DESTIN, Fla. -- A college basketball coach doesn't need a whole season to change his image. A few weeks will do.

For example, take Florida's Billy Donovan. Remember his old image?

He could get to the big dance. He just couldn't win it.

He could get the talent. He just couldn't keep it.

But his image has been forever changed by one March of Madness.

It's tough enough winning a national championship. It's just as tough keeping a national championship team together. Donovan did both this year. And it's a tossup as to which was more surprising: cutting down the nets at the Final Four or not having your stars cut out early for the NBA.

You could call it poetic justice for a coach who has won less with more talented teams and had a handful of key players leave early for the NBA.

"Five years, we get knocked out in the first or second round (of the NCAA tournament), then all of a sudden, we (win a championship) when you least expect it," said Donovan, who is in Destin this week for the SEC spring meetings.

Now, the expectations have been raised, and the coach has a new challenge. He doesn't plan on tackling it alone.

"I'll talk to a lot of different people," Donovan said. "It could be in any sport where the team didn't perform as well as the previous year. What was the reason that happened?"

The most recent SEC examples are in football. After winning the national championship in 1998, Tennessee had even more talent in 1999, yet fell short of its potential. LSU suffered more attrition after winning the 2003 national title, but it also under-achieved the following season.

Florida will return everyone except forward Adrian Moss. All the big names are back: 6-foot-11 senior Joakim Noah, power forward Al Horford, wing player Corey Brewer, point guard Taurean Green and 3-point marksman Lee Humphrey, a former star at Maryville High School.

"We could be better and not get the same results," Donovan said. "We'll be more experienced, deeper, a little stronger.

"But you've got to mix and match (with new players). And how will your players handle all the hoopla with being told how great they are?

"You need to remain humble. You can either humble yourself or you will be humbled."

The nature of both Florida's championship and the sport should help keep the Gators' hat size in check.

It's not as though they dominated the basketball landscape. They even finished second to Tennessee in the SEC East.

But they understood their roles, played unselfishly, excelled in the clutch and got hot at the right time. As for the sport, it's as much about timing as talent. You don't have to go unbeaten for the entire season. You just have to go unbeaten in a six-game tournament.

"I made the comment (after winning the national title) that there could be a whole lot of other coaches sitting here if the tournament started over," Donovan said. "It wasn't that we had the most talent. We were great at the team aspects of the game."

The team returns almost intact. It's just as important that the attitude is unchanged.

So you probably can guess what Donovan's opening line will be at his next team meeting.

"We need to get over last year," he said.