Horrible second half last night. Nick Calathes was his usual no factor self here lately down the stretch. Why is Erving Walker in the game with under 5 minutes to go???? He threw up 2 ill advised shots and 2 more bricks in the last 3 minutes. That was more shots than Chandler Parsons took in 35 minutes.

By SwampLizard95 on 03.14.09 10:06 am

You want down the stretch?

Calathes is shooting just 35.6% from the field and 54.5% from the line in Florida’s March games this season.

By Peter on 03.14.09 10:52 am

At the risk of being redundant, there is something missing from this team and I don’t believe they, or anyone else, is going to find it. Its in the boys themselves.

Ergo, lets all relax, forget about the NIT and start looking forward to next year.

Our lads went “back-to-back” in 06 and 07, and that doesn’t happen very often. And accordingly, we’ve had to start from scratch again. The climb back to the top, will not happen overnight, just as 06 and 07 didn’t. But I am very confident that Donovan will get us there again.

Its STILL great to be a Florida Gator!

By Bull Gator on 03.14.09 11:19 am

Forever and always great to be a Florida Gator. I’m sorry we can’t win Football & Hoops every year.

By Brad on 03.14.09 1:26 pm

Yeah, we’ll see you there. Really depressing isn’t it?

At least the UF fan base is not ablaze right now. Lexington is burning….

By Cat Fan on 03.14.09 3:03 pm

That’s because we know our program is in the right hands and that despite the disappointing results of the past two years, there’s a bright future for Gator hoops as long as we have Billy Donovan. We’re unhappy, but not unglued.

By GatorPilot on 03.14.09 3:07 pm

Calathes’ performances obviously dropped off in the last few games, but that’s no surprise - he played far too many minutes all season (and especially in conference games) and the wear-and-tear finally caught up with him. But if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have gotten even this far…

By peachy on 03.14.09 4:04 pm

I’ve been saying it since the beginning with these kids: Tyus is the best player on this team, not Calathes. Calathes needs to step aside with his 30some percent from the field, and give up half of his shots to the guy who makes 59% from the field. Also, Tyus is a natural wing player who plays every game down in the block, and does it dilligently. Billy D - reward your best player next year with 34+ minutes and most of the shots, please.

and let Calathes be a point guard, if he stuck to his position, he would be great.

By corey on 03.14.09 4:21 pm

Do you mean the Tyus that missed 3 layups in the first half last night? If you can teach the guy to dunk when he gets the ball underneath with nobody between him and the basket - then I’m on board!

Tyus also gets pushed around too easily on the denfensive end. He’s playing out of position and he’s young - so I can see that he has potential to be an outstanding player, but let’s not get out of hand because he’s not there yet.

By skigator93 on 03.14.09 5:49 pm

Hmm, last few seconds, need a basket to stay in the game, and Donovan cannot come up with a play to get the bucket?

I’ll say it again: that is Billy D’s major weakness. I hope he works on it in the offseason.

By Scott on 03.15.09 7:03 am

Of course he had a play - it was the patented “everyone stand around and get ready to chuck a 3″ play. The Gators have been running it all season!!

By skigator93 on 03.15.09 11:36 am

GP - I’ve got nothing to say. The big blue rumor mill is up and churning out BS like no tomorrow…..

See you in the NIT

By Cat Fan on 03.15.09 12:22 pm

That’s because he is a wing player playing on the block (power forward/center) if donovan had him at his correct position (also developing into a better player at that correct position). don’t believe me? watch next year when Donovan reluctantly pulls the plug on the sinking ‘calathes is our leader’ ship. He needs to put Tyus in the Corey Brewer position, not the Al Horford position. And stop trying to make Calathes into an all-world player, the kid falls apart EVERY TIME there is pressure, this will not change, some guys have it and some don’t. Calathes not our Stephen Curry, and using him that way is getting very costly…

