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Billy Donovan sure seems pretty popular as men's basketball coach at the University of Florida, so maybe he'll break the trend and won't get fired if his team loses next week. But the team his Gators beat in third round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's men's basketball tournament on Sunday, the University of Minnesota, fired its men's basketball coach, Tubby Smith, on Monday. And the team that Minnesota had beaten in the tournament's second round on Friday, the University of California at Los Angeles, fired its coach, Ben Howland, on Saturday after 10 seasons.
Smith had taken Minnesota to the NCAA tournament three times in his six years, and Howland had won the Pacific-12 Conference championship four times and made the Final Four three times in his decade as coach.
