Joakim Noah embraces Al Horford as time expires in Florida's romp of UCLA in the 2006 NCAA Championship Game.
Coming Home: Billy D, 2006-07 Gators to be Saluted Saturday
Friday, September 9, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Football, Chris Harry
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Billy Donovan and his back-to-back NCAA title teams will be honored during the Kentucky football game as part of a 10-year reunion salute.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — They were four days removed from making college basketball history. Their first-of-a-kind achievement, accomplished not because of one player but as a near-perfectly functioning unit, had guaranteed their place in the game's lore.
The incomparable quartet of Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green was on top of the world.
And in tears. Billy Donovan
The day was April 5, 2007. A Thursday. The previous Monday night, the Florida Gators had defeated No. 1 Ohio State 84-75 to become just the third program in nearly a half-century to win back-to-back NCAA championships — and the only team ever to do it with the same starting five. Now, it was time for the next step. The NBA was calling the four juniors who arrived together as the freshman class of 2004 and had spent virtually every day of the the last three years together. To each, the realization of going their separate ways was every bit as poignant as those moments awash in the confetti rain at the Georgia Dome earlier that week.
"It's rough, but it's time for all of us to move on and take on new challenges," Brewer said, speaking somberly into a microphone while flanked by his three best friends. "It's just so hard for all of us because we love each other so much … ."
The sentence melted into a sob.
That's when Billy Donovan chimed in. As Brewer, Noah, Horford and Green stared blankly through their tears, the man who recruited them, nurtured them and coached them — sometimes with tough love — was not surprised by their collective reaction. Not at all.
"You want to know why we won? You can see the commitment in their faces, that's why," an emotional Donovan said with a smile. "How many kids do you see making an announcement to go to the NBA break down and cry. Most kids are happy and joyful."
He paused, as if for effect.
"They're different."
Were they ever.
The double-dipping Gators of '06 and '07 may be the most beloved bunch in the history of UF athletics, given the thrill ride they took the UF fan base on during those two stunning Marches and Aprils. If anyone has forgotten what they meant, come to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday and experience their reunion weekend when Donovan, Noah, Horford, Brewer and bunch of the others are welcomed back and recognized during Florida's football game against Kentucky with a 10-year anniversary celebration.
Most of the crew will arrive Friday in time for a reception at the stadium, with a Saturday tailgate party planned for pre-game and on-field salute in the first quarter. Some, most notably Green, Walter Hodge and Adrian Moss, who are all playing overseas, will not be able to make it.
The ones who do will be warm the crowd up with a collective honorary Mr. Two Bits chant, then shower themselves in a decade's worth of adulation and nostalgia. The Gators of 2007 became of the first program in college basketball history to win back-to-back NCAA championships with the same starting five, thanks to (from left) Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Lee Humphrey, Joakim Noah and Taurean Green.
"Those guys obviously have a million things going on, but the fact they're coming back just reminds you of how special they all are," UF athletic director Jeremy Foley said of the group that combined to go 18-0 in two straight postseasons, including two league tournament crowns. "The way they did it, the unselfishness and the passion, and the love they all had for each other, it'll bring back so many memories."
The trip back will coincide with next week's SEC Network airing of "Repeat After Us," a 51-minute SEC Storied documentary chronicling the greatest two-year basketball run in Southeastern Conference basketball history. The show, which will air Tuesday at 9 p.m., mainly profiles the four "04s" who came in together, were so different (Green, the son of a coach; Horford the old soul; Brewer the screwball; Noah, with his flamboyant international flair) yet so alike.
Their story is one story.
Unranked to start the '06 season and having failed to advance out of the NCAA Tournament's first weekend five straight years, the Gators won it all, then shocked the world by announcing amid the bedlam of a packed O'Connell Center pep rally that everyone — including Noah, the projected No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft — was coming back.
Seven months later, tagged with a bulls-eye and dealing with all the pressure a reigning champion could withstand, the Gators started the season No. 1 and became the first program since Duke in '91-92 and only the third program (along with UCLA) since 1963 to win consecutive titles.
Two years. Two completely different circumstances. Two championships.
And to think it began with everyone wondering how the team could possibly win.
"All the pundits talked about was what we didn't have coming back," recalled then assistant coach Larry Shyatt.
After the 2005 season ended with a SEC Tournament title over Kentucky and second-round NCAA exit against Villanova, the Gators said goodbye to a trio of three-year starters in Matt Walsh, Anthony Roberson and David Lee. With them went 1,404 points (or 61.5 percent) of their scoring the season before, leaving Brewer and his 7.5 per-game average the leading offensive player back.
Florida was predicated to struggle.
Recalled then-assistant to the head coach Darren Hertz: "I remember going into the locker room one day in the preseason and Jo asking, 'Hertzy, why all the hate for the Gators? I think we're gonna be pretty good.' "
Noah, by the way, had averaged just 3.5 points as a freshman, his college career getting off to slow start due to a bout with mononucleosis that he just could not shake. Part of the problem was Noah's unbridled work ethic. His classmates were contributing, he wasn't. Noah was so frustrated one night after he barely played in a road game that upon returning to the facility he hopped off the bus and stormed away by himself.
Donovan called then-manager Matt McCall with orders to check on him.
"I found Jo later that night at the track across the street," recalled McCall, now head coach at Tennessee-Chattanooga. "He was running sprints by himself."
Not by himself, actually. Horford, Brewer and Green were there encouraging him.
Get the picture?
"Their closeness just kind of evolved from walking into a situation with a bunch of dynamic personalities and players already on the team; guys who had had a lot of success and been to a bunch of NCAA tournaments," McCall said. "They just bonded, whether it was hanging out in their dorms or going to the gym at 9 or 10 o'clock to play one-on-one, two-on-two, whatever. And, yeah, when Roberson, Walsh and Lee left, the sense around the country was, 'Well, that's it. These guys have no shot.' But they were on a mission to prove everyone wrong."
Joakim Noah takes his turn cutting down the net after the '06 defeat of UCLA.
That mission was accomplished after a good-not-great SEC season of 10-6 that helped draw a No. 3 seed. Eventually, UF smashed five of its six NCAA foes, including a lopsided 73-57 defeat of UCLA in the title game. One mission gave way to another; a far more difficult one.
Consider the stakes: With NBA futures on the line, Noah, Horford, Brewer and Green all came back for the sole purpose of winning another national championship. Anything short of it would be considered a monumental failure.
Ultimately, the Gators would not fail because they refused to let one another down.
Their faces on the way out told it all.
"For those guys, there was always a deeper motivation. They loved each other, loved being at Florida. Those were the things they were competing for," Donovan said this week. "The press conference that day, it was unbelievable. The fact that it was all coming to end, that they weren't ever going to play with each other again, it just really hit home."
And made their time together that much more special.
This weekend, they'll be reunited for the first time since heading down their different paths. Think that will be special?
"I told them then and still believe it," Donovan said. "Those guys will go down as one of the greatest teams ever to play the game. Maybe not the greatest individual players, but the greatest team — and a team wins championships."
In this case, two of 'em. In a row. With the same starting five. There's a good chance it'll never happen again.
Come out Saturday, stand and show your appreciation.
