Early years The modern University of Florida (UF) was created when the
Florida Legislature passed the
Buckman Act of 1905, which consolidated four predecessor institutions into a new flagship university that opened its new
Gainesville campus in 1906. The school sponsored its first
varsity basketball team during the 1915–16 school year under head football coach
C. J. McCoy, who led the basketball team to a 5–1 record against small colleges and local athletic clubs. The program went on hiatus during
World War I and next took the court during the 1919–20 school year, though without an officially designated coach. Head football coach
William G. Kline was assigned to coach basketball during the 1920–21 school year, when the team moved into their new home at recently completed
University Gymnasium.
The "New Gym" and Alligator Alley By the mid-1920s, the basketball team had outgrown the small brick University Gymnasium, which had been designed to serve as a student recreation center and had very little spectator space. A larger wooden structure was built directly adjacent to the University Gym in 1928. While it was officially known as "Building R", it was commonly called the "New Gym". The New Gym was intended to be a temporary home for the basketball team until the school could afford a more permanent structure. However, funds soon became scarce with the coming of the Great Depression, and university president
John J. Tigert's main focus was the financing and construction of
Florida Field, the new football stadium which opened in 1930. Plans for a larger brick gymnasium were drawn up in 1940, but construction was delayed by World War II, and the Gators finally moved to the
Florida Gymnasium (also known as Alligator Alley) during the 1949–50 season.
Southeastern Conference membership In December 1932, the University of Florida joined the
Southeastern Conference as one of its 13 charter members. While the school would find athletic success in some sports, Florida's basketball team would spend most of the first half-century of SEC play in the bottom half of the standings, as the Gators finished the season higher than fourth in the league on only four occasions over the program's first fifty years in the SEC (1933 to 1983). Until 1960, the university continued the practice of assigning coaches from other sports to lead the basketball team, including head baseball coaches
Brady Cowell,
Ben Clemons and
Sam McAllister, head football coach
Josh Cody, and football assistants
Spurgeon Cherry and
John Mauer. This was common practice at most SEC schools apart from Kentucky well into the 1940s and 1950s, and some of Florida's coaches had experience in the sport, as Cody had previously coached basketball at
Clemson and
Vanderbilt and Mauer had previously coached basketball at
Kentucky and
Tennessee. However, none of these part-time coaches were able to build the Gators into consistent contenders in conference play.
The 1960s and 1970s: Sloan and some success In hopes of breathing life into the program, 34-year-old
Citadel head coach
Norm Sloan was hired as Florida's first full-time head basketball coach for the 1960–61 season. Sloan's first team notched the Gators' first winning conference record in eight years, and his second repeated the feat. Overall, his Florida squads compiled a record of 85–63 in six seasons during the 1960s, including the Gators' first regular season win over long-dominant
Kentucky in SEC play. Sloan's Gators did not receive a postseason tournament invitation during his tenure, as tournament fields were smaller at the time and only conference champions were assured of NCAA bids. Nonetheless, according to Florida historian Norm Carlson, Sloan "elevated the Gators basketball program from a seldom competitive program and built the grass roots." Sloan left Florida after failing to receive the support of then athletic director
Ray Graves, and took over as head coach at his alma mater
North Carolina State after the 1965–66 season.
Tommy Bartlett succeeded Sloan as head coach, and his first season as head coach in 1966–67 was the program's most successful to date. The Gators with a record of 21–4, finishing 2nd in the SEC to Tennessee, who beat them twice during the regular season. Florida was ranked in the AP top 10 for the first time, earning a number 10 ranking on January 9, 1967, and then a number 8 ranking the next week on January 16. Florida notched the school's first 20-win campaign on the strength of winning their final eight games of the year by an average of 19 plus points per game. Ironically at the time the SEC would only permit the league champion to play in the postseason. Having finished second, they lost to league champion Tennessee twice and were not invited to a postseason tournament. Bartlett's squads finished fifth and third in conference play the following seasons. Led by the program's first All-American in center
Neal Walk (the only Gator to have his number retired) and forward
Andy Owens, the 1968–69 Gators received a bid to the
1969 National Invitation Tournament, the first postseason appearance in program history. After Walk and Owens went on to play professional basketball, Bartlett could not sustain the level of talent in recruiting, and team performance declined thereafter, with four straight losing campaigns leading to his dismissal.
