GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For the fifth time in their basketball histories, Florida and Butler will play Saturday when the two programs clash at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. The game will mark their second meeting in just the last 37 days, with the Gators (7-4) and Bulldogs (9-3) having tussled Nov. 23 at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Butler won that one, 61-54, a game that was hard-played by both, but not exactly high on drama.
Mike Miller releases his game-winner.
As opposed to the first time they played.
If you're a fan of either program — or just a plain college basketball junkie — you know the game. UF and Butler were matched on March 17, 2000 in opening-round play of the NCAA East Region at Veterans Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Gators were the No. 5 seed and the Bulldogs check in at No. 12.
I was there that day, as the UF beat writer for
The Orlando Sentinel, to chronicle what remains one of most remarkable games of my 35 years writing sports. Over those three-plus decades, I've seen a lot of fantastic finishes in a lot of stadiums and arenas, and Mike MIller's buzzer-beater that afternoon ranks very high on that list. But this game — particularly, this post-game — rates No. 1 among the thousands of games I've covered with regard to the raw emotion that drained (if not bled) in its aftermath.
And I'm talking about from both teams.
There surely will be a handful of people in the O'Dome Saturday afternoon that were witness to a moment that is replayed over and over each March during coverage of the NCAA Tournament (and will be again today during the broadcast, rest assured). One of the people in the house will be Butler coach LaVall Jordan, whose infamous hand in the outcome — an 83.6-percent free throw shooter who missed a pair with 8.1 seconds to play — was every bit as pivotal as Miller's overtime game-winner that launched the run to UF's first national-title game.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" set up here]
In 2017, a couple months after leaving his post as an assistant at Michigan and returning to his alma mater as head coach,
The Indianapolis Star-Banner asked Jordan to reflect on some of the days of his Bulldog career, one he finished as the winningest player in program history.
The pain of the Florida game was still there.
In the locker room afterward, he couldn't get up. Couldn't shower, couldn't eat, couldn't stand. LaVall Jordan cried with his head down, avoiding eye contact with everyone, especially seniors Mike Marshall and Andrew Graves.
LaVall Jordan was named Butler's coach on June 12, 2017.
It was March, Butler playing Florida in the NCAA tournament, and it was madness. One day earlier Jordan had buried the woman who raised him in Albion, Mich., his great-aunt Jetha Jeffers, and had flown to Winston-Salem, N.C., late that Thursday night to rejoin his team. The game was Friday, and as it happens, Jordan missed the game-winning shot in regulation and then two free throws in the final seconds of overtime, allowing Florida's Mike Miller to beat Butler at the buzzer.
"Worst week of my life," Jordan is saying Tuesday.
Nobody was blaming Jordan for that 69-68 loss to Florida. Even for Butler this was a uniquely unselfish team, with Jordan averaging a team-best 11.7 ppg — the only player in double figures — in a season where nobody led Butler in scoring two games in a row. The bus was warming up outside, but freshman Joel Cornette, already showing signs of the leadership genius that would mark his too-short life, waited for Jordan. They walked out of Lawrence Joel Coliseum together.
Where were you that day?
So instead of writing about Florida-Butler renewing their acquaintance of just a month ago, here's what I wrote 19 years ago when the Gators and Bulldogs first met, when Miller was the happy victim of a delirious dog pile on one end of the floor, when Jordan was curled in a fetal position and the embrace of a teammate on the other, and the next-day headline in
The Sentinel screamed with 64-point type.
The Great Escape
By Chris Harry
OF THE SENTINEL STAFF
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Hunched over in front of his locker, a glazy-eyed Udonis Haslem had trouble putting it all into words. Moments earlier, the University of Florida locker room was flooded with tears of joy, thanks to a stunning combination of relief and happiness that only the NCAA Tournament provides.
"We were talking the other night about how we never win the close ones, how tips never go our way, how bounces never fall for us," Haslem said. "Now, even if we don't go very far, we can all be grateful for this one for the rest of our lives."
UF's surprising run to the Final Four six years ago is the program's measuring stick for success. Its "one shining moment," as they say this time of year.
Now, there's a runner-up.
