The 2014–15 Florida Gators men's basketball team represented the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
in the sport of
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
during the
2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
The 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November with the 2K Sports Classic and ended with the Final Four in Indianapolis April 4–6. Practices officially began on October 3.
Season headlines
* May 14 – The NCAA a ...
. The Gators competed in the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
(SEC). They were led by nineteen-year head coach
Billy Donovan
William John Donovan Jr. (born May 30, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. He has served as head coach of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) since September 2020 after previously coa ...
, and played their home games in the
O'Connell Center
The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O'C ...
on the university's
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...
campus. They finished the season 16–17, 8–10 in SEC play to finish in a tie for eighth place. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the
SEC tournament
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sponsors nine men's sports and twelve women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. Also see the list of SEC national champions.
Members
The SEC was established on December 1932, when t ...
where they lost to Kentucky.
Gator non-participation in a postseason tournament had been 17 years before. The Gators' 63.7 points-per-game had been their lowest during Billy Donovan's 19-year coaching tenure. After the season, Donovan accepted an offer to coach the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
's
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team plays i ...
. He would leave the Gators as the regular season games' winningest head coach in the program's history and while at the helm coached the Gators to more NCAA tournament appearances, and more SEC championships, than the combined totals of all the other head coaches in the program's history.
Previous season
The Gators finished the 2013–14 season as the SEC regular-season champions with an overall record of 36–3, 18–0 record in conference play, the first SEC team to ever accomplish the feat, after the SEC re-expanded to an 18-game regular-season schedule prior to the
2012–13 season. In doing so, the Gators won their seventh SEC regular season championship, and their third in four seasons. The Gators beat the
Kentucky Wildcats
The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...
61–60 to claim the SEC Tournament championship. As a No. 1 seed in the
2014 NCAA tournament
The 2014 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 18, 2014, and concluded with the ...
's South Region, Florida won its four tournament games, defeating 16-seed
Albany, 8-seed
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, 4-seed
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
and 11-seed
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
. The Gators' season ended with a loss to 7-seed, and eventual national champion,
UConn
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...
in the Final Four.
Offseason
Departures
Incoming transfers
Recruiting class
Personnel
Roster
;Notes
* During the season, sophomore guard Dillon Graham transferred from Florida to
Embry–Riddle.
Coaches
Team statistics
Schedule and results
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!colspan=9 style="background:#0021A5; color:#FFFFFF;", Exhibition
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!colspan=9 style="background:#0021A5; color:#FFFFFF;", Regular season (non-conference play)
, -
!colspan=9 style="background:#0021A5; color:#FFFFFF;", Regular season (SEC conference play)
, -
!colspan=9 style="background:#0021A5; color:#FFFFFF;",
SEC tournament
Source:
Rankings
See also
*
2014–15 Florida Gators women's basketball team
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2014-15 Florida Gators Men's Basketball Team
Florida Gators men's basketball seasons
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
Florida Gators men's basketball team
Florida Gators men's basketball team