By Gary Shelton, Times Sports Columnist
Friday, March 25, 2011
NEW ORLEANS — He could be somewhere else, maybe a lot of somewhere elses. He could have packed his bags. He could have chased his dream.
Given the right breaks, given the right circumstances, Alex Tyus could be on the end of an NBA bench. Maybe in Minnesota. Maybe in Sacramento. Maybe (shudder) in Cleveland.
After all, it was a year ago when Tyus put his name into the NBA pool, and he had gone about the business of trying to convince scouts he was better than they thought. Besides, if he didn't make the NBA, he could update his passport in pursuit of foreign currency. Maybe in Italy. Maybe in Turkey. Maybe in China.
He could have been in different colors, maybe a lot of different colors. He could have traded in his teammates. He could have found a new gymnasium. Maybe he could have played for Cincinnati. Maybe St. Louis. Maybe (gasp) Butler.
After all, it was two years ago when Tyus announced he was transferring from the Gators for parts unknown, and he spent the better parts of two weeks answering calls from potential landing spots.
Twice, the wanderlust hit Alex Tyus, and twice, he eventually came home to the Gators.
Turns out, Florida was where he belonged all along.
Watch him now. Tyus is having the time of his life, sprinting and pushing and crashing and grinning. In his last two games, he has 30 rebounds, and it is fair to say that if he had had, say, 25, the Gators might be home by now. He is a man who finally recognizes his place, and that place is in the air up above the basket.
Funny how life can work. Over his career, Tyus has spent a lot of time of thinking about going somewhere else. Instead, he is carrying his team somewhere else.
"I don't think too much about where I could have been," Tyus said. "I'm more of a person who lives in the moment. But, yeah, those times make this even sweeter."
It is hard to imagine Florida surviving Thursday night's game against BYU without Tyus, who scored 19 points and had 17 rebounds against the Cougars. It was a dominating, energetic performance, one of those games that makes you wonder where this kind of impact has been all along. "A monster," teammate Kenny Boynton called him.
After the game, it was Tyus who sprinted to his teammates yelling, "One more game, one more game," until the Gators were finally able to cut down a net.
When it comes to Tyus, who knew it would happen while he was still with the program?
Always, it seems, Tyus has had a foot out the door. After his sophomore season, when the Gators were forced to play him at center because, frankly, there was no other choice, Tyus announced he was transferring. In those days, didn't every Gator recruit? Florida players were leaving so fast in those days that you wondered if someone had tripped a fire alarm.
"In my freshman and sophomore years, we didn't have much of a team," Tyus said. "I wanted to go somewhere and win. We had guys leaving left and right.
"A lot of schools were calling, and I thought, 'Uh-oh, here comes the recruiting process again. That kind of turned me away from the whole deal. I had a great conversation with Coach Donovan. If I had any aspirations of playing in the NBA, it wasn't going to be as a 5 (a center). Coach told me with Vern Macklin coming in, I wasn't going to have to play every game against the other team's biggest player anymore. I could guard some wings or even guards."
Tyus decided to come back, but a year later, he declared for the NBA draft. It is fair to say the response from the NBA was not "Wow." It was more like "Huh?"
"They told me to try to rebound more," Tyus said. "They told me to be more active, and to work on my jump shot. They told to come back to school and help the team win on a higher level. They told that I'd probably be a late second-round pick or I'd be undrafted."
In the NBA, the odds aren't good for players drafted there. Only 23 percent of players taken past the first half of the second round stick at all. Odds are, Tyus would have ended up in an overseas league. Still, there are European Leagues that pay well, too.
So here's the question: Say Tyus knew he could have been taken in the second round and signed a million-dollar contract. Is this better?
"Definitely," Tyus said. "This run has been special. Besides, if we keep wining, who is to say that deal can't get better?"
For most of the season, Tyus has still looked like a Tweener, not big enough to play inside, not a good enough shooter to play outside. But for 32 minutes against BYU, when he had his best game as a Gator, the guy looked like a prospect. This guy would get into somebody's camp.
The truth of it is that the Gators needed Tyus to be great. Today, against Butler, they need him again. Donovan refers to Butler as "the most physical team in the country." That means its time for Tyson to be a monster again.
These days, that doesn't sound like too much to ask.
After all, why else is he here?