For Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan, they’ll always have Providence

From Phoenix — Louisville Coach Rick Pitino will have only himself to blame himself if he is outcoached and loses to Florida’s Billy Donovan in Saturday’s West Regional title game at US Airways Center.

If not for Pitino, there probably would not have been a “coach” Donovan.

“Billy the Kid” would have gone straight, without fanfare, to “Billy the Adult.”

Donovan was an out-of-shape, ineffectual guard at Providence College in 1985-86 when Pitino took over a program coming off an 11-20 season.

Pitino remembers being thrilled when Donovan paid an office visit and asked for a transfer.

Pitino tried to accommodate the young man, but no school was interested.

Feeling sorry for Billy, as Pitino tells it, he offered Donovan the chance to stay if he was willing to shed 30 pounds from his doughy, 190-pound frame.

“He came back in awesome shape,” Pitino said. “Was the third guard on the team that year.”

Donovan averaged 15 points a game as a junior.

The next year, 1987, Donovan would average 20.6 points and become the spark-plug charge on Providence’s surprising run to the Final Four.

For the cover of Providence’s 1986-87 media guide, Pitino forced Donovan to wear “a little cowboy hat, spurs and boots.”

“Billy, the Kid, the fastest gun in the Big East,” Pitino said. “That was the start of his college legend.”

Donovan remembers it well, especially the media guide.

“I hope that’s no longer able to be found,” he said.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Providence’s Final Four team. It would have been a fine Cinder-fella story had the Pitino-Donovan story ended there.

But it didn’t.

Fast forward to Donovan, after college, taking a job on Wall Street:

“I realized that’s not what I really wanted to do,” he said.

One day, a miserable Donovan called Pitino, the head coach of Kentucky.

Pitino implored Donovan to stick to his day-trader job — “You’re going to make a lot of money.” Pitino said. “Stay put. Coaching is not for you.”

Donovan’s misery index continued to rise, though, and eventually Pitino relented.

“Get in your car,” he told Donovan. “Come to Kentucky.”

Pitino, in 1989, made Donovan a graduate assistant … and here we are today.

Donovan worked his way up and, in 1994, landed the Marshall coaching position. Two years later, he was hired at Florida.

Oh, and along the way, Donovan has won two national titles to Pitino’s one.

Pitino still has Donovan’s number, though, 6-0, in head-to-head matchups.

Bradley Beal, Florida’s talented freshman guard, tried to imagine the dynamic of pupil versus mentor.

What if, 25 years from now, he were coaching in the Elite Eight against Donovan?

“That would be very weird,” Beal said Friday. “If I was coaching against him, I would want to beat him.”

Beal said Donovan is playing down the coaching matchup to his players.

“He just told us, straight up, he didn’t want to make it about him vs Pitino,” Beal said. “It was Florida vs. Louisville.”

No doubt, though, Donovan would like a little payback. In fairness, Pitino had the better players in the previous matchups.

Pitino’s Kentucky teams scored two early wins over Donovan and Marshall.

Kentucky also beat Florida twice shortly after Donovan took over in Gainesville.

“You can never look at those things because he was at a tremendous disadvantage,” Pitino said. “If we had the same type of talent, then it would be a different situation.”

Pitino, as Louisville coach, is 2-0 against Donovan. The teams last met in 2004.

The stakes Saturday will be considerable higher, with a trip to the Final Four on the line.

Pitino is 41-15 in the NCAA tournament. Thursday’s win over top-seeded Michigan State raised his record to 10-0 in regional semifinal games. Pitino won his lone national title in 1996.

Donovan is 28-9 in the tournament, with three title game appearances and two championships.

Pitino and Donovan are still close.

“I still call him Billy the Kid,” Pitino said. “We constantly are thinking about each other.”

Pitino shared Donovan’s joy when Florida won its first of two national titles in 2006.

“I couldn’t control my emotions,” Pitino recalled. “I hugged him and he knew I was crying. And I embraced him and wouldn’t let him go because I didn’t want people to see I was crying.”

Donovan called and offered his support in 2009 when Pitino became involved in an embarrassing extramarital affair.

“It was a hard thing,” Donovan said. “I felt bad. It wasn’t like he and I got into detail about it. My phone call was more like ‘I’m thinking about you,’ more than anything else.”

The bond that that formed in the mid-1980s at Providence will never be severed.

The friendship, though, will be suspended for at least a couple of hours.

“There’s nothing like getting a chance to move on and advance,” Donovan said.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com