John Lotz, a respected assistant under North Carolina's
Dean Smith, succeeded Bartlett in 1973–74. Lotz's Gators peaked with a 17–9 overall record and a fourth-place conference finish (10–8 SEC) in 1976–77, but trailed off to consecutive last place conference finishes in 1978–79 and 1979–80, leading to his dismissal.
The 1980s: Sloan returns, success and scandal The modern era of Florida basketball began in 1980, when the team moved into their current home, the
O'Connell Center. Despite being only 30 years old, Florida Gym had not aged well. By the mid-1970s, Florida was the only basketball program in the SEC without a modern arena. The university built the O'Connell Center (which quickly gained the nickname "The O'Dome") as the new home for all of the university's indoor sports programs, and it proved to be a boon across several sports. The new facility improved the basketball program in several ways, including helping to convince
Norm Sloan to return to Gainesville after a successful 14-year tenure at North Carolina State which included an undefeated season in 1972–73 and an NCAA championship in 1974. Sloan later said that he'd always enjoyed his first stint at Florida, and had always been more than willing to return if the university built a more modern arena. Sloan's second stint at Florida was easily the most successful period in program history until the late 1990s. That success was in large part because Sloan persuaded several top Florida high school basketball players—such as Gainesville's
Vernon Maxwell and
Brandon's
Dwayne Schintzius—to stay in-state instead of attending schools with more basketball tradition. After four years of rebuilding, Sloan led the Gators to the 1984 NIT, which was only the second postseason appearance in school history. They would make the NIT again in 1985 and 1986, reaching the NIT semi-finals in 1986. In
1987,
shooting guard Vernon Maxwell led the team to the school's first ever NCAA Tournament appearance, advancing all the way to the Sweet 16. Sloan coached the team to 20-win seasons and NCAA tournament appearances again the following two years, and led the Gators to the school's first-ever SEC regular season title in 1989 behind
center Dwayne Schintzius. However, after a drug scandal involving Maxwell and an NCAA investigation for various rules violations, Sloan and his coaching staff were forced to resign on October 31, 1989, just days before the start of the 1989–90 season. Former Tennessee coach
Don DeVoe was brought in as the interim coach, but the defending SEC champions struggled to a 7–21 record. In September 1990, the NCAA sentenced the program to two years' probation for numerous major violations dating back to 1985. Their 1987 and 1988 NCAA Tournament appearances were erased from the record books due to Maxwell being retroactively declared ineligible for secretly taking money from a sports agent, and Sloan was slapped with a five-year
show-cause penalty that effectively ended his coaching career. The most severe penalty in the long run, however, was a reduction to 13 total scholarships in 1991–92 and 14 in 1992–93, which affected the program for several years. Draconian as those penalties were, the NCAA said that it would have banned the Gators from postseason play and live television in 1990–91 had Sloan still been coach. (Maxwell's 1987 and 1988 season statistics were later restored on September 18, 2025, making him again as Florida basketball's career leading scorer.)
