GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It was a big family reunion at the O'Dome on Saturday as Billy Donovan returned to Gainesville to a warm welcome.

"You miss the people you worked with," Donovan told reporters on Saturday prior to Florida's game against Vanderbilt. "We've always had great relationships here. Just relationship with Jeremy (Foley), Mike Hill, Jamie McCloskey, Tom Williams, all those people there in the administration, Chip Howard, and then obviously the support staff, assistant coaches, players, people in the community.

"For 19 years this has been home, so you miss people when you don't get to see them a lot."

The legendary former Gators basketball coach was joined by several of his former players to see the basketball court named after him.

"It's just really emotional for me and I'm really humbled," said Donovan. "For me, I've always said this, is it takes a lot of people to really contribute and help. I look at my name and there's another name I could think of that would go right next to my name. From Anthony Grant, to John Pelphrey, to Larry Shyatt, to Brad Beal, to Al Horford, to Joakim Noah, to Jeremy Foley, to Jamie McCloskey, to Tom Williams. Everybody contributed. I'm just thankful that I was around such great people. I think that's what it speaks to is the quality of people that I was fortunate enough to be around here at Florida."

Donovan admits he will be emotional when he walks onto the court at halftime in front of the packed O'Dome crowd.

"I don't know if I'll be crying. I'm going to try to get over that," he joked. "But yeah I'll be extremely emotional. I never would have thought of anything like this. To be honored in a way and then have so many people come back and be part of it and share in it, it really means the world to me, because everyone's got busy schedules and lives. And for people to come in and to be able to catch up with them and see them has been great."

Donovan was instrumental in putting the Gators basketball program on the map, leading UF to four Final Four appearances and two back-to-back national championships.

"That group was incredible," said Donovan. "Connected as a team, played for one another, highly competitive. I really have always said this, I think that they should go down as one of the greatest teams of all time, and the reason I say that is because they started off unranked and won a national championship. Then won a national championship starting the season ranked No. 1 with all the expectations to do it. And they did it under both circumstances. That group was incredible. It was a blessing to be able to coach guys like that."

Donovan's legacy lives on here in Gainesville. When the players walk to practice they see the trophies; they see the banners in the O'Dome; and they see the banners in the practice court.

Now as they walk onto the court every home game, they will remember the foundation Donovan helped built.

"It's extremely humbling. I'm very, very grateful and I'm honored," said Donovan. "I tried to work as hard as I could to help the program, help the university. But again, I think for it to be down there like that, I think about from my first year all the way through to my 19th year and just the amount of people that helped me. My name is down there but a lot of people really, really helped me. And that's really to me what's so humbling, that everyone worked so hard."