Forget last night's game. Clearly, when Florida is on top of its game, the Gators are better than anyone in college basketball.
Now that Florida has steamrolled Ohio State to win its second straight National Championship, they've claimed a place in history.
Since UCLA won seven straight titles from 1967 to 1973, only one other team has won back-to-back titles-the 1991-1992 Blue Devils. It's only natural to compare this Florida dynasty to those two Duke teams.
So, is this Gator squad better than those Blue Devils?
In a word, no.
Of course, not everyone's going to agree with me. But this is what people that like sports do: pose unanswerable questions and try to answer them. So here goes nothing.
(By the way, if you're a Florida alum/fan, I have no idea why you're reading the Duke campus newspaper, but you should probably stop now.)
First of all, those Duke teams didn't just win back-to-back titles. Christian Laettner and Brian Davis, the captains of the 1992 Blue Devils, went to four straight Final Fours and three straight championship games. Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer still have a ways to go before they get to that point.
And don't forget: The talent level in college basketball in 1991 and 1992 is much higher than it is right now.
To win their first title, the Blue Devils had to beat UNLV in the national semi-finals. The Runnin' Rebels were the undefeated defending champions and had won 45 straight games. They were led by Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony and Larry Johnson-all players who had long and productive NBA careers.
To win its first title, Florida had to beat George Mason in the national semifinals. The Patriots were led by Lamar Butler, Tony Skinn, Jai Lewis and some other guys that no one had ever heard of. Then the Gators beat UCLA in the championship game-and though Aaron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar seem like fine basketball players, there's no way they could have competed with Augmon, Johnson and Anthony.
In 1991 and 1992, the national scene also included LSU's Shaquille O'Neal, Georgetown's Alonzo Mourning, the Fab Five (Juwan Howard, Chris Webber and Jalen Rose) at Michigan, Kentucky's Jamal Mashburn, Ohio State's Jimmy Jackson, Michigan State's Steve Smith and Memphis' Penny Hardaway. That's not even mentioning the likes of Laettner, a guy who pops up in just about every debate about the best college player ever, and Grant Hill, who some think might have been better than Laettner.
The last two years, the list of guys who went to the NBA early and could be in school (LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Luol Deng) is much more impressive than the players who are actually still in college. J.J. Redick and Adam Morrison were the country's two best players last year-and they're a far cry from O'Neal and Mourning. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant might one day be mentioned in the same breath as those two stars, but both of them are still freshman.
Basically, only a fool would try to argue that Florida faced better competition than the 1991-1992 Blue Devils.
And there's no way anyone can argue this Florida dynasty's accomplishments are as impressive as Duke's. The 1992 Blue Devil team lost two games all year by a grand total of five points. This year's Gators lost five games, including one stretch in which they lost three of four, with all three losses by 10 points or more.
It's possible that when they were locked in and ready to play, these Gators were unbeatable. They sure looked that way against UCLA. They had size inside, defensive toughness, outside shooting, pin-point passing in transition. Their biggest problem, it seemed, was that they weren't always locked in and ready to play.
Those great Duke teams were always ready to go. Unless a team has extraordinary mental toughness, it doesn't go 34-2 with a giant "defending National Champions" bulls-eye on its back. Being great isn't just about talent, it's about playing up to that talent every time out there.
So even though the Florida teams from the last two years were certainly great, and their accomplishments were impressive, they just weren't as good as Duke's dynasty.
Sorry, Gator fans. You're going to have to settle for second place.
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