Lon Kruger era 1990-1996 Lon Kruger, former head coach at
Kansas State, took over the program before the 1990–91 season. Despite the probation he inherited, Kruger slowly brought the team to increased success and reached the
NIT semifinals in his second year as coach. In 1993–94, the pieces fell into place for Florida to have their best season ever at that time. Behind
Andrew DeClercq and
Dametri Hill, the Gators went to their first Final Four following a dramatic victory over
UConn where
Donyell Marshall missed two free throws with no time on the clock to force overtime, where the Gators eventually prevailed. Over the next five years the Gators went to the NCAA Tournament every year, but they found themselves upset victims five straight times in the first or second round. In the
2001 NCAA tournament, Florida received the No. 3 seed in the South Region. They defeated No. 14
Western Kentucky in the first round, but they were then upset by the No. 11 seed,
Temple. The following year, in 2002, the Gators received the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region of the
2002 NCAA tournament. They were knocked off in the first round by No. 12 seed Creighton. The 2003 Florida Gators finished the season 24–7, and received the No. 2 seed in the South Region of the
2003 NCAA tournament. The Gators easily defeated Sam Houston State in the first round, but were then upset by No. 7 seed
Michigan State in the second round. In 2004, the Gators were the No. 5 seed in the East Rutherford Regional of the
2003–2004 NCAA tournament, but were upset in the first round by the No. 12 seed, Manhattan. The
2004–05 team had the distinction of being the first to garner an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, when it defeated
Kentucky in the
2005 SEC tournament championship. The Gators subsequently received the No. 4 seed in the Syracuse Regional of the
2004–2005 NCAA tournament. They knocked off the No. 13 seed,
Ohio in the first round, but lost to No. 5 seed
Villanova in the second round.
2005–06: First NCAA national championship season at the
White House following their national championship. The
2005–06 team began the
season unranked and went on a 17–0 winning streak for the best start in school history, surprising many with a young (four sophomores and one junior) squad following the graduation of
David Lee and the departures of
Matt Walsh and
Anthony Roberson to the NBA. The trio accounted for 60 percent of their offense in 2005. The team faded late in the regular season, losing its last 3 games in February and entering the postseason with a 24–6 record, yet still managed to win its second consecutive
SEC tournament championship. The Gators entered the
2006 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as a No. 3 seed with a 27–6 record, and ranked No. 10 by the AP. They beat No. 14 seed
South Alabama and No. 11 seed
Milwaukee to advance to the Minneapolis regional. There, the Gators defeated the No. 7 seed
Georgetown Hoyas and upset the No. 1 seed
Villanova Wildcats 75–62 to avenge their loss in the previous year's tournament and move on to their second
Final Four under Donovan. Florida defeated the upstart
George Mason Patriots, the No. 11 seed from the Washington, D.C. regional, by a score of 73–58 in the national semifinals in
Indianapolis. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the
UCLA Bruins 73–57 in the national final to win the school's first men's basketball NCAA Championship. The
University of Florida Athletic Association then purchased the floor used in Indianapolis for the Final Four, and installed it in the
O'Connell Center.
2006–07: Second NCAA national championship season The Gators returned all five starters from their 2006 championship team to begin the
2006–07 basketball season ranked as the preseason No. 1 in both major media polls, a first for the Gators. The
Gators locked up the SEC Championship relatively early in the 2006–07 season and were in possession of a 24–2 record before going on a late-February 1–3 skid that mirrored their 0–3 run a year earlier. For the second season in a row, the losses in February would be their last. Florida closed out
Kentucky on Senior Night to end the regular season 26–5, and won their third straight
SEC tournament championship with relative ease, beating , , and
Arkansas 77–56. Florida entered the
2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, and they advanced to the Final Four after wins in the regional against No. 5 seed
Butler and No. 3 seed
Oregon. In a rematch of the 2006 title game, the Gators again eliminated the
UCLA Bruins in the national semifinal. Florida defeated the
Ohio State Buckeyes 84–75, in a rematch of a game they won 86–60 three months earlier, to become the first team since the 1991–92 Duke Blue Devils to win back-to-back national championships and the first college team ever to repeat as national champions with the same starting line-up. The University of Florida also has the distinction of being the only school in NCAA history to have won both the basketball and football national championships in the same season (won the football championship in January 2007, which was the 2006 season) and the only school in NCAA history to win a combined four national championships in three seasons (football in 2006 and 2008 and basketball in 2006 and 2007). Also during this season, Donovan passed Sloan as the winningest coach in school history.
