Nick Calathes wants to focus on basketball. The 6-6, 194-pound sophomore point guard was bombarded with questions Friday about a University of Florida investigation into allegations that he was involved in online gambling.
According to Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, the investigation turned up no eligibility issues for Calathes, who scored 16 points, dished out seven assists and had three steals in Florida’s 80-58 win over Toldeo in the opening round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic at the O’Connell Center. Still, the initial focus on Calathes after the Gators’ season-opening victory was the investigation.
Earlier Friday, Yahoo Sports claimed that Calathes had run up a $600 debt in an online poker room. According to Foley, Florida was already investigating gambling claims and its investigation proved that Calathes had not been involved in any sports gambling.
“I did nothing wrong and I am here to talk basketball,” Calathes said to a Yahoo Sports reporter after the game. “That thing is done with. I did nothing wrong. I talked to coach Donovan. I talked to the school. There’s no problem. We’re focused on Bradley [on] Sunday.”
When asked about the rumors, Florida coach Billy Donovan basically said that there was no story and that it was time for everyone to move on.
“No one on our team has done anything wrong,” Donovan said. “It’s amazing to me how stories can actually be written and talked about when someone has done nothing wrong. We heard rumors and we reacted to those rumors. We responded to them. We talked to Nick. We talked to our team. Jeremy Foley and Jamie McCloskey handled the whole situation and I am not going to talk about anything as it relates to anything about this because nobody did anything wrong and to me, it’s not even a story.”
The story on the court Friday was Florida’s fullcourt press, which helped force Toledo into 25 turnovers. Despite have only nine scholarship players available for the game, Donovan was able to rotate people in and out of the game, which put a lot of pressure on the Rockets.
“We turned them over a lot,” Calathes said. “We really kept them on their feet and definitely got some stops and that’s what really helped us.”
Toledo hung around with the Gators for much of the first half, despite having its leading scorer senior guard Tyrone Kent saddled with two fouls after just seven minutes of action. The Rockets trailed 28-25 just 3:32 before halftime, but saw the Gators go on an 11-2 start, capped by a Calathes’ 3-pointer, which gave Florida a 39-27 halftime cushion.
Florida forced several key turnovers during the run and coaxed Toledo into 14 miscues during the first half.
Calathes feels Florida’s press is much-improved and can make a difference as the season wears on.
“I think we’re better with the press,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can come in-and-out and I think that is what is going to help us a lot. I think we’re coming together. We’ve got a lot of good people. If we can keep developing chemistry, I think we’re going to be a heck of a team.”