South Dakota basketball star Cody Larson who signed a letter of intent with the Gators during April, has received a suspended jail sentence from a drug case.

Gathered by the Associated press, Larson received a 120-day suspended sentence and must volunteer three nights a week just until it is time for him to leave to play basketball for UF which will be the end of June. Not to mention that Larson will also be speaking at all four Sioux Falls high schools.

Earlier this month he was charged with inhabiting a room knowing drugs were inside. The authorities reported that the charge is from an incident that occurred at his house back in February. A player who was Larson’s teammate was also charged during the same incident.

Billy Donovan added his final recruit with six foot two inch guard Scottie Wilbekin from Gainesville, FL. Donovan stated after the NCAA Tournament he needed to do a “better” job of providing depth for his basketball team and he has certainly lived up to his word.
Wilbekin was not scheduled to graduate until 2011, but because of his excellent academics in high school he qualified to graduate early and enroll at the University of Florida in the fall. Questions have been raised if he is physically ready to play in the SEC a year early, but many scouts had Wilbekin listed as one of the top point guards in the 2011 class.

The guard position was the highest priority in the offseason, but with Brandon Knight and other targets picking other schools it looked as if Donovan and Florida were to be on the outside looking in again. What seemed to be a dire situation, turned into a blessing.

Last years Florida team seemed to fade towards the end of many games last year so Billy Donovan added 5 players in this class which will give him the ability to keep starters fresh all year.

Here is a run down of this years class:

Casey Prather
- A 6’5 small forward with great versatility to play on the wing or slash to the basket. He also is a good defender coming out of high school and rebounds fairly well at his position. It looks as if Prather will play some guard as well as the forward position and be a nice player off the bench his freshman year.
Cody Larson
- A underrated power forward that is a solid rebounder and good defender that may not play a lot early, but has a good amount of upside.
Will Yeguete
- Yeguete is a bit undersized for the power forward position, but has the motor that the coaching staff likes. He understands the importance of rebounding and defense.
Patrick Young
- Some call Patrick Young “Baby” Al Horford for his physical play and solid defense and rebounding. Young will be able to make an immediate impact. While his offensive game is not as polished as some, he is tenacious on the glass and a physical defender.
Scottie Wilbekin
- A very “heady” guard that understands the game inside and out. He shoots the ball well and has very good handles. Wilbekin has a huge amount of upside and will probably get plenty of playing time early in the year.

As one can see there are 2 very glaring issues the coaching staff wanted to take care of in this class. One was depth and the other was players that excelled at the fundamentals. All of these players are hard workers with high basketball IQ. This class gives the Gators a chance to be a consistent top 25 team and possibly top 10 team.

Florida junior Alex Tyus told the media on Saturday that he has taken his name out of the NBA draft and will return for his senior year at the University of Florida.

Tyus wanted to try out and see what the NBA was like without an agent and worked out with the Portland Trailblazers for a little bit before he decided that he wanted to come back for his last year. Tyus had a word with the Sentinel;

“When I began this process it was with the intent of gathering information to see what I needed to work on to one day compete at the next level, and I believe I have been successful in doing just that,” Tyus said in a statement issued through Florida.

“I have withdrawn my name from the NBA Draft and look forward to completing my senior year at the University of Florida. We made tremendous strides as a team a year ago that I look forward to continuing to build upon.”

This is a very smart move on Tyus’s part. He will be returning along with the four other starters from this past years 21-win NCAA tournament run which nobody really had expected early in the year.

Tyus, who is a two year starter, averaged 11.8 points and 6.9 boards this past season. I knew from the start when the word on the streets about Alex leaving wasn’t true. I remember when we had a chat through text messaging back in his sophomore season, he said something about he wants to stay until his senior year and how happy he was being able to play under Donovan and as a Florida Gator.

Tyus’s father (Thomas) thought otherwise about his decision to stay for his final year. He thought his son wasn’t going to get anything out of returning for his senior year.

Alli Cecchini, who is Alex’s fiancee, told Fowler that Tyus really enjoys playing ball for Florida and how he understands how the team needs him to play out of position.

Here is a picture from Alex’s freshman or sophomore year. Speaking of his fiancee, she is the one who took this picture of me and my brothers a couple years ago.

(The Orlando Sentinel -Jeremy Fowler contributed to this article.)

Florida Air Academy’s 6 foot 7 forward Will Yeguete signed his letter of intent early Monday to play basketball for the Florida Gators next season.

This past season, Yeguete averaged 18 points and 12 boards per game, made his decision official after it came down to Georgia Tech and Florida.

Yeguete is also the second Gator to commit in the past 24 hours, right after Mike Rosario who is a guard that just transferred from Rutgers signed with Florida even though he has to sit out a year because of the transfer.

Yeguete is expected to play a little bit of small forward along with power forward next year.

“It’s a dream come true,” he said.

(Quote/info gathered by Antonya English/Gator Report.)