Sophomore forward Mike Miller's driving, leaning jumper rolled over the rim and through the basket as the overtime horn sounded to lift the 13th-ranked Gators to a 69-68 win Friday against Butler in first-round play of the NCAA East Regional before 14,252 at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
"You dream about it," said Miller, who finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks, two assists and two steals. "You grow up playing basketball all your life, taking that shot in your driveway, daydreaming that one day it could be you."
He paused.
"Then it happens."
UF's first buzzer-beating victory in more than four years advanced the fifth-seeded Gators (25-7) into Sunday's second round to face fourth-seeded Illinois (22-9) with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.
Fighting Illini coach Lon Kruger, the man responsible for guiding Florida to that 1994 Final Four, scouted and watched from the sidelines as the Gators stormed from seven back with four minutes to go in regulation and from three back in the final seconds of overtime to come away with one of the most dramatic victories in school history.
Afterward, Kruger exited the arena speaking not about Sunday's logical storyline — the Gators vs. their former coach — but about the compelling theater that had just unfolded before him.
"That was one of the guttiest performances I've ever seen," Kruger said. "What a game."
Mike Miller was in tears when greeted by senior teammate Kenyan Weaks.
And what an ending. Make that endings. No less than three times Florida looked dead; looked as they it would be the first major casualty of the NCAA's field of 64.
"If you had walked into our locker room, you would have thought we'd lost the game," said sophomore guard Teddy Dupay, who penetrated the Butler defense and kicked a pass to Miller to set up the game-winner. "Everyone, I mean everyone, was crying."
Gators coach Billy Donovan walked in to address his players after his third NCAA win in four games and saw as much. Even Haslem, Brent Wright and Donnell Harvey, the beastly frontcourt players who helped will the team to victory, could not hold back.
Moments later, both senior Kenyan Weaks, a miracle shot from his final collegiate game, and Miller, the miracle worker, were bashfully covering their faces as they fought back tears on the post-game interview podium.
"This is one of the greatest moments of my life," said Weaks, who had 13 points and five rebounds. "Mike made a tough shot, a great shot. I love him and I love my teammates."
Said Donovan: "I'm just so proud of our kids, the way they persevered, and the character and heart they showed. When a team like Butler has a four-point lead on you with less than two minutes to go, it's like a 10-point lead against anybody else."
Butler (23-8), winner of 15 straight, led 56-49 with 4:02 to play in regulation until Miller drained a 3-pointer to start UF's charge. With 15.2 seconds left, Haslem, a 61-percent free-throw shooter, coolly swished a pair to tie the score. Bulldogs guard LaVall Jordan missed a 17-footer that would have won the game at the buzzer, forcing overtime.
Butler led twice by three points in the extra session, the second time when guard Andrew Graves swished an NBA-range 3-pointer with 30.6 seconds — and the shot clock sounding — for a 68-65 edge. The Gators looked finished again.
"Coach Donovan kept saying, 'You're still in it! Keep fighting! This game is not over!' " freshman guard Brett Nelson said. "He said it so much we believed him."
Instead of going for a tying 3-pointer, Donovan opted for a two, with Weaks knifing through the defense for a layup to cut the margin to 68-67. On the inbound pass, the Gators wrapped up Jordan, an 84-percent free-throw shooter, with 8.1 seconds left.
He missed both.
"There's a reason for everything," Jordan said afterward. "I don't know what the reason for that was, but it better be a good one."
Wright rebounded the second miss and shoveled the ball to Dupay. On the UF sideline, Donovan called for "Home Run," which is the scramble set the Gators use in game-ending situations. Dupay penetrated to the free-throw line and passed off to Miller.
LaVall Jordan (right) is comforted by teammate Mike Marshall.
"With four seconds left there was plenty of time to create something," Miller said. "Coach has always told us that in most cases in that situation you're not going to get the foul [call], so you have to go up and try to finish."
From there, the Florida forward, who has been known to disappear during key stretches this season, attacked the basket.
"He just overpowered us," Graves said. "When I saw the ball fall through, it felt like the world had come to an end."
Miller, as it turned out, disappeared again. Under a pile of teammates.
"I just remember telling them that I loved 'em, I loved 'em, I loved 'em," Miller said. "Every game we've gotten closer and closer. Once you get to that point where you know everybody's got your back you can get to the mountaintop."
The climbing continues Sunday against an old friend.
Win or lose, however, there will always be Butler.
