The road is littered with coaches who thought they could easily make the transition from college to the pros.  Rick Pitino. Mike Montgomery.  P.J. Carlesimo.  Nick Saban.  Tim Floyd.  John Calipari. Lon Krueger. Darth Visor.  And what these men all have in common is they took stellar college careers and flawless reputations and attached the word "failure" to them.

How many college coaches have gone into pro sports only to be on the unemployment line two or three years later?  Leonard Hamilton was Michael Jordan's hand picked coach in Washington and failed miserably.   Krueger with the Hawks was a disaster.  Remember when Jerry Tarkanian coached the Spurs?  How di that work out?  And, oh yeah baybee, Dick Vitale tried his hand at coaching the Pistons.  And finally, Floyd with both Chicago and New Orleans made for more drama than an entire Law & Order Box DVD set.  Yet, all of these guys have gone back to college and all have gone back to enjoying the success they had before they left for the bright lights and big cities of pro ball.

Obviously, it's no secret why these guys do it.  The money is better.  The pub is better.  There are only 30 NBA coaches as opposed to the 300+ coaches in NCAA D1.  There is no NCAA.  There is no recruiting (except for free agents.)  There is the rebuilding challenge that all coaches Jones for.  And, if they can be the guy who pulls the sword from the stone, they pretty much punched their own ticket.

The downside to it is obvious as well.  The players are men and not under your constant control.  It's hard to get rid of players without devaluing a franchise.  Players are often skeptical of college coaches going pro and tune them out.  The things you did in college don't work in the pros.  There are fifty more games plus a long playoff grind.  And while certainly in college there are alums and fans and administrators that want to win, getting to the tournament is the thing and there are 65 teams that will do that each year.  In the NBA, only 8 teams make it.  And to keep your job, you need to make it every year.

So why would a guy who has won the last two NCAA titles in D1 men's hoop move on to try and revive the Orlando Magic?  Why does Billy Donovan feel the need to put his neck on the guillotine that so many before him have?  In a word, challenge.  In college basketball, Donovan has climbed the mountain, seen the top, then climbed it again.  Kentucky was a lateral move in the same conference, not a move up.  His players who won the championships are all gone, so he's left with an empty cupboard at Florida, having to rebuild there and deal with the now high expectations of Gator Nation.  Why not a change? 

Some great coaches have been recruited by the pros only to say "no, thanks."  Coach K, Bob Knight and Pat Summit have all talked to pro teams and all refused then because they are smart enough to understand that their situations are so good where they are, why would they want to risk their reputations to work in the pros?  Coach K mulled the Lakers only to finally say he'd rather be at Duke.  Why?  Because he knew while the money was staggering, it was a meat grinder and he would be ground up in it.  It's amazing Donovan hasn't thought the same thing.

Nick Saban thought he could parlay a stellar college coaching career and clean up Davewood Bumstedt's mess in Miami.  Two years later, Saban was singing the praises of college football as he took refuge in Tuscaloosa.  Even Herb Brooks, who had some moderate success in the NHL, ultimately preferred the college game to the pros.

Pro coaches should be ex-players and ex-assistants, not hot shot head coaches from a non-parallel universe. If making the leap from college to the pros was so easy, more coaches would be successful.  But it isn't and they aren't.  Case closed.

For Billy Donovan, a life of security and comfort will be disrupted for a life of failure that he has never experienced. He needs to look no further than the last coach from Florida who left the security and comfort of Gainesville for the harsh, white light of the pros.  And as smart and as wise as "the old ball coach" is, he had no clue how to coach ball in the in the NFL.

In three years, someone will pluck him from the ESPN studios to come coach their college team back to prominence and he'll gladly take the job.  In the meantime Billy, good luck.  You're not in Gainesville anymore.

