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Earlier today, we broke that San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon turned down the job at Florida. After Hammon declined the position, the Gators have decided to hire Belmont head coach Cameron Newbauer.
Excited to welcome Cameron Newbauer (@camnew) to #GatorNation as new head coach of @GatorsWBK! #GoGators pic.twitter.com/0GxDrSUzbv
— Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) March 27, 2017
For the past 10 years, Florida was coached by Amanda Butler, however, after a struggling few seasons, she was fired by the university. Now, weeks after that news broke, according to multiple reports that the next head coach for the gators is going to be Newbauer.
Since 2013, Newbauer has been the head coach of the Belmont Bruins. This past season, he led the Bruins to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Even though Belmont was knocked out of the tournament in the first round after losing to Kentucky in a nail-biter (73-70) Newbauer led the team to a historic season.
His team would finish with the second best record ever in the Ohio Valley Conference with 27 wins (six losses) and appeared in back to back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in the school’s history.
The other finalist for the position was Elon head coach Charlotte Smith. And another name that was strongly considered was Stetson’s Lynn Bria.