I wonder if Billy Donovan wishes he could have a do-over on his very short-lived stint as the head coach of the Orlando Magic. He could be coaching Dwight Howard (aka Superman) and Hedo Turkoglu in Orlando while being in 3rd seed in the East. Instead, he’s coaching a group of young players that failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament after the Gators had won back-to-back titles with a more talented, veteran group.

While we originally questioned his decision to go to Orlando and then jump ship so quickly at least we could attribute it to his love of the college game (much like ours but his was accompanied by a few more dollar signs–6 years at $3.5 million per year to be exact). However, Donovan’s recent comments and actions make us question whether Donovan’s two titles have turned him into an egomaniac who returned to college to have control that he could never have had in the NBA.

People forget that before having a talented group of players that stayed while all the other talented players headed to the NBA, Donovan’s teams consistently underperformed (with the exception of a miracle run to the NCAA Finals fueled by a Mike Miller runner against Butler). He made teams of McDonald’s All-Americans into teams that routinely exited the tournament on the first weekend (see 2001-2004) and even turned David Lee into a mediocre college player by not utilizing a guy who hustles properly (not sure how that happens). We hope Donovan enjoys the NIT.

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 7:16 pm by nvr1983 and is filed under randomness. Tagged: billy donovan, florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.