AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > March > 23 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USGators get another tough test and pass
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
St. Louis — There’s a reason no team has repeated as champion in 15 years. There’s a reason the sappy CBS theme song is “One Shining Moment,” one as opposed to two. See, repeating is hard.
Florida has a great team. Florida could well win it again. But already the Gators have had two close calls, and they’re only halfway home. On Sunday they trailed Purdue in the second half. On Friday they had an even rougher ride against Butler, which has one-fifth of Florida’s talent but which, given a break or two (more about that shortly), could well have unhorsed the titlists.
Florida won despite making just 17 baskets. Florida won despite failing behind by nine points in the first half and by four in the second. Florida won against the kind of team — a strong-willed underdog built on pace and precision — that lives to upset the big boys in March. Florida won because it was not just better than Butler but tougher.
“When your backs are against the wall,” said the Gators’ Corey Brewer, “you’ve got to make a play. The plays we made tonight, that comes from playing with each other for so long.”
Take away a play or two and it might well have been, “So long, Gators.” Butler’s Brian Ligon missed a point-blank layup that would have given his team the lead with three minutes left. At the other end, Al Horford took the ball low and started backing Brandon Crone goalward.
Said Horford: “I caught it, and Corey was signaling to me, ‘Go score, go score.’ “
Said Brewer: “He had a guy on him who was about 6-foot-5. [Crone is listed at 6-6, Horford at 6-10.] What was the use kicking it out?”
Horford and Crone began to bump. They bumped for a good long while. Other referees might have called an offensive foul. These did not.
Said Crone: “It could have been a number of things. It was probably a no-call. But it was down to me. I let him back me down without pulling the chair [stepping back abruptly].”
Horford twisted, shot and hit. Crone was called for his fifth foul. Horford made the free throw. With 2:34 to play, the defending champs took a lasting lead. Soon Butler’s Mike Green missed two free throws, and soon after that he drove on Horford, who blocked his shot. Another set of referees might have whistled Horford for brushing Green’s body. This set did not.
And yes, the Gators took 28 free throws to Butler’s 13. But before any Duke-like conspiracy theories take root, let me attest that Peg Brand, wife of NCAA president Myles Brand, sat alongside her husband on press row politely clapping for Butler.
The point isn’t that Florida won because of the officiating. The point is that the defending champ was again extended by a lesser opponent. (Purdue was a No. 9 seed, Butler a No. 5.) It isn’t that the Gators are playing badly; it’s that everyone else is rising to meet them.
“Teams are going to play you a lot differently because you’re the defending champ,” Horford said. “We’ve got to keep coming with a lot of effort. We’ve got to keep grinding and getting stops.”
Just as everyone underrated Muhammad Ali’s ability to take a punch, we get caught up describing the Gators’ skill and selflessness while overlooking their grit. If they hadn’t guarded Butler so well — their big men were superb at switching and jamming the Bulldogs shooters on the perimeter — free throws wouldn’t have mattered at the end.
“We’re not going to be a thing of beauty,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “The whole thing about this team this year is moving forward. At times it’s going to look ugly.”
On Sunday the Gators will try to play their way back to the Final Four. They’re halfway to their grail, and it hasn’t been easy so far. It will get harder still.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Comments
By Buck Cochran in the NW
March 24, 2007 12:16 AM | Link to this
What seeds were Vandy and the Vols? I can’t tell youhow much I dislike the Reptiles, but they’re going to repeat.
By mh ramming
March 24, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this
why do you ‘dislike’ a team with grit, class, hardworking members who selflessly play and selflessly return to college basketball instead of cashing in on the draft last year? a moral and upstanding coach? what is not to like? college sports needs more teams like the ‘reptiles’ —
By GT
March 24, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this
Basketball out west is like McDonald’s in China. It just doesn’t seem right no matter how well it is played. Basketball came from the asphalt of the east, used as a way out for a lot of hard nose kids, not played to surfer music. What got Tubby fired was not UCLA but the stubborn Tarheels who are the team with the most wins in NCAA history. A position once shared with the Wildcats only until two or three years back. Tubby could even get players into his program that academically Carolina was unable or unwilling to accept and still couldn’t keep up. I give UCLA credit though for firing a basketball coach that later came to Georgia and still has the Dogs mending the damage and those UCLA teams were the greatest basketball teams I ever saw
By PLEASE, Mark.
March 24, 2007 1:24 PM | Link to this
Nice goalpost-moving. Earlier you were telling us that Florida was a “team for the ages,” better than Kentucky ‘96 even. Now, when they’ve played some seriously rancid basketball for the better part of two games, they’re “passing all the tough tests”?
So when Kansas destroys this Gator outfit in Atlanta, what will the column be? How good Florida’s squad looked in its uniforms?
By Anonymous
March 24, 2007 5:18 PM | Link to this
“PLEASE, Mark,” as I recall Florida and Kansas have already met once this season, in November. The result? Jayhawks, 82-80, over Gators. A good win over another good team, to be sure, but not exactly what I would be so cocky as to refer to as “destroying” another team on the court.
I also watched the Kansas-Southern Illinois game, and the 14th-seeded Salukis gave the 1st-seeded Jayhawks all they could handle for 40 minutes. Frankly, if I were a Jayhawk fan, I would be a little more focused on tonight’s UCLA game, instead of worrying about the Gators in the Final Four.
By Anonymous
March 24, 2007 10:49 PM | Link to this
“PLEASE, Mark,” Rock Chalk, Jayhawk Smack-Talk, P-U.
Next time, wait for your team to win the game before talking smack. Talking sh!t about your team’s next anticipated opponent before they play their current game is bad karma, my friend.