Swengali: Donovan Smart to Spurn Pros

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Express sports columnist Matt Swenson calls 'em as he sees 'em.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, Billy Donovan seems to be getting it right.

Mere days after signing a contract to coach the Orlando Magic, the former — and probably future — Florida Gators coach wants to return to the college game.

Bravo. It's become tiresome and even somewhat troublesome to see so many great college coaches — in both football and basketball — try their hands at the professional level only to fail spectacularly.

Sometimes the grass really isn't greener, even if the contracts are. Orlando's five-year, $27.5 million contract is staggering. Who wouldn't be tempted to take the money and run?

Yet there's at least $3 million a year waiting for Donovan in Gainesville. Plus, he'll be happier there.

College sports, especially basketball, are about the coaches. They recruit the players, most of whom are not yet so diva-esque that they won't listen to instruction. A coach's fate is, more or less, in his own hands.

In the pros, when and where you land in the lottery typically determines a team's fortune. Just ask Rick Pitino, who banked on the Celtics' landing Tim Duncan a decade ago. Oops.

Having won consecutive NCAA titles, Donovan wanted a new challenge. Here it is: Turn Florida into the next Duke or UCLA.

Donovan can build a perennial winner and become one of the greatest college coaches ever by building a legacy at one school.

Sometimes the right move is not making one at all.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images