Florida Gators NCAA Champs Again
Poor 3-point Shooting to Blame for OSU Loss
OSU fails to hit crucial 3-point shots in loss against back-to-back champs
The University of Florida Gators took home another national basketball championship on Monday, April 2, 2007. The Gators beat the Ohio State University Buckeye’s 84-75 in a game where 3-point shots made all the difference.
This is the second year in a row the Gator’s have won the title which places them in an elite class of schools that have won back-to-back NCAA Basketball Championships. Only two other schools have accomplished this; Duke in 1991 and 1992 and University of California, Los Angeles in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The Ohio State Buckeyes lost by nine points Monday night but trailed earlier in the game by as many as 14 points. Florida is being hailed as one of the best college basketball teams of all time, however their win Monday night wasn’t due entirely to their own skills quite as much as it may seem. Florida didn’t win the game as much as OSU lost the game.
It seemed to many as if OSU just couldn’t stop the mighty Gators, but the real problem was the Buckeyes never jumpstarted themselves. Their defense was sub-par and their offense couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from the 3-point line. OSU was an appalling 17% from the 3-point line to Florida’s 55%. Other than that, free throws, two-pointers and fouls were all pretty evenly matched. It all came down to the 3-point line and OSU failed to come up with the big shots.
There were, however, a few standouts among the mediocrity. Greg Oden, freshman center for OSU, had an astonishing 25 points, ten points over his points-per-game average for the season while he played 38 minutes, well over his minutes-per-game average. He also had four blocks and 12 rebounds. Florida’s Corey Brewer became the game’s MVP with 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals. His individual 3-point total was only one less then OSU's team total for the game.
There were moments during the game that got the crowd up on their feet and excited with wild dunks from Oden, wide open 3-point shots from Gator's Senior Guard Lee Humphrey's and break-away plays by both teams.
With two minutes left in the second half the OSU players appeared to have given up. They started to lag on defense and lacked hustle on offense. They started shooting long-shot 3-pointers that looked half hearted but two actually went in narrowing the point gap a bit and bringing OSU’s dismal total of 3-point field goals to four.
As the seconds ticked away on another basketball season Florida walked away with another championship and OSU left the court deflated. As the Florida Gators step their way into the record books OSU steps back to the off-season and, hopefully, back to 3-point shooting fundamentals.