Lee Humphrey, the team's
shooting guard became the all-time leader for three-point shots made in the NCAA Tournament and all-time leading three-point scorer at Florida. The starting five of Brewer, Green, Horford, Humphrey, and Noah nicknamed themselves "the 04s" (pronounced "oh-fours") since they enrolled at Florida in 2004. They were known for their camaraderie on and off the court, as Brewer, Green, Horford and Noah were roommates during their entire time in college. Following the 2006–07 season, three of the Gators' starting five were drafted among the first ten picks in the first round of the
2007 NBA draft: Horford (third), Brewer (seventh), and Noah (ninth).
Taurean Green and
Chris Richard were both selected in the second round. All five starters and
sixth man Chris Richard later played professionally. All of them, except Humphrey, were selected in the
2007 NBA draft. Horford went on to become a five-time
NBA All-Star center and won the
2024 NBA Finals with the
Boston Celtics. Noah also became an NBA All-Star center and was named the 2014
NBA Defensive Player of the Year with the
Chicago Bulls.
2008–2010: Rebuilding In the aftermath of the Gators second NCAA championship, Donovan accepted the head coaching position for the NBA's
Orlando Magic on May 31, 2007. On June 3, however, it was disclosed that Donovan asked to be released from his contract with the Magic, which was announced when he was reintroduced as the Gators head coach on June 7. The Gators failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2009. The Gators were eliminated by
UMass in the semi-finals of the
2008 National Invitation Tournament. The following season, the Gators were eliminated by
Penn State in a quarter-final game of the
2009 National Invitation Tournament. In 2010, the Gators received an invitation to the
2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as a No. 10 seed, but they were eliminated in the first round by No. 7 seed
BYU in double overtime.
2011–2013: Three straight Elite Eight appearances In the
2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the
Gators were the No. 2 seed in the Southeast region after winning the SEC Championship, after being defeated in the
2011 SEC men's basketball tournament championship game to
Kentucky, and finishing with a 26–7 record. They played their two first games in Tampa, Florida. In the Second Round of the Tournament, Florida beat No. 15 seed,
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. In the third round, the Gators defeated the No. 7 seed, the
UCLA Bruins to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in New Orleans. On March 24, 2011, the Gators got some revenge by defeating the No. 3 seed,
BYU, who had knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament the year before, by a score of 83–74 in overtime to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2007. Their tournament run ended there as they were stunned in the Regional Final against No. 8 seed
Butler in overtime. In the
2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the
Gators were the No. 7 seed in the West Region after losing in the
2012 SEC men's basketball tournament semifinals to Kentucky, finishing with an overall record of 23–10. Florida defeated the No. 10 seed,
Virginia, and the No. 15 seed,
Norfolk State, to advance to the Sweet 16 in Phoenix. They defeated No. 3 seed
Marquette in an upset to advance to the Elite Eight, but their run ended when they were defeated by the No. 4 seed,
Louisville, 72–68, after blowing a 65–54 lead with 8:14 remaining in the game. The
2012–13 Gators finished the regular season with an overall record of 24–6, and won the SEC Championship with a conference record of 14–4. During the regular season, Billy Donovan notched his 400th career win as the head coach of the Gators over
Missouri. After losing in the final of the
2013 SEC men's basketball tournament to
Mississippi, they entered the
2013 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as the No. 3 seed in the South Region. Florida defeated the No. 14 seed
Northwestern State 79–47 in the first round, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen after soundly beating the No. 11 seed,
Minnesota, 78–64. The Gators then defeated
Florida Gulf Coast, No. 15 seed, in the Sweet Sixteen 62–50. But once again, their run ended in the Elite Eight, this time against fourth seeded
Michigan, who handily defeated the Gators, 79–59. The Gators became the first team since the expansion of the tournament in 1951 to lose in the Elite Eight in three consecutive seasons. Florida is the only program in the nation to have advanced as far as the Elite Eight in each of those seasons from 2011 to 2013.
