Memo to Florida's Nick Calathes: Transfer to St. Joe's

To: Nick Calathes
From: A Philadelphia Big 5 Fan

Because your coach called out your current team, Florida, said he doesn't like the existing personnel and doesn't think the team can win, you might want to reconsider whether you should stay in Gainesville. After all, wasn't it F. Scott Fitzgerald who said "there are no second acts in American life.?" Your coach, Billy Donovan, won 2 national titles, which makes me think that he had one more act than most successful Americans ever get. It could well be that despite the personnel issue, the odds are that Donovan won't win another national title anyway.

So, why stay at Florida? Okay, maybe you shouldn't have gone there in the first place, given the Freakonomics-type logic I just displayed in the prior paragraph. So, if you are to leave, where should you go?

That's easy. Your older brother, Pat, seemingly has had a very nice career at St. Joe's. You know the school well, and it has some national cred because several years ago Jameer Nelson and Delonte West led it to a regional final. The Hawks have some awesome guards, and coach Phil Martelli is a good coach. Go there and you could help take that program to a Final Four. You'd be a magnet for attracting all sorts of outstanding players, and the basketball atmosphere in Philadelphia is top-notch.

Excellent school, excellent hoops. Okay, so it's the A-10 and not the SEC, but the SEC isn't exactly setting the world on fire right now, is it? You'll also be playing for fans who are more supportive, more patient/hopeful about winning a national title (after all, they haven't been there, and the ride to that regional final was magical and had the nation's fifth biggest media market buzzing for almost half a year), and for a coach who is first rate. Sure, Florida is an outstanding place, but right now the situation more resembles Melrose Place (you probably are too young to remember that LA-set TV show about dysfunctional twenty somethings) than a setting for a top-25 college hoops team.

So, in case you're interested, Hawk Hill should be the first place you visit.

After all, the Hawk shall never die.

And you could help make it soar to the greatest heights ever!