Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential

For all the talk about Rico Pickett (6-4, 185, Miami, FL Miami-Dade College) and Eric Bledsoe (6-0, 170, Birmingham, AL Parker), Billy Donovan’s biggest recruiting job in this offseason is already on campus and that’s Nick Calathes. While it is imperative for the Gators to recruit another point guard not only to prepare for the possibility that Calathes could move on to the NBA but to provide more depth and athleticism at the position, there is no question that retaining Calathes is priority number one.

Whether Calathes returns to Florida or takes his chances in the NBA Draft is probably going to depend on who he’s listening to. If he’s listening to the scouts, then he needs to come back to Florida, put on 15-18 pounds of muscle and get physically stronger. The scouts I’ve talked to say that he could make an NBA roster right now, but to play in the league at a high level and stay in the league for any length of time, he needs to bulk up so he can handle the pounding. There is no question that Calathes has the stamina to run up and down the court, but there are questions about his ability to handle the physicality of the game.

What I hear from friends in the NBA is that Calathes is something around last four picks of the first round to first ten picks of the second round. His draft status could drop completely off the first round radar if Duke’s Gerald Henderson, North Carolina’s Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson, St. Mary’s Patrick Mills and Davidson’s Stephen Curry all declare. All of them would be expected to go in the draft ahead of Calathes. By coming back for his senior year, Calathes might not be any more draftable in 2010 than he is right now, but scouts seem to think that by coming back to Florida for one more year and bulking up to something like 210, he would ensure a longer career in the league.

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Franz Beard
Back in January of 1969, the late, great Jack Hairston, then the sports editor of the Jacksonville Journal, called me on the phone one night and asked me if I wanted to work for him. I said yes. The entire interview took 30 seconds. It's my experience that whenever the interview lasts 30 seconds or less, I get the job. In the 48 years that I've been writing and getting paid for it, I've covered Super Bowls, World Series, NCAA basketball championships, BCS championship games, heavyweight title fights and what seems like thousands of college football, baseball and basketball games. I'm a columnist and special assignments editor for Gator Country once again, writing about the only team that ever mattered to me, the Florida Gators.