2014: Return to Final Four The
2013–14 Gators finished the SEC regular season with an 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 championship, and their third in four seasons. The Gators then beat the
Kentucky Wildcats for the third time in the season to claim their fourth SEC Tournament championship title. By claiming the
SEC tournament, the Gators earned an automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament, and were selected as the No.1 overall seed, and were placed in the South Regional. The Gators' school record win streak reached 30 as they defeated their first four tournament opponents by double digits, finally breaking through in the Elite 8 with a 62–52 win over Dayton to advance to the Final Four as the only remaining No.1 seed. In the national semifinals, Florida faced
Connecticut, which had been the last team to defeat them back on December 2, 65–64. The Gators got off to a quick start and built a 16–4 lead, but the Huskies were able to catch up and led 25–22 at halftime in a defensive battle. The Gators continued to struggle to score in the second half and suffered their third (and worst) loss of the season, 63–53. The team's program-best 36–3 record resulted in many individual honors. Billy Donovan was named the SEC's Coach of the Year for the third time. Senior point guard
Scottie Wilbekin was named
Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year, the SEC Tournament MVP, and the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA South region. Senior center Patric Young was named the Defensive Player and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith was named
Sixth Man of the Year, and senior guard
Casey Prather was named to the All-SEC First Team.
2015: First losing record in 17 years The
2014–15 Gators finished the season 16–17, 8–10 in SEC play to finish in a tie for eighth place. They did not participate in a postseason tournament for the first time in 17 years. The woeful season included losses to in-state rivals Miami and Florida State, and three losses to SEC champion Kentucky. The Gators' 63.7 points-per-game were their lowest in the 19-year coaching tenure of Billy Donovan. After the season, Donovan accepted an offer to coach the
NBA's
Oklahoma City Thunder. He would leave Florida as far and away the winningest coach in program history. He led the Gators to 14 NCAA tournament appearances, six SEC regular season titles (four outright, two shared) and four SEC Tournament championships–in all three cases, more than all other coaches in program history combined.
Mike White era 2015-2022 On May 7, 2015, former
Louisiana Tech head coach
Mike White was hired to coach the Gators, succeeding Billy Donovan. White played point guard at
Ole Miss and later served as an assistant there for seven seasons. He is a native of the state of Florida and had led Louisiana Tech to three straight conference titles. In his first season at the helm, he led Florida to a 21–15 record and a berth in the NIT Tournament, defeating North Florida and Ohio State in the first two rounds before losing to eventual-NIT champion George Washington in the quarterfinal. White's
second Gator squad was the best of his tenure, as Florida went 24–7, finished 2nd in the SEC standings, and earned a #4 seed in the
2017 NCAA tournament. They reached the Elite Eight on a three-point
buzzer beater by guard
Chris Chiozza to beat Wisconsin, then were upset one game short of the Final Four by SEC rival South Carolina, 77–70. Florida earned invitations to four straight NCAA tournaments and won at least one game in each appearance under White (not counting the 2020 NCAA tournament, which was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic). However, after 2017, they earned a decreasing number of wins each season, were never a serious contender for SEC championships, and had a 10–15 record in games played in March. After a disappointing
2021-22 season in which Florida did not earn a berth in the NCAA tournament, White left to become the head coach at
Georgia.
Todd Golden era 2022-present Rebuilding to a tournament appearance On March 18, 2022, former San Francisco head coach
Todd Golden was named Florida's new head basketball coach. after
Florida's 79–73 win over
Auburn in the
2025 Final Four Locking in the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, Florida went on to defeat
Norfolk State 95–69 to set up a match with the two-time defending national champions
UConn in the Round of 32. After trailing for most of the game, Clayton Jr.'s 23 points led the Gators past the Huskies 77–75. Their comeback victory over UConn proved to be a trend for Florida during the tournament, as they orchestrated three additional comeback wins later in the tournament. Their 87–71 win over
Maryland in the Sweet Sixteen set up a matchup with
Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. Down 9 points with 3:14 left to play, four straight 3-pointers from Clayton Jr. and Haugh helped the Gators defeat the Red Raiders 84–79 and secure Florida's first Final Four appearance since 2014. In the Final Four, the Gators defeated Auburn, overcoming a 9-point second-half deficit off of Walter Clayton Jr.'s 34 points. Clayton Jr. became the first player to score 30+ points in both the Elite Eight and Final Four since
Larry Bird in 1979. == Rivalries ==