OKLAHOMA CITY — It was the fall of 2005, and Billy Donovan was starting over.
The then-Florida coach had lost his three leading scorers from the season before, and though he liked the roster he’d assembled, there were no sure things. In sophomore Corey Brewer, Florida featured one former McDonald’s All-American, and no other returning player had averaged more than six points a game in 2004-05. The Gators weren’t ranked in The Associated Press preseason poll.
As it turned out, the guys Donovan had recruited as replacements — including sophomores Al Horford and Joakim Noah — were pretty good players. The Gators went on to win the 2006 NCAA title.
But the way Matt McCall tells it, that postseason success was predicated by Donovan’s preseason approach.
“All that we stressed, all that we worked on, was player movement and ball movement,” said McCall, then a graduate assistant at Florida, now the head coach at UMass. “We won a national…
