Posted on 04/03/2006 10:58:18 AM PDT by subterfuge
By Pat Forde ESPN.com
1. Find the weakness in Florida. Go ahead. I'll wait
2. Billy Donovan has been here before. Ben Howland has not.
3. Banners don't win championships, players do Tradition is a valuable thing to have on your side in the banter between fans. But UCLA's 11 national championships won't help the Bruins one iota come tipoff Monday.
4. Florida has had the stronger tournament run
5. UCLA used up all its good karma escaping Gonzaga The Bruins' desperate scramble to score the final 11 points of the game and extricate themselves from near-certain defeat was the Rally of the Year. 6. Balance Florida has five players averaging double figures for the season. And for the postseason. And for the NCAA Tournament.
7. Layups, dunks and Lee Humphrey That's been Donovan's offensive mantra this NCAA Tournament. The Gators are pounding it inside, driving hard to the basket, getting high-percentage shots ... or kicking it to Humphrey
8. Corey Brewer: matchup trouble The 6-foot-8 Brewer has had a great Tournament, averaging 14.4 points and making 50 percent of his 3-point shots. He killed George Mason Saturday night, and he'll be a handful for UCLA as well.
9. The Bruins don't want to run with Florida
10. Florida doesn't mind grinding with the Bruins .
11. This is not a dance team mismatch Yes, UCLA's dance team is a No. 1 seed -- one of the strongest No. 1s in recent memory. Wow.
12. Scratching the 10-year title itch It's been a decade since Florida won the national title it most cares about, in football.
20. It's Florida's time It's time for the worshipers of the pointed ball to realize what can happen with the round one. Florida 65, UCLA 59.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
God Bless the ol' Head Ball Coach. I miss the Un-politically correct genius. The winning also goes back to him.
FYI..SI.com has a similar piece..but only giving FIVE reasosn why...<P.
I agree with you..Gators should win..the real reason..the difference, in this team is the assist coach Donovan hired a year ago, former Clemson head coach..the guy has taught them DEFENSE..a word not usually in Billy-the-Kid's vocabulary..
FYI..SI.com has a similar piece..but only giving FIVE reasosn why...<P.
I agree with you..Gators should win..the real reason..the difference, in this team is the assistant coach Donovan hired a year ago, former Clemson head coach..the guy has taught them DEFENSE..a word not usually in Billy-the-Kid's vocabulary..
Nice bracket GSW. I only had my team (Gators) up until the Elite Eight.
The other reason Florida should win is that Donovan and his assistants have done an excellent job scouting each opponent, and using that to develop excellent game plans.
They will be ready for anything UCLA throws out at them.
Great tagline btw.
But I still hope we whup South Carolina's ass this year in the Swamp
Spurrier has a personality? Who knew?
Maybe, but it's good to retire before you lose your edge.
Without a doubt. Billy D has been getting better for the last few years. He knows how to bring the team along slowly so that they don't peak too soon and in a tournament he gives them only what they can handle so as nto to make things complicated. I think he learned some of that from SOS too. BD wasn't know as an X and O guy, but that is changing. He learned a lot from Pitino as well.
The teams that he crushed.
The 3 players in question are frequently identified as probable NBA draft picks.
Only reason I could see why they were pulled from the game was to avoid getting injured by Mason players, although one of the guys seemed to be unable to handle "pressure" and was prone to toss or kick the ball away everytime a Mason player, particularly the very large one, got within 6 feet of him.
From what I've seen the NBA doesn't need players who are afraid to get hurt.
So, knowing that, those young fellows at Florida are probably better off giving it up to the game this evening, and playing on even if in fear of dismemberment.
Else, they will be beaten even worse than I can ever imagine.
Actually, they are going to be beaten so bad no one on FR can imagine it.
It will be brutal, and somebody is going to score more than 80 points this time.
I'd like to see a UCLA/Mason game, maybe for charity, sometime soon.
Donovan learned from the Kwame Brown fiasco, that you don't worry about recruiting the best of the best, because they most likely will end up in NBA, if not straight out of high school, after their sophomore year.
All of the sophomores are going to return. Noah still needs to develop other parts of his game before he is ready for the NBA.
Funny. At the risk of turning this into a football thread, SpurDog did two things at South Carolina this year that had NEVER been done. They beat Tennessee at Tennessee and they beat Florida--both in the same year.
Gator guy myself.
But, you forgot the Big Game curse on Florida. Well, in Football they always lost the big game, 96 a fluke.
Have to go with the Can't Win The Big One, UF 67, UCLA 79.
I dont' think he can do it. Florida would be better off handing Noah's scholarship to someone who can handle the game.
I have mixed feelings about this. My mother, brother and both of my kids have degrees from UF, but I still like Spurrier.
Georgia Bulldog fan? I'm always surprised at FReepers that don't like Spurrier since he is the antithesis of politcally correct coach-speak. He tells it like it is and doesn't give that garbarge about "giving a 110 percent...really gotta focus, blah, blah, blah."
It will be brutal, and somebody is going to score more than 80 points this time.
Maybe, but it won't be UCLA. All UF has to do is clog up the middle and force them to beat them from the outside. UCLA is shooting < 30% from 3 point range for the tourney.
Seriously, UCLA has NO shooters and UF is loaded with them. I've seen the Gators get punched in the mouth, elbowed in the face, you name it, and somehow they scraped out 32 wins thus far. The NBA is irrlevant and George Mason beat some very selfish teams, which UF is not. They are 3rd or 4th in assists in the entire NCAA.
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