Nick Calathes has left the building, ladies and gentlemen. If my shock over the matter seems rather lacking, it’s simply because we’ve all seen this one coming for a long time.

He’s going to Greece.

The short-lived Nick Calathes era is over at Florida.

Calathes confirmed in a text message to The Sun on Saturday that he will forgo his junior season at Florida to play professionally in Greece. He did not return additional calls seeking comment.

A source close to Calathes’ family said the 6-foot-5 guard from Casselberry had agreed to a three-year contract with reigning Euroleague Basketball champion Panathinaikos. The source said the deal, with incentives, could pay Calathes up to $2 million per season.

Hey, in today’s economy, a $2 million dollar paycheck is hard to pass up. We understand the dollars and cents part of the equation.

Calathes leaves behind an incomplete legacy at Florida, likely to be buried as a brief two-year interlude of brightness in otherwise forgettable, downtrodden times for Gator hoops. Calathes, despite his brilliant play, never competed in the NCAA Tournament, never won a championship of any sort and must bear the somewhat uninspiring mantle of “best player on a mediocre team.” In fact, Calathes was often the best player on the court regardless of whom the Gators happened to be playing any given night. He was that good. But for all his individual highlight reel no-look passes, he was never the catalyst that charged and inspired his team to greatness. Timmy Tebow, you are not, sir.

Enjoy the great pay and life on the road in Europe. We here at Orange and Blue Hue wish you the best of luck. And we mean that sincerely.

P.S. May the blinding and seemingly constant glory of Florida football continue to keep our hoops issues in the shadows.

… We’re just hibernating. Look for exciting coverage of Florida’s 2009 championship run coming soon.

Bobby Bowden on the Booster Tour. Love it! From the Orlando Sentinel’s “Chopping Block” FSU blog:

8:41 – Another good joke from Bowden. We’ve heard it before but it’s worth repeating. Says his wife Ann doesn’t travel much these days. But she loves watching these cooking shows. Loves Emeril. So I come home the other night, Bowden says, and I’m starved. Walk in the house expecting to have a good meal, and there’s old Ann, watching Emeril cook … and I say all you do is watch them cooking shows – but you don’t ever cook. And Ann says, “Yeah, well … You watch football.”

How lovely that Ann’s depth and breadth of comedic skills include skewering her husband.

Alex Tyus, welcome back. We hardly noticed you were gone, to be honest — maybe that’s because you were hardly gone! Gatorsports.com has the skinny:

“The University of Florida is where I want to be,” Tyus said in a statement released by UF on Tuesday. “I truly feel this is the best place for me to continue to grow and improve and I look forward to this upcoming season.”

Tyus had announced he was transferring on April 17, but apparently changed his mind. In starting all 36 games at center last season, the 6-foot-8 Tyus finished the year as Florida’s second-leading scorer (12.5 ppg) and leading rebounder (6.2).

We’ll be honest, Alex. We’re glad you’re coming back, but the main reason for that is we need you so damn badly that you’re by far our best option. You’re a small (power? maybe) forward playing Center for a team that can’t seem to stop self-destructing thanks to defections, a failure to compete down the stretch, and skinniness.

(Yeah, skinniness. It’s not a real word as far as I know.)

We don’t know exactly why you decided to leave, and then came back. But frankly, we don’t really care. Here’s your locker. No questions asked. Let’s make this the last time we go through this little exercise though, okay?

You come back, you get to play with Vernon Macklin next year. If they gave All-American honors just for how good you can look in a basketball uniform, Macklin would be a first-teamer. Dude’s sculpted. And that should take some heat off of you. When you have to look to Chandler Parsons and Dan Werner for help down low, I understand how the frustration can grow.

