Impressive win for the Gators. I wish I was a Florida alum. How cool is it to have both the football and the basketball championships at the same time? Actually, a football ring sandwiched between 2 basketball rings. Amazing feat for a team that would have had 3 lottery picks last year - Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Hoford. All 3 decide to come back and they stay on course all season and win their back-to-back championship as planned. Over the weekend, Florida beat UCLA again fairly comfortably and so did Ohio State against the Hoyas. It's amazing how these match ups work in the NCAAs. When I saw the suck-eyes against the Hoyas, it felt like there was a huge talent gap in favor of OSU and it felt like the Hoyas were fighting an uphill battle all game. OSU just seemed to have more talent both on the perimeter and the interior. When they played the Gators, I got the same feeling, but this time it was Ohio State that looked over matched and under talented. The Gators are just too good and too complete a team. They got athletes, big bodies, big-bodied athletes, great shooters and great shooting athletes! Lee Humphrey is just too good. I didn't see him miss a single open 3 the entire final four. Florida shot 55% from 3 and OSU shot 17%. That was the difference in the game right there. If OSU just hit a few more of those threes, this would have been a very interesting game since Greg Oden was on fire.
The outside shooting let Greg Oden down today. He was just awesome today. He showed me everything I needed to see in a NBA top pick. He had 25 points, 12 boards and 4 blocks. He is pretty athletic and effective in the low-block. He stayed out of foul trouble today and the Gators couldn't do much to stop him. He hit 10/15 shots and also had a couple of awesome blocks. Unfortunately, the loose balls even after a block always seemed to land in the hands of an open Gator and Humphrey or somebody hit an open 3 to completely negate his defense. Oden helped close the gap early in the second half as they came out of half-time trailing by 11. But Florida just didn't let them get all the way back to tie or take the lead. The best way to neutralize a big man is to play from ahead if you can help it. When you are trailing by 10 or 12, it's just hard to pound the ball in to the low block, dribble twice, wait for the double team, kick it out, re-post, get the ball back again and make your move or kick out for an open jumper. Teams always panic a bit and they settle for threes or let the guards drive the lane and try and do something that way. Also Florida switched to a zone often that took Oden out of the game. That was good strategy from Billy Donovan. Mike Conley Jr had a good game too, but may be should have been more assertive early.
Oden's foul troubles were a story throughout the tournament and the much anticipated big-man match up in the semis never happened as both Oden and Hibbert were in foul trouble. But he came through in the Finals big time. I think Oden should be the consensus number 1 pick now. I am a huge Kevin Durant guy. So much so that I picked Texas to go all the way knowing fully well that I was probably making a mistake! But this guy is just too good if he can stay on the floor. He does pick up stupid fouls, but is big, strong, tough, athletic, decent low-post game, excellent instincts for blocking shots. Nuff said. The Gators have their own set of lottery picks and I love this Corey Brewer guy. Long, athletic 6'9" guy who can run the floor, hit the 3, handle the ball and D' up. You think a NBA team or 30 can use a guy like that?
Now it's all about where these guy get drafted and if Billy the kid goes to Kentucky. I think Billy can go either way here. It's probably never going to get better than 2 consecutive championships at Florida.
Scores
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Georgetown V Ohio State - 60-67
UCLA V Florida - 66-76
Ohio State V Florida - 75-84
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