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.

I was with this team Labor Day weekend in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and out with them at a BBQ at the house of a friend of Donovan's on the Niagara River in upstate New York. I have seen Noah water-ski in the dark and the brotherly ribbing that followed from the staff and his teammates. I have seen the apartment Noah, Horford, Brewer and Green share in Gainesville, and how much their lives interweave.

They share similar beliefs, even some political ones that please Noah's passionate views of peace and spiritual strength. And even though it's one photo, one image, you should see how much the players revere the photo of them celebrating the national title last season. The picture is framed and positioned in the hallway toward the players' rooms, just off the kitchen. They see it every morning. They look at it every night. They can't miss it.

Donovan has told me on numerous occasions how he hasn't had to deal with any internal issues. There simply isn't a locker room problem. Sure, there are egos. Every team has them. But they don't become obstructive.

Look, Arizona could knock out Florida in Round 2 if the two teams meet. Maryland certainly has the ability to beat Florida. So, too, does Oregon or Wisconsin in the Midwest bracket. No one said Florida is infallible. And of course, if the Gators were to get back to the Final Four and face any of the favorites like Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, Georgetown, Texas A&M or Ohio State, they certainly are capable of losing.

But which of those teams has won six straight games as important as the ones about to unfold? Which team has shared so much, has players who have given up so many millions to be with each other again? Which team has players who are more comfortable with each other than this core group of guys, who spent countless hours together not just practicing and playing basketball but also discussing music, politics and food?

The Gators' staff doesn't believe it has the nation's best players on an individual basis. It knows that if this tournament were a series of one-on-one games, the Gators likely would lose. But the beauty of this bunch is that there really isn't one guy, one player, who is above another.

Whom would you choose to stand out? Horford? Noah? Brewer? Green? It's hard to pick just one. And the bench is hardly a bunch of slouches, with productive minutes coming out of Chris Richard, Walter Hodge, Dan Werner, Marreese Speights, Brandon Powell and Jonathan Mitchell.

This is a championship team. The Gators have an instinctual ability to turn it up when need be, when the scent of blood is in the air. They have won 12 consecutive postseason games. They lead the nation in field goal percentage, and the starting five all average within 2.2 shots of each other. The Gators shut down the SEC in the conference tournament last week in Atlanta, dominating on the defensive end. And if you love numbers, they are 24-1 this season when holding opponents under 70 points.

So maybe it was standing on a boat, with the majority of the Gators' traveling party wearing blue rain ponchos taking in the wonder of Niagara Falls, when I knew there was something different about this team.

Maybe it was Horford telling me about how deep the Niagara River was at that juncture or the force of the water as it cascades over the falls. But there was something there, something that told me this group had a pulse most don't as it prepared for the long, arduous campaign to win a title.

Maybe it is because every one of the starters has other interests, and they're not so consumed by winning a title that it suffocates their personalities and intensifies the pressure.

Maybe that's just how I feel. You can decide for yourself. But I'm going with what I believe to be true: The reason there hasn't been a team to win the title two seasons in a row since '92 is there hasn't been a team like Florida.

Well, the Gators are here again, and they're even more intriguing, interesting and mature -- not just as players but as people. And that's just as good a reason to take them as any stat that favors them.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.