Lightning Round

• When your pitcher throws a complete game two hitter and you can't win, that's a red flag.  When your centerfielder, who has also been your MVP this year, kills his ankle, that's a red flag.  I'm afraid the White Sox have run out of bullets, if they ever had any to begin with.  Bringing up Jerry Owens is a sure sign that more are going to be right behind him.  Most likely, the Sox will rush Scott Podsednik back so he can lead off and he'll just break down again.  These guys need to go in the locker room, close the door, call each other out and then go out on the field and get it done.  Right now, they are sleepwalking through this season thinking they can turn it on and off at a time of their choosing.  They are an arrogant bunch of one-dimensional players who keep waiting for the lottery check in the mail.  Make something happen, boys.  If you don't NOW, TONIGHT, Cleveland, Detroit and Minnesota will be so far off in the distance you won't see C.C. Sabathia's big butt.  The train wreck continues tonight in Canada.
  
• Prince Fielder is hitting like a king.  If the Brewers can fatten up on the Marlins over the weekend and right their ship, they have a good chance of putting a little more cushion between them and the other teams in the NL Comedy Central.
• The Hamilton Predators?  I love how everybody in the media has changed the name of the Nashville hockey team to the "financially struggling" Predators.  I don't think that's the case.  I think that the ROI isn't there right now.  I think the strike killed the sport in non-traditional markets because those people could take or leave hockey and they left when the players and owners acted like idiots for a year.  If hockey fails in Nashville, it is not because of the fans as some of these national wonks would suggest, it is because of the strike and the outrageous ticket prices NHL fans are forced to pay.  Hockey has always been the sport of the middle class and with gas at $3.50 a gallon, the middle class is going to have issues coming up with $150 for decent seats at a hockey game.  However, with the exchange rate being what it is and players being who they are, I have no idea how moving to a place like Hamilton is better than being in a vital, entertainment based city like Nashville.  But then, I didn't invent the Blackberry.
  
• Looks like Sid the Kid is about to become Captain Sidney.
• Why am I the only person on the planet watching hockey?  NBC really wanted Detroit and the Rangers.  While Canada is going gaga (I talked to someone in Ottawa the other night who had a severe case of cup fever), we here in America treat the NHL almost like it is outdoor soccer.  Nobody ever accused us of being smart in this country.
• If you want to e-mail your buddy some porn, don't do it at work, especially if you are employed in the fishbowl that is the NFL.
• Memo to job seekers: You can have any job you want if you invest $350,000 in the organization that's hiring you.
• The state of Missouri gave Mike Shannon's restaurant a clean bill of healthh in their investigation of the Josh Hancock tragedy.  You're up, Dean Hancock.
• Roger Goodell, the Napoleonic Emperor of the NFL has just banned alcohol on team flights and at team functions for everybody including owners, players, coaches and guests.  Why? Lawyers.  Goddell no doubt wants to avoid the bad pub of guys like Dean Hancock.  If there league doesn't serve booze, the league is held harmless if a player gets in some kind of alcohol related trouble.  It's actually a good strategy which you will see much more of in the coming months. 
  
• Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy watching games that you pay for, MLB comes out and urinates on you.  Boys, technology evolves daily and you need to evolve with it.
• Attention Wal-Mart workers: Watch what you put on your MYspace page.  It just may cost you your job.
• The world's most notorious spam artist has finally been stopped by the firewall that is the US government.
• Isn't it great the government can tell business owners what they can and can do inside their businesses?   The next phase, is what we do in our homes and cars. I'm waiting for the government to tell me I can't have a cigarette on my back porch because the smoke may blow over and bother my neighbor. Seriously.  Our thanks to the insurance lobby for their efforts in running government.
  
• And then, there are those who want to ban alcohol because people drive drunk.  How about we make the fines higher and the consequences greater and not ban alcohol.  We are approaching the tipping point where common sense is being replaced by mob mentality. Let's win back the day for personal responsibility, PLEASE.
• Arthur Branch for President would surely realign the Republican parties cosmic tumblers.
• ABC actually aired the national spelling bee last night.  B-O-R-I-N-G.
  
• In honor of the spelling bee, here are some hard to pronounce sports names.  I'd like to buy a vowel, please.