Florida Gators Beat Buckeyes; Repeat as National Champions

In 1992 an already legendary Coach K led his Duke Blue Devils to their second consecutive championship. Since then there have been close calls. Arkansas made it back to the final two in 1995 a year after winning it all. And Kentucky made it to the championship game for three straight years from 1996-98; losing only in 1997 to Arizona. Still, the fact remains that the NCAA had no repeat champions since Duke cut down the nets in the early nineties; a span of fifteen years.

Some experts even wondered if we would ever see a repeat winner with the immense pressure put on collegiate athletes to jump to the professional level after achieving success once.

Wonder no more.

On April 2^nd, 2007 the Florida Gators ousted the Ohio State Buckeyes to win their second-straight national championship. The team featured the exact same starting lineup, including three players who gave up the chance to be selected in the first round of the 2006 NBA Draft, as the club that had beaten UCLA just a year ago.

Corey Brewer and the Gators took control of the first half by upping their defensive pressure and knocking down perimeter shots. Brewer, seemingly everywhere, knocked down three first-half threes while creating one turnover after another. Taurean Green also added two-three pointers and eleven first-half points of his own. Meanwhile, Florida's vaunted big men, Joakim Noah and Al Horford, were all but completely shut down for twenty minutes.

The game opened with both teams playing a heated, close contest. As expected, the presence of freshmen center Greg Oden forced Florida to go away from the basket. Even with the advantage of having their center for an entire half, Ohio State could not take control and went into the half down by eleven points.

The second half was more of the same for Ohio State. Despite the stellar play from their big man Greg Oden, who finished with 25 points, the Buckeyes still found themselves unable to match the three-point shooting of the Gators. This time it was Lee Humphrey, the tournament's all-time leader in the department, hitting three pointer after three pointer. And with every lucky bounce seemingly going to the team from Gainesville, the Buckeyes could never create the run they needed to knock off the defending champions.

Last years' Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, Noah, struggled all game and was plagued throughout by foul trouble. He finished the game with only one made field-goal in limited minutes. Fortunately for Noah and his team, it hardly mattered. Both Horford and Oden claimed double-doubles.

The win capped an amazing reign over college sports by Florida. The Gators have not only won the past two basketball championships, but they also bested these Buckeyes in the college football BCS game as well.

The Gators finished the game with ten threes to Ohio State's three. Horford, despite a weak first half, finished with a team-high 18 points. The final score of the game was 84 to 75.