GATORS

Home Court Crowns Gators

By ANDY STAPLES The Tampa Tribune

Published: Apr 7, 2007

GAINESVILLE - A repeat championship received a repeat celebration Friday.

Fans who packed the O'Connell Center on Friday to honor the University of Florida men's basketball team probably noticed a few similarities to celebrations past. The familiar touches, however, provided a fitting send-off for a team that won two consecutive national titles using the same core group of players and coaches.

The Gators claimed their second title Monday with an 84-75 win against Ohio State. They followed the lead of Florida's football team, which beat Ohio State 41-14 on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz., to claim that sport's national title.

"This group of guys," Florida coach Billy Donovan said, "has got to go down in history and be mentioned as one of the greatest teams of all time."

For the second consecutive year, Florida officials purchased the Final Four court and had it shipped down for the event. Last year, the court from the RCA Dome in Indianapolis ($70,000) became the Gators' home court. This year, the court from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta ($71,000) will be cut into 2,200 1-by-2-foot pieces that will be sold for $199 each to benefit Florida's athletics scholarship fund.

And just as they did at Midnight Madness in October, Florida players appeared to accidentally knock the $40,000 Waterford Crystal basketball off the national championship trophy. For the second time, the ball was a fake.

Perhaps the only difference Friday was the lack of surprise. At last year's celebration, stars Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Horford stunned the college basketball world by announcing they would return for their junior seasons. Thursday, all three joined fellow junior Taurean Green in announcing they would skip their senior seasons and enter the National Basketball Association draft.

Friday, Donovan presented each player a framed jersey. That honor usually is reserved for seniors playing their final home game.

Also saying goodbye Friday was associate head coach Donnie Jones, a Florida assistant for all 11 years of the Donovan era. Jones will be introduced today at 10 a.m. as the head coach at Marshall University.

Despite the farewells, few tears fell Friday. While answering questions on stage, Brewer politely turned down multiple marriage proposals. Senior center Chris Richard explained that he had no trouble coming off the bench his entire career because "as long as we were winning, it was easy."

Tampa resident Don Mincey even got into the act. Florida's marketing department invited Mincey, a Chevy Chase impersonator since 1975, to perform when the Florida band played its most popular tune, Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al."

Like Chase, who starred in the video with Simon, Mincey hammed it up while the real musicians played. He even produced a penny whistle from his jacket so he could play alongside Florida's piccolo players.

"It's a beauty, isn't it?" Mincey said of his instrument. "It was at least $1.98."

Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.