Gators NCAA National CHAMPS

by Dustin Looney
Courier Staff

The Men’s NCAA Tournament has been designated as “March Madness” due to its exciting and unpredictable outcomes. The 2006 version of the tournament provided no exceptions.

On Tuesday, April 4, the 3 seed out of the Minneapolis Region, Florida University, beat UCLA 73-57 and became the 2006 college basketball national champions.

The Florida Gators were led by sophomore forward Joakim Noah, who scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked six shots, which are the most blocks ever in a national championship game.

Noah was rewarded for his efforts by being named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player. “It’s like I'm in a cloud, not only does this feel good, but it smells good and it tastes good. I can’t even describe it,” said Noah in an interview with ESPN.

The Gators had several other contributing players in their dazzling effort, with Lee Humphrey adding 15 points, Al Horford 14 and Corey Brewer 11.

Also helping the Gators was team captain, Taurean Green, who provided leadership and consistency at his point guard position. Green also led his team in assists, with eight.

Four Florida players, Noah, Humphrey, Brewer and Green, were named to the All-Tournament Team.

After the game was tied at seven, Florida used their athleticism and length to pull away from UCLA, and the Gators never looked back, beating their opponents by 20 points at one time in the game.

The defensive-minded UCLA Bruins, who finished the season 32-7, held their previous two opponents, LSU and Memphis, to 45 points each, and were giving up only 52.8 points a game on 36.8 percent shooting from the floor in the entire tournament.

UCLA was not able to slow down the athletic Gators as they scored 73 points while shooting 45 percent in the game, which gave the school their first ever national championship.

The Bruins were led by standout sophomore Jordan Farmar, who scored 18 points and dished out four assists.

Joining the Bruins and Gators in the Final Four were LSU and Cinderella team George Mason University. Neither UCLA nor Florida was tested in their Regional Championship game, as Florida defeated George Mason by 15 and and UCLA beat LSU by 14.

Although the last three games were blowouts, they are not reflective of the 2006 tournament, which college basketball analyst Dick Vitale called “the most exciting tournament ever.”

Joining 11 seed George Mason as unlikely advancers were 14 seed Northwestern State, 13 seed Bradley and 7 seeds Wichita State and Georgetown.

The Final Four did not include any 1 seeds, as Connecticut, Villanova and Memphis lost in the Elite Eight, while highly regarded Duke lost in the Sweet Sixteen.

Florida was voted as the top team in the ESPN/USA Today basketball poll, followed by UCLA and LSU as number two and three, respectively.