Billy Donovan and the Florida basketball team haven’t signed a local player since Gainesville High School’s Orien Greene in 2000 (though Hawthorne’s Cornelius Ingram did have a UF hoops offer, but signed to play football and only tried basketball for a year).

No doubt during that time Donovan at least took looks at Santa Fe small forward James Shuler, GHS point guard Ron Larris, P.K. Yonge’s Terry Williams, Willie Powers and Myk Brown, but decided not to offer. Donovan went out to watch late Eastside shooting guard Dante Anderson play multiple times, but a few weeks before his death last May, Anderson told me he didn’t have a Gator offer.

None of what I am about to write comes from “inside information” ” that’s what fellow Sun sports writer Kevin (KBro) Brockway is for. It is just speculation on my part. But it is speculation based on 16 years of covering high school basketball players and watching Billy’s program closely and covering two of his three final fours (I also covered Lon Kruger’s final four team).

It wouldn’t surprise me if Donovan offers at least two local sophomores.

Eastside’s 6-foot-2 (and growing) point guard Dennis Mavin and GHS’s 6-6 (and growing) swingman T.J. Hall look like they have the potential to be elite-level players.

Both are long and athletic and have shown a willingness to improve.

Last year Mavin was a part-time starter and showed flashes, but it was obvious he needed to work on his rather flat shot. Fast forward a year and you can tell he has and continues to put in extra practice time.

As a freshman Hall was on the Hurricanes JV. Now, he is a multi-skilled varsity athlete comfortable on the inside and outside who Tony Wise (once Santa Fe’s coach) said is better than Shuler (later a Winthrop standout) was at that age.

These two will meet up Friday night at Santa Fe Community College. The game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start, but arrive early because hundreds of people were turned away when the two teams met two weeks ago.