But that’s the old ball squad. 2010 begins anew. As a third year F/PF, you have more court experience than Macklin. You’ve been through the ringer, and you say you want to win. That’s great. Here’s your chance. I like the idea of putting Macklin in down low to defend the paint and smash people around. I like the idea of you, Alex, flitting around the basket, making little jumpers, laying it in, and maybe developing a decent 12-foot shot. Hey, Horford and Noah were an amazing duo. They fed off of each other, and drove opponents nuts because they had to pick their poison. Maybe you and Macklin are the next great C-PF/PF-C combo at the University of Florida.

Now, you start talking about getting Nick Calathes back (which is in the ‘definite maybe’ category) and ‘10 hoops is starting to sound pretty good. Maybe not great, although you just never know. But I think I can safely speak for Gator Nation when I say that we’ll take a team that competes for an SEC title and a earns decent berth in the NCAAs. That is what we call “getting back on track.”

Are you back on track, Alex?

Farewell, gentlemen. You’re Great Gators, all of you, now to be remembered and cherished as part of the greatest era of Florida football to date.

Percy Harvin did indeed go in the first round, despite the “pot” thing. As a Florida fan, it’s weird to see phrases like “character issues” associated with Percy. Are you kidding me? This kid was perfect at the University of Florida. Not only was he the most spectacular athlete in Gator history to don the orange and blue, he was also a humble guy, a great teammate, and responsible for zero “off-field incidents” in his career.

How he ended up testing positive for Marijuana is beyond me, but I’ll bet he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I find it hard to believe he would have knowingly inhaled an illegal substance prior to the NFL Draft. No way.

Louis Murphy: possession receiver, downfield burner, and absolutely one of the most physical wide receivers I can remember at Florida. That’s not to say he’s the strongest or the biggest — he’s not. But in terms of sheer physicality, whether it was beating his man or blocking downfield, Murphy truly gave it his all on every play. #9 also had just the right amount of “mean streak” you want to see in a football player, and he was a great leader. A winner. Two national championships. Yeah, I’d say he had a good career. Remember when he caught that wobbly touchdown pass from Tim Tebow in 2006? History, man, history.

Cornelius Ingram: surely this guy possesses the prototypical superhero body. Is it possible to have a more freakish frame? 6′4, hands like butter, and looks more imposing out of his pads than in them. Runs like the wind. Tons of power. Maybe he’s not exactly the right build for an NFL Tight End, but something tells me CI will do just fine in the League. Ingram also suffered through a senior year devoid of playing time, thanks to an ACL injury, with aplomb and grace. Ingram is soft-spoken, honest, and humble. A gentle giant.

I would have liked to see CI taken higher. He deserved it. It was bad luck to go down in fall practice without ever enjoying one on-field snap in his senior year. And think what we missed as fans: how would you have liked to see those 2-TE sets featuring Ingram and Hernandez? My goodness, that would have been a thing of beauty.

I will be tuning in to watch the Vikings, the Raiders and the Eagles, to watch “my boys” as they embark upon what I hope will be long and productive careers in the NFL. Three cheers for Percy, Louis, and CI!

This is awful news.

From the Gainesville Sun:

The University of Florida announced this morning that basketball player Alex Tyus intends to transfer from the Gators.

It is unknown to where Tyus plans to transfer. This was announced during Billy Donovan’s press conference at the UF basketball practice facility.

What the sam hell is going on here?

The University of Utah won its second BCS bowl game in 2009, becoming the first non-BCS conference team to do so.  Despite this accomplishment, the people of Utah are sad . . . very sad.  In fact Mark Shurtleff, the Utah attorney general is preparing a lawsuit against the BCS.  Apparently the ongoing probe against famed Utah Fundamentalist Church leader Warren Jeffs, the rise of violent crime in some Utah school districts increasing anywhere from 40 to over 100% in the past few years and a growing illegal immigration problem are minor issues compared to the real problem confronting the citizens of Utah . . . the Bowl Championship Series.

Mark Shurtleff, the Utah attorney general, is gathering contracts, statistics, economic data and experts, and expects to be able to file suit against the BCS in June.

