You can officially cross the Miami Heat off the list of NBA teams that would potentially be interested in hiring Billy Donovan as their next head coach. Pat Riley did his best today to shoot down those rumors, and even went as far as to suggest that Donovan may have problems adjusting to the NBA game:
"I think my name has come up a lot of times with Billy, because he and I have talked, simply about the game and not about anything else other than that. I have great respect for him and what he's done with that program. I think he's truly one of the great coaches in this country.
"Whether or not that can translate into the NBA someday for him, you have to go back and look at the track record of a lot of the college coaches who have come in, and it's not the easiest thing in the world."
Man, you can almost feel the SLAP coming from the back of Riley's hand at the end of that compliment. But he does have a point. Very few college coaches have been able to make it in the NBA, so just because Donovan is a great recruiter doesn't necessarily mean he can manage the egos of the athletes in the Association.
Billy Donovan has had great success at Florida in a relatively short period of time, so I don't expect him to be that anxious to leave just yet. But I'm sure we can expect an onslaught of rumors to the contrary.
