Florida shield Nick Calathes is in Athens this week.
Florida protector Nick Calathes is in Athens this week.
No, he’s not considering a displacement to Georgia. Instead, the growing sophomore is in Athens, Greece, to make the Greek National Team. If he does, and word is he has a deep-seated unplanned, he’ll compete for his celebrated-’ innate nation in an upcoming Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the hopes of making it through to the Olympics in Beijing that launch Aug. 8.
“They e-mailed my dad and what I held approximately trying out because they saw me play this year,” said Calathes, a former five-star prospect who led the Gators in scoring (15.3 ppg) and led the SEC in assists (6.1) this past season. “We not far off it. It’s a grand opportunity for me and for my grandfather (John), who away (in May 2006). If he saw me do this, he’d be very self-sufficient.”
The qualifying tournament takes circumstance July 14-20. Along with host Greece, fresh countries participating are Brazil, Lebanon, Cape Verde, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, Korea, Slovenia, Cameroon, Croatia and Puerto Rico. The top three fee to Beijing.
Calathes said the Greeks already have a “really good end guard,” so he sees himself in a backup role if he be duty-bound to make the team.
“I think I have a good chance. I just have to go and play,” he said.
The fantasy, of course, be to meet up with the U.S. team at the Olympics.
“That’s all I think roughly speaking,” Calathes said. “It would be so big to go on the bottom with those guys. They’re obviously the best in the planet.”
The Gators had been the best in the college biosphere for two eons before Calathes’ arrival, victorious consecutive public . But with the departures of Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer (all NBA gamble ) and new starters Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey, UF fell flat last season. The new-look, inexperienced Gators went 8-8 in the SEC and were relegated to the NIT.
Coach Billy Donovan was less than pleased. He in tatters the little team after it was eliminated from the SEC tournament in the first round, precisely the freshman class Rivals ranked No. 1 in the countryside. “I’m not necessarily really that overwrought nearby these guys being , to be honest,” Donovan said then. “I don’t think relatives modification a well lot, and I don’t think you’ve seen the team cash at all this year. So it’s hard for me to get desperately ecstatic or anxious.”
Calathes is mindful of his teacher’s comments. He believes gear will amendment in 2008-09.
“I think we’ll come in with a unlike mind-set and be working hard in manner every one day to be the best we can be,” Calathes said. “We don’t want a season like we had last year.”
No one associated with the plug-in does.
“In custom we didn’t have the kind of arrogance that Joakim and Al and those guys had,” Calathes said. “Sometimes we took off repetition and didn’t go the way we required to go.”
Calathes said he and classmates Chandler Parsons, Jai Lucas, Alex Tyus and Adam Allen have hard in the significance room to get ready for next season. Word is Parsons, another five-star prospect, has put on some much-needed bulk and could be ready to have a breakout season.
Donovan also will total on another greatly touted class. The Gators welcome a five-man class graded 10th nationally that includes four four-star .
“We’re going to need some of the new guys to help us,” Calathes said. “The freshmen will have a big role.”
So will the sophomores. No one is intellectual general title, but no one was thoughtful it nigh on when a relatively unheralded federation of led Florida to the state label in 2006.
TRANSFER WINDS UP AT OREGON STATE
Providence transfer Dwain Williams took a rather lengthy course to Oregon State, where he’s now enrolled.
Williams, who averaged 11 points per game last season for the Friars, had signed with Long Beach State on the order of a week before winding up in Corvallis.
Williams told the 49ers there had been a “miscommunication,” the Long Beach State games material administrative center said.
New Beavers tutor Craig Robinson was discerning of Williams. Robinson coached at Brown last season; Brown also is situated in Providence, R.I., and the teams played each more Dec. 9. Robinson was linked to the Providence job after Tim Welsh was , but the Friars went with Drake’s Keno Davis and Robinson propertied at Oregon State.
“We are motivated to have a contestant of Dwain’s stature come to Oregon State,” Robinson said. “I had an opportunity to coach against him at Brown, and I came away very impressed. He’s a capable protection and the type of play-actor who can bestow an fast impact and can help us dimensions as a mode.”
In a freedom from Long Beach State, apparently put out before the “miscommunication,” Williams was quoted as maxim, “I felt that Long Beach was the best place to go in that confederacy. It’s close to my mum and I have a specific paternal, defiance of gravity five kids on her own. To come back home and be near my everyday and help put Long Beach on the map were the main explanations I chose Long Beach State. Coach (Dan) Monson and the tutoring staff are a good cluster of guys and good . They told me I’ll have an opportunity to come in and be a spearhead on the team and bring my ‘A’ game all nocturnal and to system every single day and bring headship. They were really real. Everything was up front. They are a good ensemble of guys, and my mom valued them.”
Williams will have two ages of admissibility remaining when he takes the yard again in 2009-10.
TIP-INS
Connecticut advancing Stanley Robinson (10.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg) has every objective of returning to play for the Huskies, his former AAU instructor said. Norm Williams set to Rivals.com that Robinson is home in Birmingham, Ala., tending to familiar matters. UConn trainer Jim Calhoun told The Day paper of New London, Conn., prior this that Robinson “has got some equipment that he’s got to prove to us much the same as, very frankly, Curtis (Kelly) and Doug (Wiggins).” Kelly and Wiggins have since . “Right now Stanley is in the means of (decisive) if he desires to be part of the driver,” Calhoun told The Day. “It’s the same package as the further kids with a combination of academics and shared, and being on time and being devoted to the booklet. He has time to show us that he needs to do the belongings that we asked him to do. There is an opportunity. He certainly could have a UConn uniform on again.” Williams said he has oral to Robinson and that the actor did not talk about transferring.
South Florida has sent paperwork to the NCAA in of locating direct worthiness for cheeky Gus Gilchrist, a former four-star prospect who transferred from Maryland. “The riddle is starting to fit in satisfactorily,” USF teacher Stan Heath told Rivals.com. “Gilchrist is a inordinate adding up for us. I think he has the restored package. He’s an outstanding ability and can help put USF on the map in the Big East in a big way.” Whether or not they get Gilchrist, the Bulls will have Georgia transferal Mike Mercer vacant this season.
Georgetown defense Austin Freeman in at 241 at the Nike Paul Pierce Skills Academy in Los Angeles. The Hoyas’ roll last season listed Freeman who is 6-4 at 210.
UCF just now hired Steve DeMeo as an associate. He had spent the preceding 12 as an vice- to Tim Welsh, including the past nine at Providence. DeMeo was titled one of Rivals’ top 25 assistants before last season.
Brian Carlwell, the Illinois thespian injured in an auto accident in February 2007 in which fellow player Jamar Smith at the end of the day pleaded guilty to exasperated driving under the hold of alcohol, has to San Diego State. Carlwell, a 6-11 center, is a former four-star prospect.
