SI.com - SI On Campus - The Vent: 05/27/2007

6/01/2007 11:49:00 AM

Will Billy Donovan Succeed in the NBA?

Will Billy Donovan be one of the rare college coaches who find success in the NBA?

Photo by AP

It didn't come as a huge surprise that Billy Donovan, fresh off back-to-back national championships at Florida, left Gainesville to take a job with the Orlando Magic. After all, the Magic have courted him for the better part of two months and like Nick Saban's move to Alabama a few months ago, rumors that don't die out have a weird way of coming true. So now the question remains: Will Donovan succeed at Orlando? Our answer is a resounding yes.

And frankly, it has less to do with Donovan and more to do with the situation he's inheriting. He has one of the Top 10 players in the game in Dwight Howard. Howard is only 21 and coming off a season in which he averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds a game. Second, he's coming to one of the premiere free agent destinations in the league that has an extremely desirable cap situation (the team's highest paid player next season will be Hidayet Turkoglu at only $6.3 million). Plus, Orlando plays in the wide open Eastern Conference, which will only get worse as Greg Oden and Kevin Durant head to Western Conference teams.

So Donovan has his all-star, a potential marquee free-agent, a pile of cash to spend on players and one of the NBA's most attractive cities for a free agent. That's more than we can say for Mike Montgomery in Golden State, Lon Krueger in Atlanta, Tim Floyd in Chicago and more of the failed college to NBA coaches.

We think he'll be a bit hit in Orlando. What do you think?

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5/30/2007 11:21:00 AM

Who Has a Job You'd Die For?

Jason Poland turned his hobby into a full-time job as LEGOLAND Model Builder. Who else has a job you're envious of?

Photo courtesy of LEGOLAND

As May fades into June, many college students will soon find themselves waking up before 10 a.m., putting on their best clothes and heading to their summer job. While most of these jobs are miserable (think clerk at a law firm, secretary), some are lucky enough to have found a good gig. Last September, SIOC honored those who have found their calling at an early age in our annual 25 under 25, highlighting 25 people under 25 with great jobs. Among those we spotlighted were:

Jason Poland, 25, LEGOLAND model builder

Alecia Oleyourryk, 21, Editor of Boink, a sex magazine published by and for college students

Casey Durdines, 21, mayor of California, Penn.

Chris Snow, 24, Director of Hockey Operations for the Minnesota Wild

Now we want to know who else deserves praise. Whether it's you, your girlfriend, your roommate, your friend, whoever – we want to know who has a job – whether it be full-time or just for the summer -- that you wished you had.

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5/28/2007 10:55:00 AM

Lacrosse: Love it or Hate it?

Duke was on Cloud Nine after its last second victory over Cornell on Saturday. Are you a lacrosse fan or do you find it a difficult sport to watch?

Photo by AP

Saturday's Duke-Cornell men's lacrosse semifinal on Saturday had everything you could want at a sporting event: Drama (Duke's lax team has been in news over the past year, if you haven't noticed), excitement (over 52,000 attended the two semi-final games) and heroics (Duke won the game with three seconds left).

Yet, we just can't get into it. It's not that we don't admire the athleticism of lacrosse (it certainly seems like an exhausting sport) or the suspense (Duke's victory was exciting). But it's just not doing it for us. In fact, we'd much rather watch a bad high school football game then Monday's Johns Hopkins-Duke championship. And apparently, we're not alone. An SIOC poll from the weekend revealed that 68 percent of our audience couldn't care less about the sport.

So today, we want to hear from you. Is lacrosse a terribly underrated college sport or just some small pockets of the country making the sport out to be bigger than it is?

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