Donovan Saved Magic, Himself From Certain Failure

If only Jerry Tarkanian had second thoughts. Or John Calipari. Or Rick Pitino -- twice. Lord knows where the Pistons would have been had Dick Vitale not had his non-glass eye set on their coaching job -- shameless campaign thru the newspapers and all.

The Orlando Magic -- ownership, players, and fans alike -- may not feel like it right now, but I figure they're some of the luckiest people on earth right now, in the wake of Billy Donovan announcing he'd like to avoid the long lines at Disney World and stay at the University of Florida.

Ironically, I doubt it was a sudden realization or appreciation for the pro game's history of failed college coaches that dissuaded Donovan from fulfilling his signed contract with the Magic, just a couple days after the ink dried. He cited being "conflicted" between his desire to enter the NBA as a coach and his love for UF.

Actually, it's sort of like when someone gives up their ticket on a plane to someone else, only to see it crash. Fortuitous, but hardly planed.

Donovan, barring his emotional duress, would have boarded that plane -- the rickety one that flies college-to-pro coaches to their career deaths -- while so many of us would have been left on the ground, screaming, "For the love of God, don't do it!"


Psych!

Why, oh why do college coaches think they can make it in the pros -- in every sport? And why do they continue to think so, despite overwhelming evidence that the chances of success are abysmal at best and nil at worst?

From little-known dudes to overrated blowhards to legitimate big-name guys, it just doesn't happen when the switch is made from books to bucks.

Have there been exceptions? A few. But there's been snow in May, a White Sox world championship, and moments of dead air on a Bill Walton-occupied broadcast, too -- but I wouldn't be running to the betting window to wager on any of them happening again anytime soon.

The other funny thing is listening to the observers making a laundry list of why Donovan would stay. Vitale, who should know, was pontificating into a telephone the other night on ESPN.

"He has a university who loves him. An athletic director who loves him. He has a great situation. He has happiness. Like (former coach) Jim Valvano used to say, 'DON'T MESS WITH HAPPINESS.'"

Well, yeah -- but don't most of them who flee the campuses have all of what Donovan has at Florida? I'll answer my own question: Yes, they do. Yet they leave anyway.

Look, I understand about wanting new challenges and succeeding where others have failed and all that. So it's not the coaches I find culpable -- for if they're offered, who am I to tell them they shouldn't go?

So I guess my cross eyes should be aimed toward the owners and management of those pro teams who are, right on schedule every so often, dipping into the college ranks for their next hotshot coach. The Red Wings were one of the early cautionary tales, hiring Ned Harkness right from Cornell University in 1970. At least they learned their lesson and never tried it again.

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

Ahh, but the owners and GMs aren't forgetting the past -- they're ignoring it. They're defying it. They're spitting into the teeth of its wind. And time and again, they're ending up with saliva on their puss.

"A pro fool and his college coach are soon parted."

I made that one up myself.

Of course, the coach still ends up with the money in the end. So he's not the fool, after all.