Sports: College Athletics: University of Florida in Basketball, Football, and Women's Gymnastics

A fan of the bastion of atheletic prowess, the University of Florida posted on That'sFit blog: "My Florida Gators win second straight NCAA basketball title and teach life leason" (Apr3,2k7). Altho he left out some key details, Fitz's blog conveys the spirit of an enamored fan after his team reached the top of the National Collegiate Athletic Assocation for the second time in a row these last two years (and we mite add, it's football team earlier won the NCAA championship as well. Whether it's Gator Basketball or Gator Football (that's American-style football), this fan exudes his joy and gives us a bonus sermonette to boot:

Last night I watched and cheered as my Alma mater's basketball team won the Big Dance. Again! It was a spectacular feat which was well earned. I've had the luxury to sit court-side at many games this year, and as wonderful as they look on television, they're even more impressive in person. I have tons of respect for this team.

The Gators are composed of incredible athletes who play selflessly every second of every game. Each Gator works hard in the gym and on the court more for the guy next to him than for himself. They are quick, agile, strong and smart. Each player is a coach's dream. Since they play for one another, they never made excuses or trained half way.

Gators' basketball coach, Billy Donovan, was so roundly supported thru-out the Florida ranks for his second championship in a row that he turned down a contract offer to coach his sport at the more prestigious University of Kentucky.

While Donovan is staying, four of his players, not even yet seniors, are turning pro to enter the National Basketball Association.

...[J]uniors Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Taurean Green will all give up their final year of college eligibility to enter the National Basketball Association. The quartet and senior Lee Humphrey teamed to become the first starting five in National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament history to win back-to-back titles.

``They need to take the next step,'' Donovan said at a televised press conference with the players in Gainesville, Florida.

Each of the players are considered by scouts to be first-round picks. College underclassmen have until April 29 to declare for the June 28 draft. They can withdraw their names by June 18 if they don't hire an agent.

``We did everything we could possible do in college basketball,'' Brewer, the Most Outstanding Player of this year's Final Four, said. ``It's been so much fun, but we all know it's time to move on and take new challenges.''

The four players accounted for 83 percent of the scoring from Florida starters this season. Green averaged a team-high 13.3 points, Brewer and Horford averaged 13.2 points each and Noah 12 points.

Florida captured its second straight national title April 2 with an 84-75 win over Ohio State. The Gators are the seventh team overall and first since Duke in 1991 and 1992 to win consecutive titles.

After winning the championship last year, Noah, Horford and Brewer were projected as first-round NBA draft picks and opted to return to Florida for their junior seasons. The Gators returned to the Final Four this year, beating UCLA in a rematch of last year's title game and Ohio State.

Donovan has a 261-103 record in 11 seasons at Florida.

Without his stars on hand next year, Donovan will be building again on younger players at the university for their sophomore and junior years. He must see prospects, and have a real appetite for challenges.

As tho all that weren't enuff, New York Times weaves the men's stories in basketball and football into an account featureing UFlorida's women's gymnastics team.

last weekend’s Southeastern Conference championships in Arkansas.

The Gators’ gymnasts, using the success of the university’s reigning national champion football team and its resplendent men’s basketball team as a springboard, vaulted Georgia and Alabama to win the title, becoming the first college other than the Bulldogs or Crimson Tide since 1989 to wear the crown.

With the NCAA regionals looming in two weeks — followed two weeks later by the national championships in Salt Lake City — the gymnasts did not dare take a practice off, even to acknowledge the team whose success has spurred their own.

Here, at the center of the college sporting scene, while other athletic programs ponder how to catch up to the Gators, the Gators are busy chasing one another. After the football team equaled the success of the basketball team, the basketball team raised the bar by repeating, becoming the first university to win the football and basketball Division I championships in the same academic year.

Samantha Lutz, a senior gymnast, said, “I feel like all the sports are feeding off each other, like the entire athletic association has caught fire.”

Gators, it seems, are surfacing everywhere. Ryan Lochte, a former Florida standout, last week set an individual world record and won five medals at the World Aquatics Championships in Australia. An ex-Gator golfer, Camilo Villegas, is playing this week in his first Masters.

There has to be some kind of special social-psychological phenom in process at University of Flordia--as well as a lot of hardwork and discipline on the part of the student athletes, and good coaches.