All season long I didn't think any team from the SEC conference can be any good in the tournament. I just didn't think that SEC was a good enough basketball conference to even compare to the Big 12. Maybe I was biased. Anyway, there was no way I would even dream about the Florida Gators winning the national championship. Not even a moment, it didn't even scrap my mind. Since I started following the college basketball in the year 2000, Florida gave me the impression that they can always start the season strong and then somehow lost gas in the middle and move out of sight altogether come post-season time. Sort of like the Virginia Tech of football.

This shows you that prejudice can go really far, and first impression is hard to shake off. Florida started the season again with full momentum. They won 17 in a row to start things off. They ended to conference season with a 10-6 record. Not the typical national championship contender performance in the conference season. In one stretch they lost three in a row to Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. They were ranked as high as #2 in the season for two weeks right before their conference schedule started.

None of these matters when a hot team entered the wide open NCAA tournament. There was simply no clear cut front runners, except maybe Connecticut, in the field. Many people, including myself, didn't think that two of the number one seeds Memphis and Villanova would survive through to the Final Four. Well, at the end none of the number one seeds prevailed. Florida was the only strong team left standing.

It was almost like nobody had ever seen Joakim Noah played before the tournament. All of a sudden he became the most well known college basketball player, surpassing J.J. Reddick and Adam Morrison. Of course people remember championship performance more than individual regular season performances. Just as people remember Vince Young's Rose Bowl heroics more than Reggie Who's Heisman hype. Sophomore Joakim Noah may choose to enter the draft early and an underclassman. I believe this is something he didn't think about before the tournament. I compare him with Tayshuan Prince. His 6-11 frame and his freakish shot blocking skill, among other skills, should make him a good role player in the NBA.

It all looked too easy. Just as Florida coach Billy Donovan said at the post game conference, "it's a game and out deal." Any one team that can play great six straight games can claim the title. Even (#13 seed) George Mason had a lot of people thinking it was all possible. Indeed, they were in the Final Four, beating three of the last six national champions (UNC, UConn, Michigan St.). They best a quarter of the field, two-third of the way to the title. College basketball of this year truly lived up to the March Madness nickname. 4.4.06