Description Available in: The Florida Gators men's basketball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of basketball. The Gators compete in NCAA Division I's Southeastern Conference (SEC). Home games 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 success was scarce for many years. Florida's basketball program finally found consistent success under head coach Billy Donovan, who was hired in 1996. In nineteen years as Florida's coach, Donovan led the program to seven of its eight Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season championships, all 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.