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Defending Champ Florida Gets Top Billing
"I don't think it's a coincidence, no," Weber said.
_ A possible Pittsburgh-UCLA matchup in the West Regional that would match Bruins coach Ben Howland against the team he left. UCLA's first-round matchup is against Weber State, Howland's alma mater.
  Ohio State players celebrate their Big Ten Tournament championship basketball game victory in Chicago, Sunday, March 11, 2007. Ohio State defeated Wisconsin 66-49. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey) (Brian Kersey - AP)   The Gators are too much to handle in an 84-75 victory over Ohio State for their second straight national championship. On Hoops: Florida is a team for the ages, because in winning back-to-back national titles they took a very good team's best shot and still came out victorious. The Buckeyes are setback by the Gators' three-point shooting every time they try to make a run. Greg Oden, the public introvert, and Joakim Noah, the unabashed extrovert, share a common desire to savor college. Select CompanyFlorida joined a small group who repeated as men's basketball champion:Oklahoma State 1945-46 Kentucky 1948-49 San Francisco 1955-56 Cincinnati 1961-62 UCLA 1964-65, 1967-73 Duke 1991-92 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPFINAL FOURREGIONAL FINALSSouth West Midwest EastMULTIMEDIA Photos: Snapshots from the 2007 NCAA tournament. Video: Charting Texas freshman Kevin Durant's rapid rise to the top. Video: Post columnist Sally Jenkins talks about Durant. ON OUR SITETeam-by-Team Analysis:Coaching Tree: The Six Degrees of March's Mayhem (PDF) Flashback: A Quarter-Century Worth of Memories (PDF) TOURNEY TRACKER Share and compare your NCAA brackets. |
_ Top-seeded Florida, best team in the South, moved to the Midwest Regional, where it would have to play in St. Louis; Ohio State, best team in the Midwest, placed in the South Regional, where it would have to go through San Antonio.
"When we looked at the mileage, it was a little bit of a push," Walters said. "St. Louis seemed like a more natural area for Florida to go."
The Gators defeated Ohio State 86-60 back in December, but that was before sensational freshman, Greg Oden, was a factor for the Buckeyes; he was just coming back from a broken wrist. Walters said it wasn't so much that victory, as Florida's overall performance this season, that led the committee to list the Gators as the top team.
"That was a decisive victory," Walters said. "But one has to acknowledge that Ohio State was, at that time, just getting Oden into the mix. I think Billy Donovan would be the first to concede that Ohio State is a very worthy first-line team."
At first glance, the East Regional seems to be the toughest. There, North Carolina earned its record 11th top seed, but second-seeded Georgetown has won 15 of 16 and fourth-seeded Texas is led by freshman Kevin Durant, who might be the best player in the country.
"We should have some confidence from winning the ACC tournament, but as I've always said, you build your momentum in the NCAA tournament," Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said.
The easiest path? Maybe its Florida in the Midwest, though nobody would relish that possible second-round matchup against Olson and Arizona.
All that's debatable, as was the committee's decision to offer so few spots to the underdog teams that have put so much of the madness into Marches past.
"It would be the height of arrogance to say we get everything 100 percent right all the time," Walters said. "I'm not suggesting that not selecting Drexel isn't the right decision. But I am suggesting if you put 10 people around a table, one could come up with different results."
