The Oh-Fours: 2004-06
Denver Parler
6/25/2020
The Oh-Fours – Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Al Horford and Joakim Noah – are legendary in Florida Gators history and college basketball lore, a recruiting class that, along with Lee Humphrey, not only led Florida to the sport's only back-to-back national championships over the past 25 years, but did it with the same starting five both seasons.
Gator Tales takes us through a six-part series looking back on that memorable era.
It didn't take long for the group of freshmen to click once they arrived on campus, and it was their mutual love of the game that first bonded them.
Corey Brewer: “After we moved our stuff in, we were just sitting there and were like, ‘Let’s go to the gym,’" Brewer said. "So me, Taurean and Al went to the gym and started shooting, and here comes Jo in the gym being Jo, crazy. The first thing he says, ‘I like you guys already, my type of dudes. Y’all are already working out.’ From then on, we were just gym rats. That’s the first time I was like, ‘Oh, we’re all the same. We all love being in the gym.’"
Al Horford: “Right away, it felt like we’d known each other for many years and we were teammates for many years. … That’s something I hadn’t really experienced before. … It’s hard to explain, but I feel like we just clicked right away in a good way, in a competitive way. … From then on, it just took off very quickly.
Taurean Green: "The one thing we had in common was we all just wanted to hoop. We were all competitive. I think that’s why we just clicked right away.”
Joakim Noah: “The beauty of it is the chemistry was there right away.”
All four young men brought a little something different to the court, and their basketball skill sets complemented each other just like their personalities did.
Longtime Florida assistant (and current Dayton head coach) Anthony Grant reminisces about what the Gators' staff saw in each of the players in the recruiting process.
Grant On Horford: "Watching him, I felt like, for the way that we played, he would be a guy that would be a good fit for our needs and what he could do in terms of running the floor, rebounding the ball. He was a little raw at the time offensively, but he had some tools that I thought really fit the way we wanted to play.”
Grant on Brewer: “He committed after his junior year, then that summer went out and became a McDonald’s All-American. He was obviously the highest-rated guy of that group coming in. … Corey, the personality, the smile, just the way he meets people, just a really good guy."
Grant on Green: “Taurean has always been confident, and for a smaller undersized guy, you have to have that. You have to know that you’re good, and you have to believe in yourself.”
Grant on Noah: "When he walked in the room, it felt like the lights got a little brighter. It’s like there’s a glow around him. As soon as he walks in, everything lights up. It’s like, ‘Wow.’ This is a high school kid. Just his personality, he just had it. He was a perfect match for what we needed and what we had.”
When [Joakim] walked in the room, it felt like the lights got a little brighter. It’s like there’s a glow around him. As soon as he walks in, everything lights up.Anthony Grant
Soon after the group arrived on campus, the name “Oh-Fours” began to get tossed out as the team played pick-up games over the summer.
Horford: “I think Joakim is the first one who said, ‘It’s gonna be the Oh-Fours vs. them,’ or something like that. … I believe Joakim was the one who put the name to it.”
But Noah makes it clear that, in his mind, “Oh-Fours” went well beyond just the quartet of men's basketball players.
Noah: "That was our class. It was also a way to connect with everybody from every sport. OK, ‘We’re the Oh-Fours,’ but it wasn’t just us. It was everybody. … You’re building your crew, you know? … When we played pickup, we always wanted to play together. That’s how our confidence grew, just playing pickup, being on the same team and building that kind of rapport right away."
During the 2004-05 season, the Oh-Fours' freshman campaign, the Gators won 24 games and claimed their first SEC Tournament crown, led by veterans David Lee, Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh. But with Lee graduating and Walsh and Roberson turning pro, the team's identity quickly shifted to the young core, and offseason expectations weren't exactly soaring.
Horford: “There were a lot of questions. There was no expectation about our group, about our team. What we did that summer is, we just got to work.”
Brewer recalled a meeting with assistant coach Larry Shyatt, where Shyatt let the quartet know that every little thing was going to matter from here on out.
Brewer: “He basically put us in our place, letting us know that we hadn’t done anything yet, we hadn’t proven anything, and if you want to be something you’ve gotta do all the right things. I think that really helped us put things in perspective and work even harder.”
Lee Humphrey, who was a year ahead of the Oh-Fours and the fifth starter recalled a drive back to campus in his old Jeep after a summer dinner at a coach's house.
Humphrey: “We all knew we had to prove ourselves, but we all thought, ‘Hey, this is our time.’ We learned the ropes from the older guys. We learned the ropes playing pick-up. Now we’ve got an opportunity to go out, and the responsibility is on us. I think we had a team mindset going into that season, and that’s why we were successful. I remember…we were driving by Lake Alice and we looked over at each other and said, ‘Hey guys, we can be really good this year,’ and that was in the middle of the summer. So I think we had a lot of confidence going into the season, and we all just wanted to work for the season.”
Billy Donovan, meanwhile, reinforced the team concept as a linchpin to the team's success, telling the team, “We're going to do this collectively,” with five players scoring between 10-13 points per game.
The team bought in.
