University of Florida's first basketball team took the court in 1915. The program did not have an adequate gymnasium until the Florida Gymnasium in 1950, did not seek the services of a full-time basketball trainer until Norm Sloan in 1960, and did not play in a contemporary stadium until the O'Connell Center started in 1980. Florida made its first postseason tournament appearance in the 1969 National Invitation Tournament and first appeared in the NCAA tournament in 1987, but constant success was elusive, and the Gators often found themselves at the bottom half of their conference standings.
Florida's basketball program found consistent success under head coach Billy Donovan, who had been hired in 1996. Recently as Florida's trainer, Donovan led the program to seven of its eight Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season championships, each of four SEC championship championships, fourteen of twenty-two NCAA Tournament appearances, four from five Final Four appearances, and back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Florida's head coach as 2015 has been Mike White, who has led the Gators to three NCAA Tournament bids in his first four seasons in the school.

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