FanHouse Billy Donovan

When John Calipari told an interviewer at the SEC's basketball media day last month, "These fans -- I'm saying this lovingly -- are nuts,'' he was being very narrow-minded. In the SEC, this season and the last few, why single out the fans?

The idea has been thrown around that the arrival of Calipari (and his history) at Kentucky (and its history) is going to suck all the attention toward them and away from the rest of the conference. Truth be told, this might not be a bad thing. The SEC might not lead Division I conferences in dysfunction, but it's near the top. Only three seasons ago, it was celebrating one of its programs, Florida, completing the rare feat of repeating as national champion. But literally from the moment the Gators made that official by winning the 2007 title in Atlanta -- remember, coach Billy Donovan spent much of the postgame interviews fending off speculation that he was going to take over at, yes, Kentucky -- the SEC has been the home of constant chaos.

Half of the league's 12 schools have changed coaches since then, three this season; two newcomers, at Alabama and Georgia, follow coaches who departed in midseason, making Kentucky, which fired Billy Gillispie and hired Calipari, an isle of calm by comparison.

In an effort to talk about something college basketball-related other than scandals in the summer, let's talk best current coaches. We'll attempt to order the top 25 current coaches in the nation. This is about the present and the future, not the distant past. What a guy did in the mid-90s doesn't matter near as much as the direction his program is currently headed. Past pedigree also matters, to an extent. For the perfect mix of past accomplishments with present achievement and a paved road for future success, look no further than the man atop the list.

Rarely do assistant coaching hires make the news, but this one is just too interesting to pass up. Billy Donovan, former assistant to Rick Pitino, has hired Richard Pitino, the 26-year-old son of Louisville's head basketball coach. The younger Pitino has been an assistant at Louisville for the past two seasons.

The intertwined relationships here are quite unique. In the past, there has been speculation that one of the reasons Donovan didn't take the head job at Kentucky was due to his close relationship with Pitino. The two often talk about how they consider each other family.

Once Kentucky finally showed Billy Gillispie the door last week, rumors immediately turned to Florida coach Billy Donovan as his successor, for obvious reasons. It took Donovan mere hours to say he wasn't interested in leaving Florida, and ever since then the hot name in the rumor mill has been John Calipari. A Memphis TV station even put up a streaming video feed outside Calipari's office.

Depending on where you get your information, Calipari is either ready to be offered the job, or he hasn't yet met with officials from Kentucky. We do know that, Monday, the Wildcats' brass received permission from Memphis to talk to Calipari.

BOSTON -- Tubby Smith is much too dignified to laugh out loud, or LOL in the text-message age. But for all the abuse he took at Kentucky during a decade that was absolutely dreadful -- a national championship, a 263-83 record, an NCAA tournament appearance every season, just horrendous stuff -- who could blame him if he wanted to giggle to himself Friday?

Seems the bluegrass has turned to fertilizer in Lexington.

UPDATE: Kentucky confirms coaching change

After just two seasons at the University of Kentucky, Billy Gillispie has been shown the door. According to a televised report on ESPN, Gillispie has been fired, effective immediately. There is a press conference scheduled for 4:30 PM Friday afternoon.

The move comes a few days after Kentucky was bounced from the NIT by Notre Dame. Yeah, the NIT. At Kentucky. Obviously, fans and prominent alumni weren't too excited at the direction of the program under Gillispie. He had compiled a 40-27 record (20-12 in the SEC) in just two seasons in Lexington. According to several reports, though, this move wasn't all about wins and losses.

Tennessee spent the first half of Sunday's game against Florida showing that it knew two things about the outcome of this game: The winner would be tied with South Carolina for first in the SEC East and find themselves on the right side of the bubble watch heading towards the SEC Tournament.

The second half was a different story. The Gators outscored the Vols 42-34 in the final 20 minutes, cutting the lead to three points with 54 seconds remaining. But Tennessee managed to hold on for a 79-75 win, hitting just enough free throws to stave off the Gators.

So where does this leave the SEC?

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This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.

Today, we have enlisted MLMinTampa of the Alligator Army to break down the Florida Gators.

The Florida Gators return the core of a team that finished in the final four. Of the NIT.

Last season was a disappointment for the Gators not just for the fact that they did not make the NCAA Tournament, breaking a streak of nine consecutive appearances. But the reaction of head coach Billy Donovan after the Gators bowed out of the SEC Tournament first round ("They're not committed to it," in speaking of his team) led fans and outsiders to believe that this group of players was beyond saving. After rallying in the NIT, there is some optimism for this year's edition despite subtractions. The Gators' only front line presence, Marreese Speights, is in the NBA. Sophomore guard Jai Lucas, after playing the first preseason game, will transfer. UF hopes they can overcome both losses.

There was a big stink when Florida's Billy Donovan went against the National Association of Basketball Coaches recommendation that coaches stop recruiting kids who haven't completed their sophomore year in high school.

Three weeks after that declaration, Donovan signed Doc Rivers' son ... who was still in the 8th grade. Oh, and he doesn't think there is anything wrong with that:

"I don't know if it really made a whole lot of sense," Donovan said. "Because one of the things they should be doing, at least from my perspective, is opening up the lines of communication more than closing them down."

"I think for the NABC just to mandate when we can offer scholarships and when we can't -- what we need to be doing is (exploring) how can we open up the lines of communication more to get to know these kids better," he said.

"Whether the school offers at any age really comes down to the family and what the family thinks is in the best interest of the kid. I don't think anybody's forcing anybody to do anything."

This is a very hot topic, especially since the NABC (which is obviously run by the coaches) has come out against this practice. There is a line of thinking that coaches should keep in contact with these kids so they are more acclimated to the program, the coach and the college lifestyle change. Another line wants these kids to be kids and develop in their own time frame.

The only thing we know for sure about this year's NCAA Tournament is that there's not going to be a repeat champion. Make that a three-peat champion. The Florida Gators aren't in the field of 65 and won't be able to defend their crowns. Not too many people expected them to make a run for a third title but settling for the NIT obviously still burnt Billy Donovan. Burnt him so much, in fact, that he banned his team from practicing in Florida's main gym while they prepare for San Diego State.

"I think probably in some respects the confetti is still falling down around them. When you've had great, great success like we've had, I think it's very easy to become complacent and lose sight of how good things are around here, and have this attitude of well, I'm at Florida, this is what's going to happen."

This has nothing to do with 2007-2008. Even with five freshman playing 10 or more minutes, the Gators won 21 games which is about as much as you could expect from such a young team. They were also constantly reminded that they were the defending national champions. That was not a moniker they earned, of course, and Donovan's going out of his way to remind them that you need to earn the perks. If players like Nick Calathes and Marreese Speights get the message, the Gators could be right back in the mix this time next year.