Brewer: “We would share the ball. We didn’t care who scored. We didn’t care who shot. We just cared about getting the best look. … We all had that confidence in each other.”
“We would share the ball. We didn’t care who scored. We didn’t care who shot. We just cared about getting the best look. … We all had that confidence in each other.”Corey Brewer
One of the early returns that hinted at the team's capability was a November tournament at Madison Square Garden, where the Gators beat No. 18 Wake Forest and No. 16 Syracuse on back-to-back days and Green scored 23 in each of the wins.
- Florida 77, #18 Wake Forest 72, 11/17/05: Box Score | Recap
- Florida 75, #16 Syracuse 70, 11/18/05: Box Score | Recap
Green: “After that, we saw how good we could really be.”
Horford: "We were just enjoying hanging out with each other, and having a great time [at the hotel after the games]. All the off the court stuff like that, that we were able to just get together and hang out and just be college kids and friends. That’s what really made us stronger as a group.”
And from there, it was off to the races as the Gators won their first 17 games of the season and climbed to a No. 2 ranking. Florida, with two Tennessee natives in its starting five, entered its Jan. 21 game at Tennessee with an opportunity to climb to No. 1, thanks to an earlier Duke loss. But the perfect coronation wasn't to be, as the Gators dropped the game, 80-76.
Despite the struggles in the aftermath of the Tennessee loss, a late-night conversation after the return flight from Knoxville helped recenter the team. In those days, players rode between campus and the airport with members of the coaching staff, and Donovan asked the Oh-Fours to ride back to campus with him that night.
Donovan: “When they lost, it bothered them deeply. It was a deep pain. … I talked to those guys about how good they can be, what it was going to take. Jo and Al were inexperienced, their roles had completely changed, but they needed to get more disciplined, making fewer mistakes. … We sat in the car and talked for like two hours outside their dorm.”
Noah: “It crushed us. Crushed us. I remember after the game, Coach Donovan drove us back to the dorm. He came into the dorm, and we spoke until like 4 in the morning, just what we needed to do. That was the energy. We spoke for two hours about the team, what we needed to do better, because nobody gave us a chance and we knew. We knew. We knew and we cared so much, man. We cared so much.”
Green: “It showed us that he cared. … We saw that he cared and he really had a love for us. We appreciated that. … He told us, ‘Enjoy the moment.’ There’s obviously going to be ups and downs and all that, but just enjoy the moment and enjoy the process.”
The results of that conversation weren't immediate, however, as the Gators suffered through an 11-game stretch going 5-6, including a three-game skid in late February.
The aforementioned skid to end the month of February may have cast some doubt onto what this team could accomplish, but it also served to refocus the team going into the all-important month of March.
Voice of the Gators Mick Hubert: "It’s hard to keep winning with that pressure being on you like that. So losing those two or three games almost gave them a chance to reboot a little bit, catch a second wind. It just so happened that the last loss was the last game they played in February. As the calendar turned over to March, that’s when they stopped the losing streak, and they never lost again.”
Horford: “Coach looked at the remaining schedule, and he just told us that we needed to focus back in, get it going again and have fun again.”
The kick-off of that run was a massive 37-point performance by Joakim Noah in the home finale vs. Georgia.
Horford: “That Georgia game, Joakim was a monster. He just took over the game, and he was dominant. … He was unbelievable. That kind of gave us life. After that, we never lost again. That game, for me, was such a defining moment in our season … because we were vulnerable, Georgia was feisty, and Joakim literally will not allow us to lose. He just took us to another level.”
Noah: “That was a special night for me because it was the first time my grandfather came from Africa and came to see me play. My dad comes in with my grandpa, and obviously I saw them right away. I didn’t start that game because it was Senior Night, so [Adrian] Moss started that game, but it was such a special night for me.”
Green: “His confidence level obviously went up another notch, and his energy already fuels our team. … We honestly felt like nobody could beat us. We wouldn’t even say it in the locker room, just had that feeling, that swag. We were humble about it, obviously, but we also knew that we were going to be tough to beat every night.”
The Gators won at Kentucky to close the regular season before claiming their second straight SEC Tournament title. Florida entered the NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed and opened play in Jacksonville.
Noah: “By the time the tournament started, we were clicking. The thing that’s hard is managing the distractions, and Coach Donovan always does a good job of putting everything in perspective and living in the moment. … It’s intense, and it’s a beautiful time.”
It’s intense, and it’s a beautiful time.Joakim Noah on NCAA Tournament basketball
Donovan: “They had belief in themselves, but until you start to do it, it doesn’t really start to take shape. … There was this air about them that they knew exactly what they had to do, and they knew exactly what went into winning, and when things were not going well, they could really course-correct. … Everything was always about winning, and they had a great grasp of what went into that.”
The Gators had an early opportunity to course-correct after taking a half to get their sea legs vs. John Pelphrey's South Alabama squad, entering the half ahead by just six points.
Donovan: “We did not play great in the first half, and I remember really lighting into them at the half about the way we were playing. … It was a great learning experience how to handle the moment of being in a postseason.”
