Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It's been 25 years since the Florida basketball team took its orange-and-blue faithful on that first magic Final Four carpet ride. It began with very little fanfare, but ended at the NCAA Tournament national semifinals in Charlotte, N.C., and what was then the greatest season in the program's 78 seasons.

This weekend, the 1993-94 team that set a school record for victories in going 29-8 and fueled itself with the motto "Find A Way" will be back in town to celebrate its silver anniversary season, including a halftime salute Saturday when the current Gators (15-11, 7-6), on a three-game winning streak (and also trying to find a way), take on Missouri (12-13, 3-10) in a pivotal Southeastern Conference game at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. As many as 20 players, coaches and support staff members of that squad, headlined by leader shooting guard Craig Brown and All-SEC point guard Dan Cross, will be back to take a halftime bow at the O'Dome. Together, they joined forces to take a program coming off back-to-back NIT seasons on one of the most unfathomable and unexpected journeys in the history of Florida athletics. 

Those Gators, coached by Lon Kruger, won their first five games, got off to a 4-0 start in the conference with a rousing and emotional home upset of Kentucky, won the SEC East Division, and as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament East region rolled to four straight wins, highlighted by an overtime upset of second-seeded Connecticut and Elite Eight defeat of Boston College in home-crowd environment at Miami, to reach the Final Four for the first time. 

UF lost to Duke, 70-65, in the national semifinal. 

For those who didn't live it, may have forgotten the details, or perhaps became spoiled by the annual success of the Billy Donovan era, here's a look back at the cast of unsung characters that put together that incredible run. 

Collectively, they found a way then.

Cheer them Saturday when they find their way back to take a bow. 


CRAIG BROWN 

Position: Shooting guard 
Ht/Wt: 6-3 / 188
Class: Senior 
Hometown: Steelton, Pa. 

1993-94 recap: Lone captain and senior starter on the squad, who was also the first signee of the Coach Lon Kruger era. … Started all 37 games, averaged 14.8 points while shooting 45.8 percent overall and 43.2 from the 3-point line, to go with 4.9 rebounds per game. … Named MVP of the NCAA East Region after scoring a season-high 21 points in 37 minutes in the Elite Eight defeat of Boston College, plus 17 points and nine rebounds in the upset of No. 2-seed UConn two nights before. … Set the school record for 3s in a season with 89 and culminated his career as the all-time 3-point shooter in school history. … Still the program's No. 20 scorer all time  with 1,419 points. 

Elite performances: Reached double figures in 33 games, with a double-double of 21 points, 13 rebounds and six assists in a 74-55 road win at Ole Miss, as the Gators opened the SEC season by winning 10 of their first 11 league games. Two months after losing to FSU at Orlando, Brown carded a near-triple double by helping the Gators avenge that defeat by out-dueling Charlie Ward and Bob Sura in a rematch at the O'Dome, with 12 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

Quote: "Craig Brown put the team on his shoulders and said, 'Give me the ball and I'll take you to the Final Four.' And he did it." — backup sophomore wing Jason Anderson after the BC victory.

Update: After two stints as an assistant coach at Central Florida (under a pair of former UF assistants in Kirk Speraw and Donnie Jones), Brown lives in China where he is a technical coach and liaison for the country's NBA Academy, one of the league's international arms that promotes the NBA brands and runs clinics. 


DAN CROSS 

Position: Point guard 
Ht/Wt: 6-3 / 193
Class: Junior 
Hometown: Carbondale, Ill. 

1993-94 recap: Started roughly half the games his first two years and averaged about 20 minutes, but took over the point guard spot as a junior and rarely came off the floor in starting all 37 games on his way to first-team All-SEC honors. … Cross led the team in scoring at 15.7 points per game, shot 48.2 percent from the floor, 44.4 from the arc, 82.3 from the free-throw line, plus grabbed 3.9 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. … Hit double figures just once in UF's first five games, then did so in each of the final 32.… Still ranks 16th all-time in scoring with 1,451 points

Elite performances: Had 15 points, 13 rebounds and four assists in win over Texas and career-best 29 on the road in an electrifying 99-87 shootout at eventual NCAA champion Arkansas. His running, one-handed layup with 7.2 seconds proved the difference in 64-62 NCAA Tournament first-round escape act against James Madison to tip off the Final Four run. 

Quote: "Dan Cross just will not let that time lose. He is so mentally tough that the rest of the team feeds off his attitude." — Tennessee coach Wade Houston after Cross went for 26 points and hit 13 of 15 free throws to hold off the Volunteers. 

