First Night in Philly and Other Stuff

Remember last summer when the area where I worked always seemed to have slightly bizarre things happening around it? I'm not saying that where I live this summer will be anywhere near as entertaining as that, but out of my bedroom window I can see a Hollywood Tan tanning salon. I walked by while they were closing and saw the employees leaving. I guess they must get free tanning there or something because they looked like full sized Oompa-Loompas. Will these tanarexics be as menacing as last summer's chef infestation? I don't know, but it's a strong start.

In other news the Orlando Magic hired UF head coach Billy Donovan. I have mixed emotions about this. Yes, I'm a Cane, but I've never lost all of my affinity for the Gators and I really like what Billy had going on with UF's basketball program. With that said there was never a better time for him to leave than right now. So, hopefully UF can stay on track even with the loss of Donovan.

As for the analysis from the standpoint of the Magic; this move is easy to criticize, you can count on one hand the number of great college coaches who were able to successfully make the jump to the pros. With that said I still like this hire. The Magic have had a tendency to hire old(er) coaches that haven't exactly gotten all they could have out of younger players (though in many cases these young players were bad draft picks to begin with). The only exception to this was Doc Rivers, a younger coach who, for a time, got a lot out of role players and younger guys who hadn't been given a chance yet (Ben Wallace, Chucky Atkins, etc). Basically my hope is this, the young and flashy Donovan focuses on getting as much as he can from his very talented young base (Nelson, Darko, Ariza, and Howard) while we hopefully see some return on the investments in younger players who we draft like Redick, who Brian Hill hardly even tried to use last year.

Can Donovan be one of the few college coaches to make the jump successfully? Nobody knows, but he's got a great foundation so it's all pretty much up to him.