[Tuck4Bama]

Billy Donovan, who led Florida to back-to-back national championships this past season, will be named head coach of the Orlando Magic on Friday.
After weeks of waiting for the University of Florida to finalize his new seven-year contract, the Magic on Thursday offered Donovan a big-money deal. Sources say the deal is shorter and smaller than original reports of a six-year, $36 million deal. The contract is for five years and with a value of $27.5 million.
"Billy Donovan is a winner," general manager Otis Smith said in a statement. "We feel he is the right person to develop and maximize the talents of our players. We look forward to Billy leading us to the next level."

Donovan will fly into Orlando for the 11 a.m. news conference Friday and then immediately return to Gainesville to meet with the Gators' media on a chartered flight.
"We're not worried about hiring a college coach -- not this college coach," a source told Pat Forde. "He's proven he's won. He's young and he works well with a young team. This team is one step above a college team right now, it's so young. They're just learning how to play together, and someone like Billy will be perfect.
"I also don't think this job is as bad as some of the others that college coaches have walked into. It's not like he's inheriting a bad team, and that's usually the case for a college guy making the transition. The hardest part was for Billy. It was a tough decision for him because of everything that's happened at Florida, because of what he's built there. He was happy there."
The source said that Donovan will have no front-office responsibilities. "He's just the coach," the source said.
After leading the Gators to the last two national championships, the 42-year-old Donovan received the lucrative offer Thursday afternoon. Team officials told the Orlando Sentinel, which first reported the story on its Web site, that Donovan apparently accepted the job earlier in the afternoon.
"I love Billy Donovan to death and thank him for what he did for us," Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley told ESPN.com Thursday night.
Foley said he and Donovan talked earlier Thursday and Donovan told him that the Magic job intrigued him more than any other and that he was ready for a new challenge. And, "the Magic made him one helluva of an offer," Foley said.

"He just felt it was the right time," Foley said. "I think he's ready for a new challenge in his life. He's had two great years here and obviously he's an attractive candidate. But it was a tough decision for him."
Foley said that going to the Magic, less than two hours away from his home in Gainesville, also made it palatable.
"He doesn't have to move very far," said Foley. "They're giving him some authority to hire some people and they've got a young team with salary cap money. It's not like it was in middle America or the West Coast. It's ideal."
Foley said that he hasn't focused on a search for a replacement since Donovan's decision came Thursday. He said he will deal with that after Friday's news conference with Donovan in Gainesville on Friday afternoon [which follows the one earlier in Orlando]. But Foley said he will contact all the players' and incoming recruits' families and tell them that they will find the best possible coach for the university.
Donovan's father, Bill Sr., a fixture at nearly every Gators' game who splits time in his native Long Island, N.Y. and Gainesville said, "I can't tell you how excruciating this was for him. He went back and forth for so long on it. But the recruiting really takes a toll on a coach and hopefully he can spend more time with his family now."
Donovan Sr. said he expects his son's family to stay in Gainesville for the short term with Billy commuting as his eldest son is in the midst of playing high school basketball.
"I think it's great for Billy," Bill Donovan Sr. said of his son now coaching in the NBA. "I love Florida and I love Jeremy Foley. He stuck by Billy when things were tough. I just hope the transition for Florida will be smooth."
Donovan is expected to bring with him to the Magic Florida assistant Larry Shyatt and hire an NBA veteran to go along with him on the bench. Meanwhile, Florida assistants Rob Lanier, who left Virginia last week for Florida, and Lewis Preston, will likely wait and see who Foley hires before evaluating their next move.
Earlier at the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando, Memphis coach John Calipari and Marquette coach Tom Crean both said they are not candidates for the position. If Florida were to go outside of the family, meaning not VCU's Anthony Grant, then Villanova's Jay Wright is expected to be on the radar. But there is definitely a groundswell of support to hire Grant, who Bill Sr. said he hoped the Gators would hire after he was a 10-year assistant to his son with the Gators and instrumental in recruiting the players for both national championships.
When the offer went public, multiple sources said Donovan had to make a quicker decision. Florida needs to act quickly and possibly stay within the family with former Florida assistant Anthony Grant, who led VCU to the NCAA Tournament second round in his first season with the Rams. VCU beat Duke in the first round.
"Billy Donovan has been here 11 years and has won two national championships," Florida president Dr. J. Bernard Machen told ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach. "We'll always love Billy Donovan, whether he was here 11 years or 21 years. I don't think the University of Florida has to worry about who their next coach is."
Florida's four juniors -- Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green -- who led the Gators to the back-to-back national titles and all declared for the NBA draft and signed with an agent were impressed with the deal that Donovan was going to receive from the Magic. Horford, Noah and Brewer all said they couldn't see how he would turn down that kind of money.
Green, who was playing in a game Thursday night at the pre-draft camp, said, "I think it was a real tough decision. He's got a great opportunity. But I'm sure he's real sad about leaving. He'll always be a legend at the University of Florida. He won two national championships.''
Horford, Noah and Brewer all said that the Gators should be fine going forward and expected the Gators to hire within the family with VCU's Grant. They said they would be surprised if Grant didn't get the job, which would allow assistant coach Shyatt to stay with the Gators. Shyatt was instrumental in the Gators winning the last two titles with his defensive principles he brought with him in his years as an assistant to Rick Barnes and a head coach at Wyoming and Clemson.
Donovan's new contract at Florida -- it was presented to him on May 17 but he had yet to sign it as of May 25 -- was to pay him around $3 million in the first year. The contract then was to escalate to more than $3.75 in guaranteed income by the end of the contract in 2013-14, a person familiar with the negotiations told ESPN.com
There is precedent for a college coach turning down the NBA. Former Atlanta Hawks general manager Pete Babcock said Thursday that the Hawks thought Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was going to accept their job when they offered it a few years ago. The same thing occurred when Duke's Mike Krzyzewski turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 42-year-old Donovan is one of only 12 college basketball coaches to win multiple national championships. The Gators won their second straight in April after beating Ohio State.
The Magic removed Brian Hill as coach on May 23 after two consecutive losing seasons and a first-round sweep in this year's playoffs.
Information from ESPN.com's Pat Forde, Andy Katz and Mark Schlabach was used in this report.

[DaBigManOnCampus]

This is a very surprising move, and maybe a mistake to make the move in the first place so do you think think that Donavon made a good move to orlando or this will go under quicker than when pitino went to Boston from Kentucky?