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Florida Gators basketball team represents the University of Florida in the Southeastern Conference's Eastern division. They play their home games at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida, USA. They have two national championships, having won the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament back-to-back, the first team since the 1991-1992 Duke team to accomplish this feat and the first to do it with the same starting lineup. Billy Donovan, in his eleventh season in 2006-07, is the current head coach of the Gators.
OverviewThe Florida Gators men's team annually plays a 16-game conference schedule that is preceeded by an out of conference schedule against few annual opponents except for Florida State. Their conference schedule consists of a pair of home-and-home games against the other five SEC Eastern Division teams, plus one game against each of the six Western Division teams, with home games alternating each season. The Gators have seldom had rivals in basketball until recently, when their success found them competing against Kentucky and Tennessee. HistoryFlorida had limited success prior to the mid-1990s. However, under the tenure of Norm Sloan, Vernon Maxwell led the team to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen in 1987, and Sloan coached the team to the tournament again the following two years. After a drug scandal involving Maxwell, Sloan left and the program went on probation. Don DeVoe coached the team for the 1989-90 season, after which Lon Kruger was hired. While never known as a great recruiter, Kruger slowly brought the team to increased success and reached the NIT final four in his second year as coach. In 1993-94, however, the pieces fell into place for Florida. Behind Andrew DeClercq and Dametri Hill, the Gators went to their first Final Four following a dramatic victory over UConn where Donyell Marshall missed two free throws with no time on the clock to force overtime, where the Gators eventually prevailed. They lost to Duke in the national semifinal, 70-65. The next year, they returned to the NCAA tournament, but were eliminated in the first round. Kruger's final season in 1995-96 resulted in a losing record, and he left to coach at Illinois. Florida's Athletic Director, Jeremy Foley, looking for a young coach with a proven track record, hired Billy Donovan, then at Marshall, as Kruger's replacement. His recruiting prowess was evident early, bringing future NBA star Jason Williams with him from Marshall and having early recruiting classes with future NBA players Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Matt Bonner, among others. The Gators have made the NCAA Tournament every year since Donovan's third season with the team, an eight-year streak that is easily the school record. During the 1999-2000 season, the upstart Gators beat such traditional powerhouses as Duke, Illinois (led by former coach, Lon Kruger), and North Carolina to advance to their first national title game, before losing to the heavily-favored Michigan State Spartans. The team had the distinction of never having won a conference tournament despite several regular-season titles under Donovan until the 2004-05 season, when they beat rival Kentucky in the SEC title game. The 2005-2006 team began the season unranked and went on a 17-0 winning streak for the best start in school history, surprising many with a young (four sophomores and one junior) but selfless squad following the graduation of David Lee and the departures of Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson to the NBA. The trio accounted for 60% of their offense in 2005. The team faded late in the regular season, losing its last 3 games in February and entering the postseason with a 24-6 record, yet still managed to win its second consecutive SEC Tournament championship. The Gators entered the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as a #3 seed with a 27-6 record and #10 national ranking. They beat South Alabama and Milwaukee to advance to the Minneapolis regional. There, the Gators defeated the Georgetown Hoyas and upset the top-seeded Villanova Wildcats 75-62 to avenge their loss in the previous year's tournament and move on to their second Final Four under Donovan. Florida defeated the upstart George Mason Patriots 73-58 in the National Semi-finals in Indianapolis. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the UCLA Bruins 73-57 in the National Finals to win the school's first men's basketball championship. The University of Florida Athletic Association then purchased the floor used in Indianapolis for the Final Four, and installed it in the O'Connell Center. The Gators returned all five starters from their championship team to begin the 2006-07 basketball season as the preseason #1 in both major media polls, a first for the university. The Gators locked up the regular season championship in the SEC relatively early in the 06-07 season and were in possession of a 24-2 record before going on a late-February 1-3 skid that mirrored their 0-3 run a year earlier. For the second season in a row, the losses in February would be their last. Florida closed out Kentucky on Senior Night to end the regular season 26-5, and won their 3rd straight SEC tournament with relative ease, beating Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas 77-56. Florida entered the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as the #1 overall seed in the tournament, and they advanced to the Final Four after wins in the regional against #5 seed Butler and #3 seed Oregon. In a rematch of the 2006 title game, the Gators again eliminated the UCLA Bruins. Florida defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 84-75, in a rematch of a game they won 86-60 three months earlier, to become the first team since the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils to win back-to-back championships and the first college team ever to win repeat championships with the same starting lineup. Notable current and former players
2006-2007 Basketball Championship starting 5
External linksOfficial website at Gatorzone.com Virtual Swamp On-line community for Gators and friendly rivals
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