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View Full Version : Where does Florida rank in the pantheon of greats?



tommy
04-01-2007, 11:48 PM
Just throwing it out there for fun: Assuming the Gators win on Monday, where would you rate them among the great teams? How do they compare to Duke 91-92? To UNLV 90-91? Kentucky 96-98 (3 straight finals, winning 2 I think), obviously the various UCLA teams?

And if they lose, I guess you'd maybe compare them to some of the great teams that didn't win it, such as Duke 99, Houston 83, Georgetown 84. (I know Florida would be different than these teams, because the Gators did win it once already.)

Any thoughts on this stuff?

feldspar
04-02-2007, 12:08 AM
Ask me again tomorrow around this time.

Troublemaker
04-02-2007, 12:16 AM
Honestly, their guards aren't good enough to be an all-timer. Green and Humphrey are excellent role players who keep the defense stretched with their outside shooting for their frontcourt to dominate inside, but they don't really measure up to the all-time backcourts in terms of playmaking and defense, imo. I'm pretty sure I would take Duke 2001 as an overall team head-to-head against Florida.

Regardless, if they repeat, the media will anoint them as an all-timer.

VaDukie
04-02-2007, 01:05 AM
I think the one thing that keeps them from greatness is their inconsistency - an all time great team doesn't drop those games to Vandy or Tennessee.

Cameron
04-02-2007, 03:02 AM
Florida is good, but nowhere near an all-time great. The real greats--the Abdul-Jabar and Walton UCLA teams, the Bob Knight led '76 Hoosiers, '82 Carolina, '92 Duke, '96 Kentucky, '01 Duke--all had that extra something special. A team full of great players who know their roles to perfection as well as that all-world player, the guy who can just flat-out dominate a game. Those Bruin teams obviously had Walton and Jabar, two of the most physically imposing centers the game of basketball has ever seen. '76 Indiana had team leader Scott May and a cast of others who went perfect throughout the entire season, the last men's team to ever do so. '83 Carolina had two of the greatest college players of all-time in James Worthy and Michael Jordan. '92 Duke was led by perhaps the greatest and most clutch NCAA Tournament player of all-time in Christian Laettner, and had the NCAAs all-time assist leader in Bobby Hurley and a great freshman forward by the name of Grant Hill as well. '96 Kentucky was led by a long list of future NBA stars, including Ron Mercer and Antione Walker, and killed the rest of college basketball that year. And '01 Duke was led by two, check that two, National Player of the Year award winners, Shane Battier and Jason Williams, in what still remains the only time this has ever happened in the history of the college game. The rest of the cast consisted of guys named Dunleavy, Boozer, Duhon, and James.

Florida '07, though a very good team, comes nowhere close to holding the type of talent and domination the above teams placed upon the college basketball world during their runs. For one, the Gators don't have that "all-world" player I mentioned above, that guy who can turn to "Michael Mode" and take games over. Noah and Horford are very good players (well, Noah more of an athletic cheerleader who happens to be able to dunk and swat at balls and sideline dancers) but are definitely not on the level of the above mentioned. This Florida squad was just to unpredictable this season to be considered dominate. Hell, I, along with many others, didn't even expect Florida to get back to Final Four until I saw how easy their bracket would be. They just never had that aura of domination that you felt when looking at the all-time greats over the years. I would compare this year's Gator squad, if they ended up cutting down the nets tonight, more to 2003 Syracuse or 2000 Michigan State, a good team who was simply better than everyone else in that year's Tournament. But not an all-time great.

NYC Duke Fan
04-02-2007, 04:34 AM
Nobody leaves and they win another title next year, then they will be considered one of the greatest, probably second only to the great UCLA teams.

If Donovan stays and accomplishes that feat then I will annoit him as the best college coach coaching today.

freedevil
04-02-2007, 08:28 AM
I would argue they are one of the best teams in the newly-entrenched early-entry era, but I would have to agree with other posters that they are nowhere near the all-time greats. Duke '01 and UNC '05 were pretty incredible teams considering almost everyone goes pro before good teams can even come to fruition, but Florida's team is certainly up there, if not better should they repeat.

gw67
04-02-2007, 08:46 AM
If the Gators win tonight, I think that they will be ranked highly when talking about past winners. Perhaps not among the top 3-4 teams but in the next group below them. I see them as being similar to Cinncinati in the ealy 60's. They didn't have the star power of Ohio State but they finished ahead of them two straight years.

For my money the greatest teams were the UCLA teams of Alcindor and Walton, the NC State teams with Thompson, the Duke 91, 92 teams, and the undefeated Indiana team. The '82 Carolina, '96 Kentucky, '01 Duke and several others just don't quite measure up in my estimation.

