By: Dan

Since the transfer of sophomore Alex Tyus, I’ve heard several different reasons why he chose to leave Gainesville.

But perhaps the most interesting theory I’ve heard came from Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley. He was on a radio show in Jacksonville the other day, as he often is, and he shared what he heard about Tyus’ transfer.

According to Dooley’s sources, Tyus went to Billy Donovan and expressed a desire to play small forward next year. The thinking was that Tyus’ best prospects in the NBA would be playing the 3, and since Donovan had him play out of position for the first two years of his career, Tyus assumed that Donovan would return the favor.

Apparently, Donovan wasn’t too high on the suggestion and told Tyus that playing small forward wasn’t an option. And apparently, that was all Tyus needed to bolt for another program.

From my perspective, I don’t really understand what could possess Tyus into thinking that he could be a small forward in the NBA. Just thinking about some of the elite small forwards in the NBA (Josh Smith, Andre Iguodala, Paul Pierce, etc), there is no possible way that Tyus can guard the top small forwards in the league. He’s way too slow and not nearly athletic enough.

On the offensive end, Tyus doesn’t have the offensive skill set to be a 3. I’ve never seen him make a 3-pointer in his time at UF. He has developed a decent mid-range jumper, but he is most effective when he’s in the post.

Whether Tyus could be an NBA-caliber small forward is really beside the point. Tyus showed a great deal of immaturity and arrogance in thinking that he could dictate his wishes to Billy Donovan. No one player is bigger than the team, and the fact that Tyus is thinking more about his NBA prospects than what he can do to help the Gators win basketball games is a true testament to his character and loyalty.