The basketball team of the Florida Gators men represents the University of Florida . 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.
The University of Florida's first basketball team took the court in 1915, but achievement was rare for many years. The program did not have an adequate gymnasium until the Florida Gymnasium in 1950, didn't hire a full-time basketball coach until Norm Sloan in 1960, and didn't play in a contemporary stadium until the O'Connell Center started in 1980. Florida made its first postseason tournament appearance from the 1969 National Invitation Tournament and appeared in the NCAA championship in 1987, but constant success was elusive, and the Gators frequently found themselves in the bottom half of their conference standings.
Success was eventually found by the basketball program of florida under head coach Billy Donovan, who had been hired in 1996. In nineteen years as Florida's coach, Donovan led the schedule to seven of its eight Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season championships, each of four SEC tournament championships, fourteen of twenty-two NCAA Tournament appearances, four out of five Final Four appearances, and back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Florida's head coach as 2015 was Mike White, who has led the Gators to three NCAA Tournament bids in his first four seasons at the school.
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