A more interesting question is where Donovan stands if he wins back-to-back titles with very few highly rated recruits. I am not a big fan of his but he would deserve some major huzzahs.

gw67

johnnydakota
04-02-2007, 12:06 PM
If they win tonight, they will be top 25 of all-time, but, for me, not in the top 10 or 15. It's not their fault, but the really talented upperclassmen led teams just aren't there much anymore. Last year they snuck up on people and got on a roll. This year, they've been outplayed a couple times but their superior depth saved them. If osu can shoot a good percentage and Oden avoids all of this foul trouble, they will win. Florida is really good, but I think the best 15 or so of all-time would've beaten them.

kexman
04-02-2007, 05:33 PM
I assume most of us are cheering for Ohio State. If you are looking for a little entertainment for the game you can make a drinking game out of noah. Simply, drink everytime he does something annoying. One it is kind of funny and two it is effective in forgetting about the fact that we lost in the first round.

3rdgenDukie
04-02-2007, 05:44 PM
FL got the **** beat out of them by a team that didn't even play in the post-season and was missing its best player. That in and of itself disqualifies them from being an 'all-time' great team.

BobbyFan
04-02-2007, 06:16 PM
Regardless of what happens tonight, I won't consider this Florida team a "great" one. Forget about Duke 1992, I'd consider the following champions from 1992 onwards to be definitely better than Florida as well:

1995 UCLA
1996 Kentucky
2001 Duke

A case can be made for a few other teams as well. Maybe an argument can be made that Florida is as superior relative to it's competition as other great teams have been relative to their year's competition.

But if this Florida team went straight up against all-time great teams, it would be a mismatch. Of course, you can expect to hear otherwise from the media if Florida wins tonight.

Troublemaker
04-02-2007, 06:22 PM
For my money the greatest teams were the UCLA teams of Alcindor and Walton, the NC State teams with Thompson, the Duke 91, 92 teams, and the undefeated Indiana team. The '82 Carolina, '96 Kentucky, '01 Duke and several others just don't quite measure up in my estimation.


Totally agree, gw. UNC 82 is consistently overrated. They only went 5 deep (granted, they played pre-shotclock, but still). Jordan was only a freshman, Perkins only a sophomore. Now, they WERE a great team for that season having won the championship with only 2 losses, but they didn't dominate the competition and separate themselves. Same with Duke 01. We played 4 tough games with Maryland, and we weren't much better than Arizona.

SoCalDukeFan
04-03-2007, 02:17 PM
When they play well they look like a very strong team. You must be good to go back to back. But they had 6 losses this year, so I would not put them in the list of great teams.

SoCal

Duke09
04-03-2007, 05:21 PM
UF had a good team that surprised people last year. They then somehow got everyone to come back, including two very high picks, to defend. I don't feel like UF ever beat a great team like UNLV in 1991. They beat OSU who has two top players that are freshmen. I know the fab 5 were freshmen, but look at the impact they had in the league. I know it is too early, but I don't see this UF team making that splash. The difference in last night's was in 3 pointers entirely. Theres went in and OSU's didnt. It did not seem like they truely outplayed OSU. Duke 1992 was a much stronger team with the greatest college player, greatest college PG, one of the greatest basketball player ever (Hill), along with a great supporting staff.

hurleyfor3
04-03-2007, 05:29 PM
Not sure what it counts for, but Duke's 91-92 NCAA opponents were far stronger than Flawda's in 05-06. Stick Flawda in the 91 or 92 brackets and they wouldn't win either year.

Wander
04-03-2007, 05:40 PM
Florida is definately on the list of great teams. I don't think they would beat 1991 or 1992 Duke, but that's just an opinion, I don't know that and neither does anybody else. Calling a team that has won two national championships in a row "lucky" is just dumb.

azazel
04-03-2007, 06:00 PM
One thing about LAST year's Florida team that's easy to forget is that they were much higher than a 3-seed until they got bored in late February and lost those 3 games. I say "got bored" because it's clear that they did the same thing this year in late February and that it in no way diminished their ability to dominate March and April. If you write those 6 losses off to boredom then the 2-year run this group has had looks pretty freaking amazing.

ETA: I was trying to think of the best example of this in the NFL and laughed when I realized it would be former Gator Rex Grossman tanking the game against the Packers on New Year's Eve.

daredevil
04-03-2007, 08:50 PM
the main problem with college basketball is a lack of real mature talent. All the great players are leaving early. People say college basketball is more exciting now due to parity, yet in reality college basketball has just become mediocore.

Hard to say where this UF team ranks, yet college basketball has long past it's prime (late 1980's, early 1990's). Even hard for me seeing this team beat Duke 1999. But who knows.

Channing
04-15-2007, 07:32 PM
http://www.motheringhut.com/duke_florida.html

houstondukie
04-15-2007, 08:24 PM
That has to be the worst idea for a T-shirt design I have ever seen...especially the florida one.

captmojo
04-16-2007, 03:28 PM
floda couldn't touch'em