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Florida's Calathes Ready To Rebound

By JENNA MARINA Tribune correspondent

Published: February 20, 2008

GAINESVILLE - The Gators took Saturday's loss at Vanderbilt hard, but freshman guard Nick Calathes might have taken it the worst.

Calathes said Monday he barely slept Saturday night and ignored phone calls from his family after one of his most trying games. Calathes endured verbal attacks from Vanderbilt's crowd for most of the second half, and he made a late mental mistake that showed his inexperience.

"I don't look at it like the loss was all my fault, but I did make a dumb mistake and I take the blame," Calathes said. "I just have to look ahead and get my teammates ready for South Carolina."

At least Calathes can count on a more friendly environment when Florida (19-7, 6-5 SEC) plays South Carolina (12-12, 4-6) tonight at 8 at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

Saturday in Nashville, Commodores fans refused to let up on Calathes after he got into a scuffle with senior center Alan Metcalfe in front of Florida's bench. The Vanderbilt student section called Calathes a name not fit to print, and booed every time he touched the ball in the final 14 minutes.

Calathes, who led the Gators with 16 points, is accustomed to being verbally abused after some taunting he experienced in high school.

Gators freshman Chandler Parsons, Calathes' teammate at Lake Howell High, said the boos Saturday were mild compared to tactics used by Oviedo High fans, who obtained pictures from the duo's MySpace pages and made posters

But the booing and the physicality of Saturday's game had an obvious effect on Calathes, and the freshman made a costly mental error. He was called for a backcourt violation with the Gators down by one point with 18 seconds left.

Calathes said he believed the violation was his mistake, not that of Jai Lucas, who passed him the ball.

Calathes usually plays with a basketball IQ beyond his years, so Florida coach Billy Donovan is OK with his freshman star's struggles.

"In order to reach your fullest potential as a player, you have to go through great disappointment in life," Donovan said. "If it was easy every day, everybody would be doing it. I'm probably more interested to see a relentless effort on his part to figure it all out."

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