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.

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?

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?

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.

Up next: A date with Miami at home.

Given that frosh F Allan Chaney is out for the SEC Tournament after aggravating his heel injury, you might be wondering why Eloy Vargas isn’t tabbed for some playing time. Billy Donovan makes it short and sweet:

“Eloy has got a long, long way to go. I am just telling it like it is. It is not necessarily his foot condition anymore, it is his overall conditioning.”

So there you have it.

Good guys prevail: 60-53. Thank heavens for the win.

Of all the games Florida plays every year, there are two that stand out for me and most other fans. Kentucky away, and Kentucky at home. Beating Kentucky, no matter how poor they are in a given season, is always a treat. And of course, Kentucky fans should accept it as a token of respect for the history of their program that taking out Big Blue is always a big deal around these parts.

On a day when Nick Calathes was offensively inept, going a paltry 2-9 in 34 minutes of play, a glimpse of “old school” Gator basketball emerged when Walter Hodge and Alex Tyus stepped up their games. The senior and the soph combined for 29 points and a series of big plays: Hodge’s trey with Kentucky knocking on the door of a two-possession game was huge, and Tyus’ block of Jodie Meeks after a Kentucky steal kept an 8-point differential alive when the game was still in question. Erving Walker’s stock also continues to rise. The Tasmanian Devil, as I like to call him, hit a huge three with 5:01 to go to extend the lead to 8 points. He followed that up by drawing a foul from Patrick Patterson (remember him… the player who famously said “In the end, Kentucky will win” when he was recruited?) and knocking down a free throw, effectively a three-point swing with 1:56 remaining.
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No, unfortunately Al, Corey, Jo, Hump and Taurean will not be playing today. But there’s a reason for starting off with the best Gator basketball team — indeed one of the greatest teams period — of all time. I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, the scenario: Two NIT-bound teams, fighting for the opportunity to survive long enough to win one or more SEC Tournament games for the longshot chance of making the tournament.

That’s gripping television.

Whoever loses is definitely out. Whoever wins is probably still out.

But this is Kentucky, a team Florida has enjoyed great success against in recent years. And Kentucky is a dangerous program; with the resources they have available, and the intense desire of their boosters and fanbase to win, it is only a matter of time before the toothless ‘Cats become fearsome again.

I think Billy Gillispie has been exposed this year as a coach who recruits well and gets his players to work hard, but simply doesn’t know how to correctly strategize and set his Xs and Os up to win. As far as gameday coaches go, Gillispie is surely among the worst in the SEC, if not the worst. Some say he’s playing head games with his players and looking for some long-term benefit out of his bizarre substitution patterns and never-say-zone defense. How he’s managed to lose 11 games with a team that features Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson, two All-American candidates, is beyond me.

Meanwhile, Billy Donovan’s players have played to their potential this year and have at times exhibited the signs of being a well-coached team. It’s an incomplete team; one that suffers from the burden of early departures (Speights, Lucas, Mitchell), and never really recovered from the loss of the ’04s two seasons ago. Do they have the horses to beat Kentucky? By a hair, yes. Do they have the talent? Definitely. Are they physical enough? Maybe. Do they have the better coach? Without a doubt.

And they’re playing in the O-Dome. The Gators owe Kentucky one after losing an ever-so-close game in Lexington last month. The Rowdy Reptiles will represent.

This is important because if Florida is going to come back in 2010 resurgent with Vernon Macklin, plus the SEC’s best guard (Nick Calathes), a balls-out tasmanian devil (Erving Walker) and a hopefully improved 4/5 Kadji, it starts now. It starts with making a statement that Florida basketball, even in weakened form, can pull themselves together and provide Gator Nation with a cherished win over the heritage-rich Kentucky Wildcats.

Florida basketball, folks. Florida basketball. Do not forget those two orange national championship banners hanging front and center from the rafters. We are playing for the honor of those players and the great ones who came before them: Mike Miller. Matt Bonner. Udonis Haslem. David Lee. Al Horford. Taurean Green. Joakim Noah. Corey Brewer. Lee Humphrey.

Their legacy lives on, and this team must honor it when they take the hardwood today, the same court on which Florida won their first national championship in 2006.

Go Gators.

It wasn’t unexpected, and losing the way we did wasn’t a surprise.

(Especially when the Gators appeared in their black jerseys. Burn them!)

The boys played hard and never quit, and played (mostly) to the full extent of their ability, taking the game down to the last 5 minutes or so. LSU was simply too athletic, and Thornton was just too deadly from 3-point land. The better team won.

I’m not upset about this loss. Had Florida come out flat, or been wholly uncompetitive, I’d be raging mad. But they didn’t, and weren’t. The hoops Gators played their most complete half of the year to take a 4-point road lead into the locker room midway through the game, and then wore down in the final minutes of the second half. Nick Calathes was running around 2-3 screens per play to get a shot off and was still playing well nearly to the end. With little bench depth to work with, Donovan had little choice but to go with the gameplan he had, which almost worked. And the players gave everything they had to make it work.

But it didn’t.
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Final: Gators 82, Vandy 68 in a game that the ‘Dores never really had a chance to win. On Saturday in the O-Dome, Florida got off to a fast start and never looked back. Vanderbilt couldn’t cut into Florida’s double-digit lead, which was taken just 9 minutes into the first half and held to the bitter end.

You know something? I like this victory. Vandy owns a couple of decent SEC wins (most notably over the Patterson-less Kentucky Wildcats) and came into today’s matchup having won 3 of their last 4 games. The Gators were favored on their home court, but nothing can be taken for granted in this year’s conference. The boys came out and did what they had to do, playing with notable defensive intensity and a nicely-oiled offense.

Dan Werner played a competent game, making all four of his shots (three of them treys) and grabbing four boards as well. It was helpful to my blood pressure to see Whiskers, as I affectionately call him, turn in a solid performance.
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