Best Coaching Gig in College Basketball

The funny thing about this blog is that it would be difficult to tell I'm a sports fan based on the posts I've written. I may have mentioned it in the "About" section, but this is the first sports blog post.

Yes indeed, huge sports fan, particularly college basketball.  What's on my wall right now? Just the Sports Illistrated (framed) with Mario Chalmers hitting the game-tying 3-pointer in the 2008 National Championship against Memphis.  Derrick Rose can't quite get high enough for the block. Kansas wins 75-68 in overtime.

But who, in my opinion, has the best gig in college basketball?  None other than Billy Donovan of Florida.

Now, my opinion is based purely on the coaching situation Donovan finds himself at Florida.  Here's what he has going for him:

1. He's one of the highest paid coaches in the country, raking in a whopping 3.5 million annually. He ranks up there with coaches at basketball-rich schools.
2. Football is king at Florida.  If a football-freak, mega-winning coach like Urban Meyer can only last 6 years, then you know roundball is never going to surpass the pigskin. Billy-D has been at Florida since 1996. He has been to three NCAA Finals and won two (2006 & 2007). However, after that he went to two straight NITs  and got bounced in the first found of the NCAAs the year after.  Guess what? He's still in Gainesville. Think that would have been the case with Meyer if he'd gone to the Music City Bowl and Capital One Bowl? No sir. Think the likes of Rick Pitino (Louisville), John Calipari (Kentucky), and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) would lasted through a three-year stretch like with nary a scratch with those rabid fan bases? Not on your life.
3. This shows that there's not the same pressure to win in basketball as in fooball.  How many back-to-back national champion T-shirts do you see floating around? How about bumper stickers?  Sure, you see them now and again, may be more so in Alachua County. But for the most part, it's almost as though those championships didn't happen. I'd even be willing to go so far to say that had the Gators simply gone to the Final Four, losing in the semi-finals in 2000, 2006 & 2007, Billy-D would still be there.  He may not be making $3.5 million, but he'd be making millions.
4. Gator Nation likes winners. Florida fans would get antsy and the leash a lot shorter if Donovan started getting upset on a regular basis in the NCAA Tournament or finished with losing seasons. But Billy-D does win and that's why he's still around. He was wise not to take the Orlando Magic head coaching job. I surmise that he'd already be out of the NBA and in another college coaching gig. And Florida would have lost its best coach.

There's no question Billy Donovan wants to win another championship. He wants to celebrate with his players on the floor while "One "Shining Moment" plays on the video board.  But to stay in Gainesville and make the big bucks he's making, he doesn't have to. Just get to a Final Four once every 5 years or so and don't start losing and he'll be just fine.