Update: After taking turns in the CBA, USBL and some leagues overseas, Cross settled in Orlando and founded the Cross Academy LMS Life Skills Education and Technology Curriculum, an online educational software platform presenting courses for students, teachers, athletic departments, youth organizations and educational institutions. His son, Daniel, is a freshman walk-on receiver for the UF football team. 


ANDREW DeCLERCQ 

Position: Power forward  
Ht/Wt: 6-10 / 230
Class: Junior 
Hometown: Clearwater, Fla. 

1993-94 recap: Started all 37 games and averaged 8.8 points and team-best 7.8 rebounds that ranked sixth in SEC. Shot 54.4 percent from the floor (attempting just three 3s) and 65.4 from the free-throw line. Named second-team all-league. … Had six double-doubles that season and 11 games with at least 10 rebounds. … DeClercq finished his career with 1,309 points, which ranks 27th on the all-time list, and 958 rebounds, which ranks third behind only Neal Walk and Eugene McDowell. He started all 128 games of his career, which ranks second only to Kenny Boynton's 142. 

Elite performances: In the game that alerted the nation that Florida was for real, a 59-57 upset of No. 7 Kentucky, DeClercq scored just eight points, but pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds, one of just 10 players in school history to grab at least 20 boards in a game, as well the last Gator to do so (one of only two, along with McDowell in 1982, to net 20 over the previous 45 seasons). In that same game, he also had three blocked shots, three assists, four steals and took two charges. DeClercq had 16 points, 13 rebounds and arguably the most memorable blocked shot in program history in the East Region final against BC.

Quote: "That kid plays every possession like it's the end of the game. As a coach, that's what you strive for from a player." — Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun  

Update: DeClercq was a second-round draft pick in the 1995 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors (the 34th overall selection) and went on to play with four teams, including five seasons with the Orlando Magic, over a 10-year career. After three seasons as an assistant coach, with a stint at Montverde (Fla.) Academy, DeClercq is now a volunteer pastor at High Point Church in Ocoee, Fla. 


DAMETRI HILL

Position: Center 
Ht/Wt: 6-7 / 286
Class: Sophomore 
Hometown: St. Petersburg, Fla. 

1993-94 recap: The best individual story to come out of that magical season. … Hill arrived at UF as a freshman in '92-93 weighing 360 pounds. He played just 60 minutes over 16 games and averaged 1.1 point and 0.6 rebounds. A year later, he was a cult figure at the Final Four who answered to the nickname "DaMeat Hook" because of his go-to move in the post. … With Brown and Cross scoring on the perimeter, the Gators needed some form of offense inside. That wasn't going to come from DeClercq, who got most of his points cleaning up and in transition. But in Hill, UF could kick the ball down low and let him use his body — which checked in that season about 75 pounds lighter than the year before — to create space. Hill averaged 12.7 points, shot 51.3 percent from the floor, finishing in double-figure scoring 27 times, was second on the team with free-throw attempts (172 at 65.7 percent) and grabbed nearly five rebounds a game He became one of UF's all-time great testaments to rededication and commitment. … Hill continued to lose weight, dropping down near 260, and became one of only 14 players in school history to score at least 1,350 points (with 1,376, he's still No. 23 on the all-time list) and grab 575 rebounds. 

Elite performances: UF went to Honolulu for the Rainbow Classic, where Hill thoroughly outplayed future first-round pick and All-America 7-footer Bryant "Big Country" Reeves in an upset of No. 20 Oklahoma State. Hill went 9-for-16 from the floor on his way to 23 points and five rebounds, compared to Reeves' four points, four rebounds and foul-out over 28 minutes. The next night, the Gators lost to 11th-ranked Louisville, but Hill had a career-high 28 points, putting in 11 of his 15 shots on former McDonald's All-American Clifford Rozier. UF left the island knowing it had a serious inside presence to take into conference play.

Quote: "We could be playing the Gators. It doesn't matter. As long as we're there." — Hill upon learning UF would face Duke in the Final Four. 

Update: After leaving UF in 1996, Hill played professionally (mostly overseas) for 15 seasons, retiring in 2011. His pro career took him to (in no particular order) Israel, France, Slovakia, Latvia, Cypress, China, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Italy, Hungary, Portugal … oh, and Sioux Falls, S.D. He now works in a juvenile detention center in Pinellas County.   

