UConn not as legendary as Donovan’s Gators
With all due respect to the UConn Huskies and their dominant stomp through March Madness to claim a second consecutive national championship, their story does not compare to the 2006-07 Florida Gators.
Of course, the comparisons are natural after UConn defeated Purdue 75-60 Monday night to become the first team since coach Billy Donovan’s Gators to capture back-to-back national championships.
There have only been three programs since John Wooden’s dynastic run at UCLA in the 1960s and ’70s to repeat as national champs — Dan Hurley’s Huskies, Donovan’s Gators and Coach K’s Duke Blue Devils of 1991-92. All three of those teams were special in their own way, but if you ask me the ’07 Gators stand alone. Not only because they are the only basketball program in history to accomplish back-toback basketball national championships at a football school, but the circumstances surrounding their repeat were so unconventional, unforgettable and unbelievably unselfish.
Don’t get me wrong, a case could be made that this year’s UConn team is the most dominant national champion of all-time when you consider the Huskies won all six games in the tournament by at least 13 points and their average margin of victory was a record 23.3 points per game. But this column is not about how many points the Huskies won by in their national championship sequel; it’s about how many sacrifices the Gators made to attain theirs.
The Gators went back-to-back not just because of their skill level but because of their dedication level — their dedication and loyalty to each other; their love for their school; their selflessness in putting their NBA dreams on hold because they wanted to spend another year in college with their basketball brothers. That’s what UF greats Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer did after they won the ’06 national championship and announced at a packed O’Connell Center pep rally that they were coming back for their junior seasons.
It’s hard to imagine in this one-and-done, NIL, transfer portal era we’re in today that one college star — let alone three —
would shun being an early NBA draft pick to play another year of college basketball.
After the ’06 season, Noah, Horford and Brewer were all considered NBA lottery selections and there was a strong possibility that Noah would be the No. 1 overall pick. It would be foolish for them to stay in college, right? Strike when the iron’s hot, right? Why risk the possibility of an injury, right? What more did they have to prove, right?
Wrong.
“What UConn achieved was unbelievable, but don’t confuse that with three NBA lottery picks who chose to play for the name on the front of the jersey and for each other,” says FloridaGators.com resident basketball historian Chris Harry, a former Sentinel colleague who’s been covering UF for decades. “The 2007 Gators belong in a box of their own.”
Legendary former UF athletic director Jeremy Foley gets emotional even now when talking about Noah, Horford and Brewer deferring their NBA dreams for another run at a national championship.
“You’ll never see that happen again,” Foley says. “They loved being at the University of Florida, they loved each other and they loved Billy. They were Gators through and through.”
Noah, Horford, Brewer and point guard Taurean Green came in together as part of the ’04 recruiting class and left a legacy in which they are now known in Gator lore as simply the “Oh-Fours.” What’s even more amazing is that it wasn’t Donovan who tried to convince his star players to stay; it was them who convinced him why it was such a good idea for them to come back. Donovan, like most coaches, just assumed it was the smart decision for them to make the jump to the NBA and cash in.
One thing Donovan didn’t count on, though, was that sometimes kids just want to stay kids as long as possible. So seldom in today’s mad rush to get to the next level do we get to hear the true song of intercollegiate athletics. Most elite college basketball players never get to experience what most of us nostalgically come to realize years later — that those four years of college might have been the best years of our lives.
“It was their decision to come back,” Donovan said at the time. “They’re the ones who brought it up to me. I just think they’re different from other kids. They’re having fun. They’re kids. They’re enjoying college.”
As it turned out, Horford would become the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 draft, Brewer was seventh and Noah went ninth, but not before they had the time of their lives in their final college season together. They were rock stars in Gainesville and throughout the nation. With all eyes upon them, they hugged and high-fived and danced and pranced their way to another national championship.
Not that UConn didn’t have a modicum of pressure to repeat as national champions this season, but nothing like the ’07 Gators had. By making the decision to return, the Oh-Fours were the consensus preseason No. 1 team in the country and their season would be considered a failure if they didn’t win it all again. In comparison, UConn lost five of its top eight scorers from last season and went into this season ranked No. 6 in the country.
This column is not at all meant as a knock on what UConn just accomplished; it’s just a reminder.
As we celebrate the dominance of the Huskies in the aftermath of their second consecutive national championship, let us never forget the once-in-a-lifetime tale of the Oh-Fours — a basketball brotherhood that transcended margin of victories and reminded us of the timeless values of friendship, unity, loyalty and love.