“From the very first kickoff of the college football season, the BCS uses its monopoly powers to put more than half of the schools at a disadvantage,” Shurtleff said. His investigation comes after an undefeated University of Utah team was relegated to the Sugar Bowl in January with no chance to play for a national championship.  (ESPN)

Despite the fact that Utah has gone to more BCS bowls in the past 5 years than Auburn, UCLA, Michigan, Alabama, Florida State and several dozen other top historic football powers, Shurtleff feels “cheated” and “jilted” by the current system.  It’s as if the Attorney General’s constituents fancied a girl who ended up choosing another and, in reference to the famous Beatles song of 1968, has gone “Rocky Racoon” and wishes to shoot out the legs of their rival.

And apparently the Utah AG isn’t the only government official that feels they can clean up collegiate sports.  Orrin Hatch, a long time senator from the state of Utah who sits on a number of important legislative committees has decided to throw his hat into the ring.

Hatch has added the BCS to the agenda of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, and he intends to hold an investigatory hearing and to introduce legislation.

“I’m not sure now what the legislation will provide, but anything would be better than what we have now,” Hatch said. “I agree with President Obama that a playoff system would be a significant improvement.”

Hatch, a Republican stalwart, will have support from a number of Democrats on his BCS legislation. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, also wants action on the BCS, suggesting it “is a racket, it is white-collar crime. It’s clearly, clearly antitrust.”  (ESPN)

Oh my, what a shock here.  Hatch, who clearly announced his animosity against the BCS following Utah’s inability to get into the National Championship Game is joined by Representative Abercrombie, who announced his opposition to the BCS after his state school, the University of Hawaii, was not allowed to play for the National Championship after THEIR undefeated season. (more…)

From GatorCountry:

Monday’s practice was the first time he felt like the dominant player he was in high school.

“I had my confidence back going through drills,” Hunter said. “I had my speed and power back.”

We’re going to need you, Big Fella.

I whooped and hollered when I discovered that Meyer and co. were tinkering with a new I-formation set in spring practice. I love the idea of seeing Florida line up old-school on occasion, with a couple of TEs and a FB blocking for a guy like E-Moody. Love it.

Of course, there’s one trick to that idea; you take a team which is accustomed to the spread at all times, then ask them to line up and block in a way that’s relatively foreign to them now, and you might not get the results you wanted.

“I’m not sure how that I-package is going to be sticking around in here,” Meyer said after Monday’s practice. “We want to have it in, but once again I said this four years ago when we walked on this campus, we don’t really have an offense. It’s an offense based on what you have. We can run “I” all you want, but if your players aren’t very good or they’re struggling or they’re young and inexperienced then we’re not going to run that ragged. We’ll go to five-wide and you’ve seen us do that before.”

One issue Meyer’s team is having with the I-package is the youth at certain positions. UF has just two tight ends — junior Aaron Hernandez and freshman Desmond Parks — and no proven fullbacks.

Pridemore looks like a strong kid. Can’t he be taught to block in such a basic package? We’re not talking zone reads here, we’re talking hit the A, B or C gap and block.

CBS is reporting that Nick Calathes intends to test the waters of the NBA Draft.

Florida sophomore Nick Calathes will enter the NBA Draft, a source told CBSSports.com.

An official announcement is expected soon.

The source said Calathes spoke with coach Billy Donovan on Sunday night, and that Donovan supported the decision. Still, Calathes will not immediately sign with an agent, which will make returning to school an option if it’s necessary.

Calathes averaged 17.2 points per game this past season.

Florida finished 25-11.

Okay, the important keyphrase here is “not… sign with an agent”, and for heaven’s sakes, you’d think the NBA scouts would tell Nick to return to school for at least one additional year. At least.

I love Nick. He’s a great college player. At this point in time he strikes me as very Matt Walsh/Anthony Roberson-like insofar as his pro prospects are concerned. Don’t make the same mistake, Nick.