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Can feisty Florida team be stopped?

By Lucas Deal

Posted: 3/26/07 Section: Columns
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For those of you who don't know, I'm not a big Florida Gators fan. Honestly, I can't pinpoint a genuine reason for my dislike of the Gators, but for as long as I can remember I just haven't liked them.

Florida has never done anything to me personally and there's really no reason for me to despise them like I do, it just sort of happened. Basketball, football, water polo, it doesn't matter what sport it is - if the Gators are on TV, I'm going to be rooting against them.

I picked against them in the Final Four last year, I picked against them in the National Championship Game in January and I want to pick against them in the Final Four versus UCLA on Saturday night.

The problem is: I think they're going to win it all.

They have better players than everyone else. They have a better in-game coach than everyone else. They have momentum, they have experience and they know they can do it when they have to.

I've thought about this a long time. Since my original pick, Texas A&M, got bounced out of the Tournament in the Sweet 16, I've been scrambling to find a bandwagon to jump on. I picked Georgetown, UCLA and the Gators to reach the Final Four and they came through for me, but with the exception of a few players on each team (Jeff Green, Darren Collison, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Al Horford) there's nobody that really gets me excited.

The Ohio State University rounds out the Final Four bracket and of every team left in the field, the Buckeyes definitely intrigue me the most.

I love Mike Conley Jr., Ron Lewis and Jamar Butler, and I'm pretty sure I'm still the only person who would take Greg Oden over Kevin Durant in the NBA Draft. If I have to pick a team to root for right now, then I'm taking our Big Ten brethren from Columbus.

I just don't think they're good enough to beat the Gators.

Florida rolled over Ohio State in Gainesville, Fla., in December shortly after Oden returned to the Buckeyes lineup from a wrist injury. If you saw the game you know Oden wasn't 100 percent, but even if he was, it wouldn't have made much difference because Florida ate the Buckeyes alive.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1

Joe Six Pack

posted 3/26/07 @ 7:40 AM CST

Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Please continue to hate, this team eats hate for breakfast. Yes they will win it all, they are the University-of-friggin-Florida, and winning is what they do. (Continued…)

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