« Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! | Main | The judges have spoken »
March 27, 2006
GOG8RS
Crush Cinderella.
On Saturday, I’ll be rooting for the Florida Gators to beat George Mason University’s men’s basketball team. And comfortably, please, lest I blow a gasket watching.
Why? I have been a Gator fan since 1952. Who knows how something like that gets into your blood at age 6. It just does. I’m not even a Florida alum. I went there – twice, in fact. To use the common euphemism, I wasn’t ready for college. But sing a verse of “We are the boys of old Florida” and watch me weep.
I got the chance to cover the Florida basketball team for the Tampa Tribune in the mid-’60s, near the end of the all-white era. As a sports writer, I witnessed the way integration improved the game. I also got to see Pat Riley and Rick Barry play and to interview Adolph Rupp in his 36th year of coaching at Kentucky, the national runner-up that year.
I was pleased beyond belief a few years ago when Concord’s own Matt Bonner chose Florida. I even went to see him play at the O’Connell Center, the arena across from Florida Field, a/k/a The Swamp.
I enjoyed that game so much that while we were visiting my dad a few weeks ago, my wife and I drove to Gainesville to see the Gators’ last home game of the regular season. The atmosphere was electric - the bright lights, the constant motion, the youthful energy, all that orange and blue. The O Center is definitely not Alligator Alley, the dingy gym of my college days.
This turned out to be a special night. Joakim Noah, whom the rest of the country is just getting to know, was playing for the first time before his grandfather, Zacharie. A one-time professional soccer player from Cameroon, Zacharie Noah arrived late for the game with his son, Yannick, the retired tennis pro.
Joakim Noah responded by scoring 37 points. This included 19 of 22 free throws. (I scratched my head yesterday during the Villanova game when the announcer Billy Packer complained that Noah’s free throws spun sideways. Noah was 7-for-7 from the line at the time and finished 13-for-15.)
I saw more good signs that night in Gainesville. Taurean Green, Florida’s indispensable point guard, tossed an Alley Oop pass that Corey Brewer slammed home. Brewer looks like a wisp on the court, but he is strong, and on this play - you'll have to trust me - he flew. The Gators’ power and size inside were also apparent.
But sloppy Florida play allowed a mediocre Georgia team (10 losses at the time) to come within three points late in the second half. This colored my assessment of the Florida team.
To paraphrase, I wrote in my journal that night that this was a team of sophomores (every starter but Lee Humphrey, a junior), full of promise but prone to a loss of energy and concentration. In short, a team with potential that would not go far in the post-season. I also repeated the nagging question of us Gator fans of the Donovan era: Billy can recruit, but can he coach?
Recent events have upset this conventional wisdom. But still, even as the Gators were thumping top-seeded Villanova yesterday, I saw in each of their many errors the beginning of the end. I got so hyper my wife had to leave the room. It was either that or turn off the TV, and I'd simply have died if that had happened.
One of the Gator websites I frequent, GatorZone.com, ran a poll last week asking readers to choose between being satisfied that Florida had made the Sweet Sixteen and being greedy for a national championship. Do I have to tell you which side I took?
So now comes George Mason, the giant-killer. It’s only natural that most fans are rooting for the underdog, the little guy, the No. 11 seed, the tournament's Cinderella. I was rooting for the Patriots, too, and marveled at how they recovered from a last-second shot by Connecticut, regrouped and won in overtime.
That was yesterday. Now I say the slipper doesn't fit after all. George Mason is Gator bait.
Posted by Mike Pride at March 27, 2006 05:56 PM
Comments
yay florida!
Posted by: vanessa at March 28, 2006 07:59 AM
> Mike: I understand your excitement about the Gators
> making the Final Four,
> but let's keep things in perspective ... spring
> football practice begins
> tomorrow! Will Tim Tebow give Chris Leak a genuine
> challenge for QB? Will a
> running back step up and be the next Fred Taylor?
> How will former QB Cornelius
> Ingram fare as a tight end? These are the
> important, even urgent questions.
> hutch
>
Posted by: Al Hutchison at March 28, 2006 04:45 PM
I'm already $35 richer tonight thanks to my wise pick of the Gators in the office pool. I don't know a dang thing about basketball -- or any sport requiring hand-eye coordination for that matter -- but I had to go with the Gators simply because of that GOG8RS license plate I saw for so many years as I pulled into the Monitor parking lot.
Call it a sentimental pick.
And I'm far richer now for being a Gator fan -- and knowing one.
Posted by: Jim Graham at April 2, 2006 04:38 AM