It's Gators' world and welcome to it

By Chris Dufresne

April 3, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

ATLANTA — If Florida’s winning national championships is starting to sound like a broken record, well, record breaking is what the Gators are about these days.

Al Horford heaved the ball skyward and into history Monday night only moments after Florida’s 84-75 dissection of Ohio State in front of 51,458 at the Georgia Dome. The confetti fell and discussion began.

Already the first school to hold national titles in basketball and football simultaneously, Florida now has consecutive basketball titles to wrap around its pigskin win.

Florida became the first team since Duke in 1991-92 to repeat as champion. The Gators joined a lofty consecutive-titles club that includes the likes of UCLA, University of San Francisco and Cincinnati.

“I think this team should go down as one of the best teams in college basketball history,” Coach Billy Donovan said.

Any objections?

“From the beginning we knew we had the opportunity to do something special,” Florida guard Lee Humphrey said. “We knew no one could ever take away the first championship, but we also knew we had a great chance of getting another one.”

“One more year!” Gators fans screamed after CBS prepared its annual “One Shining Moment” montage.

Let’s not get greedy now.

Humphrey is a senior and it is likely that one or more of the four returning juniors -- Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Horford -- will make this their happy ending.

They sacrificed NBA money to make a run at posterity and did it.

What is there left to prove?

“This is what we came back to school for,” Brewer said. “This is what we are all about.”

All five starters returned from last year’s team and became, according to CBS research, the only starting five to ever repeat as national champions.

And what of Donovan’s place?

The 41-year-old Gators coach became the fourth-youngest coach to win multiple NCAA titles. Henry Iba of Oklahoma State was 41 and Bob Knight (Indiana) and Phil Woolpert (San Francisco) were both 40 when they claimed their second.

The big question now is whether Donovan will vie for his third at Florida or leave for Kentucky, the most famous program with a coaching vacancy.

“Now’s not the time to address it,” Donovan said of his future during his postgame news conference.

Summing Monday up, Florida threw everything it had against Ohio State and Ohio State could only throw back two freshmen, center Greg Oden and point guard Mike Conley Jr., who scored 45 of their team’s 75 points.

Oden played only 20 minutes Saturday against Georgetown because of foul trouble but was involved in all but two minutes Monday. He was mostly sensational in his see-you-possibly-in-the-NBA line of 25 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“It doesn’t matter,” Oden said of his performance.

Florida was so deep in big bodies it had four players (and their allotted fouls) to keep Oden from scoring 50.

The Gators mostly single-teamed Odom and concentrated on other Buckeyes. It was a sound strategy. Ohio State shooters made only four of 23 three-point attempts, and two of those were made late after the outcome was decided.

Donovan’s attrition plan on Oden worked, although it got shaky. With 9:39 left, all four Florida big men had three fouls.

Luckily, the Gators were up by 11 at that point, and didn’t foul a man out until Chris Richard left with 2:31 left and Florida up by 13.

Florida fended off every Ohio State charge.

When Ohio State cut the lead to two late in the first half, Florida responded with three three-pointers from Humphrey, Brewer and Green.

Ohio State fans got excited again when two Oden free throws cut the lead to 66-60 with five minutes left.

Green retaliated immediately with a three-pointer to push the lead back to nine.

Brewer, who contributed 13 points, eight rebounds, three steals and his lanky 6-9 frame to the title cause, was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player.

It easily could have been Horford, who totaled 29 rebounds in his final two games and had 18 points and 12 rebounds in the title game while being assigned to contain Oden.

“They got a bunch of weapons,” Oden said. “Tonight they were just on. They can shoot it, they can drive, and they can score inside. They are everything you want in a team.”

Joakim Noah played only 21 minutes Monday because of foul trouble, but it didn’t really matter. Florida shooters made 10 of 18 three-pointers and outrebounded Ohio State, 38-28.

In six tournament wins, Florida outrebounded its opponents by 90.

Green finished with 16 points, making all three of his three-point attempts.

Humphrey continued his dagger-in-heart role with four more three-pointers in his final game, increasing his all-time NCAA tournament record to 47.

Humphrey made four of eight three-pointers in last year’s NCAA title win over UCLA and four of eight in Saturday’s win against the Bruins.

Monday, after players sprawled to the court chasing a loose ball with six minutes left, Humphrey even grabbed a towel and helped wipe up the sweat.

What more could a player do?

Or, in the end, a team?

[email protected]

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Tough feat

Florida became the seventh school to repeat as NCAA men’s basketball champion:

Oklahoma State 1945-46