By: Dan

The Gainesville Sun recently reported that freshman Allan Chaney has decided to transfer from the University of Florida.

Chaney, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward from Baltimore, had a pretty uneventful freshman year at UF. He only averaged three points a game and missed 13 of the team’s 36 games. The highlight of his freshman campaign came in the 86-84 win over Washington. Chaney actually got the start in the game, played 23 minutes and scored 13 points in what ended up being Florida’s best non-conference game of the season.

Chaney’s departure from the program is the latest in a somewhat startling trend during Billy Donovan’s tenure as Florida’s head coach. For whatever reason, a number of Donovan’s recruits have come to Gainesville, only to transfer to another program.

Among the players who have transferred are Orien Greene (Louisiana-Lafayette), James White (Cincinnati), Mario Boggan (Oklahoma State), Ryan Appleby (Washington) and Mohamed Abukar (San Diego State), to name a few. Some of the transfers have been very successful at their new schools. During Boggan’s senior season, he averaged 19 points and 7.6 rebounds a game. A lot of his success at OSU could be contributed to the fact that he trimmed down. When he finished at Oklahoma State, he weighed 240. At one point in his career at UF, he weighed 313 pounds.

White also had some success at Cincinnati. In his last year at UC, he had 16.3 points and 5.1 boards per game. A key to his emergence was the wide-open style that Cincinnati ran. White was the most athletic player at Florida when he was there, and he was able to put that athleticism to good use with the Bearcats.

One cannot help but wonder why some players have elected to leave Gainesville for seemingly greener pastures. Donovan doesn’t seem like the kind of coach who will coddle and baby his players. Maybe some of the players can’t handle Donovan’s tough love. Another factor, certainly, is playing time. Billy D is a tremendous recruiter, and there are only so many minutes available in a game. Whatever the reasons may be, hopefully Donovan figures it out so Florida stops hemorrhaging top-flight talent.