History repeat's itself

84 days. That’s the amount of time between January 8, 2007 and April 2, 2007. 12 weeks.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a sports blog, not a running calendar. But lets examine the parallels between 1/9/07 and 4/2/07. Both were dates of an NCAA championship game. Both were Monday’s. The first game was played in G.A. (Glendale, Arizona). The second game will be played in A.G. (Atlanta, Georgia). And of course, both games featured the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators.

On Jan. 9, the matchups to watch were Troy Smith vs. Chris Leak (best QB), Ted Ginn, Jr. vs. Percy Harvin (fastest receiver), Jim Tressel vs. Urban Meyer (top coach). On Monday night, these matchups switch to Greg Oden vs. Al Horford (best big man), Ron Lewis vs. Corey Brewer (best swingman) and Thad Matta vs. Billy Donovan (again, top coach). So it’s a bit different.

But not everything has changed. It’s still Big 10 vs. SEC, Brutus Buckeye vs. Albert E. Gator, dotting the ‘I’ vs. the Gator chomp . Still Buckeyes and Gators.

As I fondly recall, the Gators won the matchup on the football field, absolutely dominating OSU in a 41-14 blowout. So what will happen when these two schools face off on the basketball court?

The Buckeyes and Gators are very similar teams. They both like to feed their big men offensively, and then allow the centers to either score or kick out to an open shooter. They both have exciting point guards who make smart choices with the basketball. And they both are very tough defensively. So how do we differentiate the two teams?

In the National Semifinal game for Ohio State, the leader of the team was freshmen point guard Mike Conley, Jr. Conley shot 58 percent from the field in scoring 15 points, while also pulling down five rebounds and dishing six assists. (And best of all for OSU, only one turnover.) He played great defense and ran the offense to perfection. Conley’s teammate, both with the Buckeyes and previously and Indianapolis’ Lawrence North High School, is fellow freshmen Greg Oden, who had a big night of his own on Saturday. Though he was troubled with early foul trouble, he did finish one rebound shy of a double-double and almost put in the greatest dunk in Final 4 history.

For the Gators, the players that took them from Final 4 to Top 2 were guard Lee Humphrey and backup center Chris Richard. While the entire team dominated an undersized UCLA team on the defensive end, it was Humphrey who was draining threes from the perimeter and Richard who was cleaning up the glass and putting in easy buckets down low. The two combined to shoot 12 for 16 from the field while scoring 30 points. Did I mention that these two players are the only two seniors in the Gators top six players. And that these two are the only ones of those top six who are not projected draft picks on various NBA mock drafts.

So in the game of all games, the last college basketball contest of the 2006-07 campaign, will it be the young Bucks or the old Gators? I like the trio of Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Richard taking turns guarding Oden, minimizing the foul trouble they will get in. On the other end, I’m not really sure who Oden faces, meaning OSU may go to a zone. If that happens and Humphrey and Cory Brewer are making shots, that’s bad news for Ohio State. This game should be closer then the football matchup, but just like on January 8, expect the fans from the Sunshine State to be screaming when the final buzzer sounds. FLORIDA 76-68



*By the way, I know I put Ohio State on my list of eight teams that can win it all on February 28 and that Florida wasn’t there. I said the Gators weren’t motivated enough to go back to back. Whoops. Looks like I was way off on that one. And on another note, have a happy opening day.