Tyus has a lot of potential, physically speaking, far more than Calathes. He also has a better outlook on basketball– say what you will about his performance as an unnatural power forward/center in the first few minutes, but he and Hodge were our ONLY players in the last five minutes! Re-watch some of this year’s games, without the Calathes-colored shades ;)

By corey on 03.15.09 3:52 pm

No amount of time and effort could possibly make Tyus into Brewer. Two completely different players and skill sets. Tyus is and always will be an undersized 4 - he doesnt have the handles, foot speed, or jumpshot to play the wing in a Billy Donovan scheme. The guy struggles enough trying to put the ball in the hole when hes in the paint - can you imagine if hes mixing in 15-20 footers? As far as the “Calathes sinking ship”, Ill take my chances with the ball in his hands and allowing him to take the shot. Hes the reason Tyus is averaging double figures. Without Calathes hand feeding Alex layups he wouldnt have been in double figures more than twice all year. For my money, Ill defer the 17 shots Tyus took in both losses to LSU and Auburn and give them to the team leader who got us to 20 wins.

By Chimichanga on 03.16.09 1:57 am

i’m upset the team will not make the dance - but not that upset. honestly, i’m still happy about the back to back titles. it doesn’t mean a team should just fall back to mediocrity, but it eases the pain of two sub-par years.

i am still amazed florida has two titles (back to back no less!), so the present disappointment is blunted somewhat.

i don’t gibe the team a pass for a so-so year, but those two titles makes it all the easier to deal with.

if anything, i appreciate the title teams even more now.

By jeff on 03.16.09 12:59 pm

Good point, Jeff. Those 2 years were a magical run, and with the guys we have coming back (not you Werner) as well as the transfer, we should be back to at least “good” next year.

Either way, in a week this disappointing year will be over and we can start focusing in on football.

By urbanisagod on 03.16.09 1:48 pm

Replace everything I said with what Jeff and Urbanisagod said above.

I just see so much potential with this team, I think it makes losing more frustrating that it should be

By corey on 03.16.09 3:32 pm

I don’t get the Calathes sinking ship comments. You know how good Calathes would look if he were passing to Humphrey, Noah and Horford instead of Werner, Parsons and Tyus? I think he simply wore down from trying to carry the team all season. Too many minutes. He became a turnover machine in the last few games and couldn’t hit a shot or a free throw. He will still become the UF all-time assist leader in less than 3 years of play.

You don’t get voted all conference for “not having it.” I think Tyus is a 4, not a 3. A pure swingman needs to be able to shoot the occasional 3 and handle the ball. You think that is Tyus? Have you seen Tyus play defense? Me neither.

I don’t have anything against the kid and do think he is one of our couple current players with real talent, but I don’t see the all-star qualities you see.

By skigator93 on 03.16.09 8:20 pm

Another disappointing b-ball year and hopefully it doesn’t end with a disappointing loss in the NIT. This team has plenty to work on if it expects to dance again anytime soon. Banging on the kids about not being able to handle the pressure at the end of games does no one any good. The team needs better players in natural positions and experience. I can’t wait to play Tennessee in hoops next year, after the destruction the football team will take in the Swamp. Watching those two games was absolutely sickening. Dononvon needs to watch those tapes aka Urban with Georgia…..

By Bob on 03.17.09 2:20 pm

No, I know how good Tyus would look if he had Horford and Noah in the paint, freeing him up to be a small forward, and an efficient point guard like Taurean Green moving the rock, not the ‘chuck it up there and see’ shooting or impressive-though-turnover-prone passing of Nick Calathes.

By corey on 03.18.09 11:49 am

I think Tyus would have been spending alot of time riding the pine…because he surely wouldn’t have been playing ahead of Brewer at 3. He and Speights would have become BFFs.

I think that Calathes would start ahead of Green though.

Hopefully we’ll get to see what everyone has to offer next season.

By skigator93 on 03.18.09 9:38 pm