Gators make the SEC proud

It?s all so obvious now. Of course Florida is going to win the NCAA basketball tournament. Oh, wait. Too late.

Brackets hit the floor everywhere recently as Florida took home the championship, something which most basketball purists failed to predict. In a pool I voted in, with about 100 people participating, not one person picked the Gators to run the table. Sure, a handful picked UCLA to make it, given the lean western bracket where Memphis was the first seed. However, most people didn?t give anyone much of a shot of getting past UConn. Of course, George Mason, an 11th seed, managed to throw a monkey wrench the works before bowing to Florida.

Hindsight is certainly 20-20. Florida started the season winning 17 straight this year, and was poised to go to first place with a Duke loss until the Tennessee Vols knocked them off. By the way, how many of you Big Orange fans have already done the bragging that, while eliminated in the second round by the Wichita State Shockers and barely beating lowly Winthrop, the Vols beat the eventual national champions twice this season?

But anyway, the Gators appeared to be strong most of the season, even going so far as to win the SEC tournament. Yet, going into the tourney, they received little respect, with the Vols getting a No. 2 seed despite a 19-rank in the last regular season AP Poll with their early departure from the SEC tourney to eventual NIT Champion South Carolina.

Given their strength and the agreement by most that this year?s top seeded teams of Duke, UConn, Memphis and Villanova were all beatable, how did Florida fail to be even a bleep on most radar screens?

Personally, as a non-believer, I believe it was past performance. Over the years, the SEC squads have tended to be overvalued on most bracket sheets. Aside from Kentucky, most SEC squads bow out early and to questionable teams. If you?ll recall just a year ago, Florida took it on the chin to the Manhattan Jaspers in an upset which was actually picked by some of the braver prognosticators. The SEC teams tend to fizzle out when the NCAA tourney rolls around, no matter their ranking in the various polls.

This year the writing was on the wall for Tennessee. Every expert out there was saying they were overrated at a two-seed, which they were. Of course, this high seed came due to a very tough RPI, something the NCAA is starting to take very seriously in seeding. This is to encourage teams not to play no-names during non-conference time but instead to play challenging teams.

With the Gator win, the experts are now jumping on the Gator bandwagon, many taking them to repeat. Those who aren?t taking them are taking the other sexy pick in UCLA. Amazing how teams under the radar can suddenly come to the top of the respect meter as the no-brainer pick for next year.

With that said, I think I?ll still have a problem pulling the trigger for Florida in the brackets next year, and not just because I?m a Big Orange fan. That whole Jaspers thing from years past will hang with me for a long time.