DeVon Walker transferring from Florida basketball program, school announces

Florida small forward DeVon Walker will transfer from the program, the school announced via GatorZone on Monday.

These are the requisite quotes from Billy Donovan and Walker:

"DeVon has a bright future, and we hope for the best for him wherever he chooses to go," Donovan said.

"I’ve grown a lot this year, and I’m grateful to Coach Donovan, the staff and my teammates at Florida for everything," Walker said.

Walker, who was the final member of Florida's four-man 2012 recruiting class, committed very late in the 2012 cycle, and was seen as a bit of a reach, despite being No. 142 in the Rivals150 for 2012. His slight build and lack of SEC-caliber offensive game made him a little-used reserve in 2012-13, when he played 99 minutes over 25 games and made just four of 22 field goals.

Walker might have gotten even less playing time in 2013-14, though, with Dorian Finney-Smith, Casey Prather, Will Yeguete, and Chris Walker likely to receive the lion's share of time at the forward positions for the Gators. And while a player like Walker can be helpful to a team as an extra body even when buried on a depth chart, being buried is rarely helpful to a college basketball player — or fun.

As with fellow freshman-turned-transfer Braxton Ogbueze, I think Walker's a really good kid who will have success somewhere, but this is mostly a case of a player reading the writing on the wall and figuring out that his best move involved a physical move. I wish Walker (and Ogbueze) the best in their basketball and academic futures.