BRIAN THOMPSON 

Position: Small forward 
Ht/Wt: 6-6 / 218
Class: Sophomore 
Hometown: Atlanta  

1993-94 recap: In conventional lineups, the small forward is a key offensive component that is relied upon to score. The Gators of that season, however, were not conventional. Thompson, who came from the prep hoops factory at Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy, started 22 games, averaged just 5.5 points (on 40-percent shooting), made just one 3-pointer all season (on 11 attempts) and converted only 48 percent of his free throws. Thompson, though, defended at a high, high level. And rebounded. Though he averaged just 3.8 boards per game, 73 percent of his rebounds were on the offensive end (57 of 78); in the SEC, 30 of his 32 rebounds were on offense (nearly 94 percent). … Thompson played two more seasons, starting 75 of 119 games, and scored 572 points and hauled in 442 rebounds. 

Elite performances: Thompson had 10 points and nine rebounds in a December road upset of Villanova that helped jump start the team's confidence. His career-high of 13 points also included eight rebounds, as the Gators beat South Carolina by two points to start the SEC season 3-0.  Thompson's steal and run-out dunk in the final minute of what became a 57-55 upset of Rodrick Rhodes, Tony Delk and Kentucky brought the O'Dome house down in one of the most electrifying moments of the season. 

Quote: "In the locker room before every game we always say, 'Remember what got us here!' We never forget. The hard work. The running. The lifting. The early morning practices and offseason training. Now we get to do something most teams only dream about." — Thompson after the Final Four-clinching defeat of Boston College. 

Update: Back in Atlanta, Thompson is the projection manager on the construction side of a restoration company. 


THE REST

Reserve	Pos.	Class	Ht / Wt	Hometown	Recap
Jason Anderson	G/F	Sophomore	6-4 / 195	College Park, Ga.	Top perimeter backup (18.4 mpg), best athlete on the team; 7.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg; 16 pts, 9 rebs in win over South Carolina.
Clayton Bates	G	Sophomore	6-2 / 190	Gainesville, Fla.	Walk-on from across the street at P.K. Yonge
Svein Dyrkolbotn	C/F	Junior	6-8 / 244	Bergen, Norway	"Norwegian Collegian" was Gainesville Oak Hall product, mostly spelled DeClercq; 1.8 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 61.9 percent in 37 games; now mastermind behind Celebration Pointe development project in Gainesville.
Martti Kuisma	F	Senior	6-11 / 236	Helsinki, Finland	"Thin Fin" was No. 2 scorer off the bench (4.6 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 16.4 mpg) and early version of a "stretch 4;" his 25 makes from distance (though at just 27.2 percent) were third-most behind Brown/Cross.
John Griffiths	C	Freshman	6-10 / 219	Lilburn, Ga.	Little-used post man (1.0 ppg, 1.2 rpg) who saw action in 14 games.
Tony Mickens	F	Junior	6-5 / 220	Memphis, Tenn.	Junior college transfer from Northern Oklahoma played in 26 games (1.9 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 9.2 mpg); Young Kevin Kruger sat in his lap on the bench during tourney run.
Joel Reinhart	F	Freshman	6-5 / 205	Cocoa Beach, Fla.	Played in two games (scored two points), but in time would start early for Coach Billy Donovan's first UF team three years later.
Dan Williams	G	Freshman	6-3 / 175	Dunedin, Fla.	Walk-on son of former UF star and 1,246-point scorer Chip Williams (1972-75). Did not play that season.
Greg Williams	G	Freshman	6-3 / 183	Fairfax, Va.	Key backup at both guard spots; only averaged 2.1 pts on 26.7 shooting (just 27.2 from arc), but hit huge late 3-ball in UF's survive-and-advance 1st-round NCAA win over James Madison.

THE STAFF

Coach	Post	Update
Lon Kruger	Head Coach	Now head coach at Oklahoma, with stops at Illinois, NBA Atlanta Hawks, UNLV along the way; led Sooners to 2016 Final Four.
Robert McCullum	Assistant	Now head coach at Florida A&M, following earlier stints as head coach at Western Michigan and South Florida.
Ron Stewart	Assistant	Now a scout for the NBA Milwaukee Bucks; held head coach posts for women's teams at Western Michigan and Nevada Reno.
R.C. Buford	Assistant (restricted earnings)	Now general manager of the San Antonio Spurs, where he's won five NBA titles; took UF job for one year following four seasons alongside Hall-of-Famer  Larry Brown at Kansas and Spurs. UF players universally credit Buford for helping take them to the next level.
Mike Sheppard	Video coordinator	Now director of basketball operations at OU, he's been at Kruger's side for the better part of the last three-plus decades.
Chris Koenig	Trainer	Held same position through eight seasons with Billy Donovan.

Strength and conditioning coaches: Pat Moorer and Dennis Tripp 
Managers: Tim Klein, Steven Grimberg, Mike Stein and Ryan Hardin 


* COMING FRIDAY: The fighting "Find-A-Ways" reflect on that memorable season