Team Comradery: Advantage, Florida Gators

March 14, 2007— -- No need to bring up the Stanford and Wake Forest selections in 2004 and '05.

Yeah, yeah, they lost in the second round. I know. I remember.

Selecting Connecticut last season to win the title was hardly a reach. Had the Huskies' Denham Brown buried a shot at the end of the George Mason game in the Elite 8, then UConn, despite being the no-fun team, actually might have captured the title.

Still, there is no curse here. There is no reason to fear my pick if you're a fan of Florida. Going with the Gators to become the first team since Duke in 1992 to repeat isn't exactly going out on a limb.

Sure, the Gators have -- when they're playing up to their potential -- the top starting five in the country in juniors Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green and senior Lee Humphrey. They have the experience of winning a title. They have a coach in Billy Donovan who won a title a year ago and coached for the championship in 2000.

But there's more here than the numbers. This selection goes deeper. The reason the Gators will win the title is because of their kinship. Sure, there have been plenty of other tight teams, but in the past 17 years, I don't remember seeing one this enmeshed.

There have been moments in which the Gators seemed to be turned off, like at LSU three days after cutting down the nets at the O-Dome once they won the SEC title with a convincing win over South Carolina. And you could argue that the Gators weren't up for the challenge of facing thirsty and hungry Vandy and Tennessee on the road and their just-as-rabid fans.

But don't even go with the loss to Kansas in overtime in Las Vegas as an example, not when Brewer was battling mono (which wasn't known at the time), or the four-point loss at Florida State without Brewer. (Those games, by the way, were in late November and early December).

This team has had curveballs thrown at it, and has dealt with adversity, but the Gators never changed their attitude, nor has there been any hint of division. They have been in the fishbowl all year, everyone poking at the glass, waiting for them to sink, and they never did. They still won 29 games, more than they had at this time a year ago, and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.