Everything was always about winning, and they had a great grasp of what went into that.Billy Donovan
The Gators' closest call of the entire NCAA Tournament run came in Minneapolis during the Sweet 16 win vs. Georgetown, and Brewer found himself at the center of the late dramatics. He converted and and-1 opportunity late to put the Gators ahead, but quickly found himself in a bad spot as Florida sought a stop to close things out.
Brewer: After I had made the shot, the next play they had a chance. We were up one or two, and they ran a baseline out of bounds play and they threw it over my head, and I was going to go for the steal and I tried to stop myself and I fell, and I gave this kid – I think his name was Owens – a wide open shot. He just missed. I just remember looking up like, ‘I lost the game for us.’ He missed and Al got the rebound. That’s what I remember most about that game – sitting on the ground, looking at this guy shooting a wide open three.”
Luckily for Brewer and the Gators, the shot was off-target. Florida moved on again, and topped top-seeded Villanova in the Elite Eight to earn a trip to the Final Four.
Humphrey: "I just remember the surreal feeling to win it, to beat Villanova and cut down the nets, and what I really remember is in the entry way to the locker room, all the guys are standing there…and Coach Donovan said, ‘You guys have a chance to do something really special.’ It’s funny because I always think about that one phrase as kind of a catapult to back-to-back championships. … I pin that as the catapult to the second championship even though we hadn’t won the first.”
Green: “We knew that we still had work to do, and our ultimate goal was to get to the championship. We were happy, but at the same time still had that mentality like, ‘We still have work to do. Don’t be satisfied. The job’s not done yet.’”
We’re about to go break Cinderella’s slipper tonight.Billy Donovan, as remembered by Corey Brewer
The Gators' Final Four matchup pitted UF against one of the NCAA Tournament's all-time Cinderella stories, the 11th-seeded George Mason. The nation was certainly enamored with the Patriots' run, and the Gators hear plenty of it, even up to the Final Four welcome banquet.
Horford: “Most of the show was all about how amazing of a story George Mason was, what if they can keep it going, and celebrating George Mason to the fullest. I don’t think Coach Donovan had to say much after that banquet. We were all very mad, motivated, and ready to go out there and beat George Mason. … Once that happened, I knew we were gonna beat them.”
Humphrey: “I never thought of ourselves as the bad guys one time. To me, we were the Cinderella, as well. I know we weren’t the Cinderella the way George Mason was, but for us it was novel and new. We hadn’t been to the Final Four before, and we wanted to get there as badly as they did.”
Donovan kept the George Mason hype train rolling into the team's scout film sessions.
Green: “He made every player on the other team seem like they were dang near Michael Jordan. … They had us on edge.”
But ultimately, Donovan knew how to push his team's buttons, and gave them a memorable line in his pregame speech .
Brewer: “Coach Donovan had the best speech ever … ‘We’re about to go break Cinderella’s slipper tonight.’”
The Gators responded and smashed the slipper, indeed, as Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey both poured in 19 points and combined to shoot 9-for-18 from 3-point range.
That brought UF against the bluest of blue-bloods in the championship: UCLA.
Green: “We knew UCLA was a good team. … All the hype was that they were going to pressure us and turn us over. The coaches even told me and Hump and all the guards that you guys are going to have to handle their pressure. We were just so locked in. … Jo dominated that game. We ran the pick-and-roll so well that game and handled their pressure. They couldn’t speed us up or turn us over, and that’s why we won the game.”
Brewer: “We knew those guys couldn’t beat us. … We felt like our lineup was better than their lineup, and it was. … We always have the X-factor when you’ve got Lee Humphrey on the court. UCLA…kept doubling, so we’d swing, swing, Lee gets a wide open three. Lee shooting a wide-open shot is like us getting a dunk. We knew it was going in. It was layups, dunks and Lee.”
Humphrey: “I never dreamed that would happen. It was unreal. The game was incredible. We played a great game, team game, took care of the ball.”
Horford: “It was very surreal for us. We really didn’t know how to act. We got in the locker room, and our phones are blowing up. We’re celebrating with one another. Then we go back to the hotel and all our families are there, all our friends, and it was already super late…It was very surreal. We didn’t quite understand what we just did.”
Foley: “Incredible unselfishness. … Those guys just wanted to win. … When you make a deep run in the tournament, you live with the same people for a month. I’m not talking about not just players, but coaches, coaches’ wives, staff members, because you’re at the SEC Tournament for four or five days, first round, second round, Final Four. So, [we all became] incredibly close, became very close with their parents, just obviously a really feel-good story and an incredible memory for all of us in our careers.
Grant: "Obviously those guys won a national championship, but you go back and you look at guys like David Lee, Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson, just what those guys were able to bring to that group the year before and those experiences. … You have to rewind it back several years before that. You have to go back to the Brent Wrights, the Udonis Haslems and the Mike Millers. Mike Miller saying, ‘Hey, everybody’s asking “Why Florida?” for me. Hopefully by the time I leave here, they’ll be asking the next McDonald’s All-American, “Why not Florida?”’ Then you get a Brett Nelson, Matt Bonner, some of those guys that came and laid the foundation for what those guys in ’06 were able to do.”
By the time the confetti fell, one question moved to the forefront of everyone's mind: What comes next?
