The Oh-Fours: 2006-07
Denver Parler
7/16/2020
The Gators came out of nowhere to claim the 2006 national championship with a young nucleus, and the run left several players with decisions to make about their future.
Noah: “It was never spoken about, really. Maybe it was, but not that I remember. That wasn’t an emphasis at all. It just showed how much fun we were having. When you’re playing on a team and everybody cares that much and everybody knows that you have a chance to win a championship and everybody’s contributing like that, it’s rare. … We knew that mentally going there, it would hurt our chances.”
Al Horford did recall a couple times the topic came up during the tournament run.
Horford: “[Joakim and I] were in our hotel room, we’d just beat Georgetown in that Sweet 16 game. It was our day off, and we were just hanging in our hotel, just watching TV. He looked over at me and he said, ‘What are you thinking? Are you thinking you’re gonna want to come out to go to the NBA next year?’ I said, ‘No, I’m having a lot of fun. I want us to keep playing.’ He just kind of nodded at me in agreement. I think he shared the sentiment.”
In the glow of the Gators' Elite Eight win vs. Villanova, Billy Donovan broached the topic head on.
Horford: “[He said,] ’Hey you guys can do something really, really special, being able to win back-to-back championships.’ … Coach Donovan already saw the potential and what could be from our group. He knew we were focused He knew if we were focused and we just stayed together this could happen. … Once we won, it was pretty clear for all of us that we wanted to come back.”
Donovan: “I said, you guys are going to have a chance to do this again, and that’s a decision you guys are going to have to make. … I knew they would have to make decisions that were best for themselves. … They just wanted to play with each other. Because of the bond that was formed with the four of them, they knew that Taurean couldn’t leave and Lee Humphrey couldn’t leave. And they were a little worried about, if they left, what would happen to their careers? What would happen to those guys? Chris Richard, as well.”
They’re going to have fun without me? No way, that’s not happening. … I realize now how crazy it was.Joakim Noah
Corey Brewer: "That was a tough decision. … I was the one that needed to go, financially, to the NBA probably more than anybody. … For me, I was having too much fun. I wanted to go back, but also I knew if Jo left or Al left I was gonna leave. We all were coming back, or we all were leaving. It would’ve been hard to leave without Taurean [Green].”
Green: “I knew I was going back for sure. My draft stock wasn’t there. … They were just speaking about it to each other and came to the decision like, ‘We’re coming back.’ A lot of the reason was they didn’t want to leave me. We came in together, so it was like, ‘We’re gonna come back, try to win another one, we out.’”
Lee Humphrey: “I never really thought the guys were going to leave. I knew it was a possibility, but I felt like we’re gonna be a team for one more year.”
Noah: “They’re going to have fun without me? No way, that’s not happening. … I realize now how crazy it was.”
In typical fashion, the group made their announcement in a crowd-pleasing way, as the Orlando Sentinel recapped.
With the core of the Gators' roster coming back, the band would be back together for another run. But an opportunity for assistant coach Anthony Grant came along that threatened to disrupt the team's mojo.
Grant: “If it didn’t fit what I felt like was a great opportunity, I was in no hurry to leave. … For me, [staying at UF until 2006] was about being at a place that I valued the people that I had a chance to work with on a daily basis, and then also trying to achieve the goal that we set out to achieve.”
After turning down several jobs, Donovan had a conversation with VCU's athletic director.
Grant: “’Listen, Billy, I’m good. I don’t want to go through another interview process. We just finished the season, I’m worn out.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no. He wants to hire you.’”
With the NBA Draft date past, the returning Gators didn't take the news so great, and Grant nearly decided to pass on the opportunity
Grant: “[Billy said,] ’Are you out of your mind?’ He basically kicked me out. It was hard. … The timing’s never right.”
Noah: “That was hard because we were like, ‘We’re making sacrifices.’ But then we realized he has to do what’s best for his family, and this is the decision we made. Coach Donovan really, really took it on himself to make sure to tell these guys, ‘Guys, I’m taking it upon myself. If you guys want to do individuals, I’m doing your individuals.’ First of all, for your head coach to say, ‘I’m doing your individuals,’ I’m getting goose bumps. He took it on himself. He made sure that no matter what, we were going to be right.”
Grant's decision worked out for him, as Grant's VCU team upset Duke in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, followed by stints as Alabama head coach and on Donovan's OKC Thunder staff before his current post as Dayton head coach.
With that drama past, the Gators got down to the task at hand.
Humphrey: “What stands out to me is that we could start a practice with the intensity we needed. … It’s very difficult for a team to come into practice with the focus that they need and be able to turn it on quickly."
Green: “Coach Donovan did a great job preparing us. He told us even before preseason workouts, ‘You guys are gonna get everybody’s best shot…so you’ve gotta expect that and be ready.’ … We understood that we had everybody coming back and that we were gonna get everybody’s best shot, so that just made us more on edge, and we accepted that challenge.”
Horford: “He took the pressure off of us from the very beginning. He said, ‘Listen, you guys are not defending anything. You guys already won that national championship. That’s over with. You guys don’t have to feel that pressure.’ He talked to us about not being the hunted and still having that ‘hunter’ mentality.”
With the opening of the 2006-07, the Gators adjusted to life with the target on their backs.
Green: “We got everybody’s best shot, and I mean everybody, from the first preseason game to our last game.”
After winning their first six games against overmatched competition by an average of 40.5 points, the top-ranked Gators' first test came vs. No. 10 Kansas in Las Vegas. Florida came up short in overtime, 82-80, despite 25 points from Green, but the pressure of hearing chatter about an undefeated season was mercifully gone.
Noah: “The expectations were heavy, and there were times where it wasn’t fun. … Coach Donovan really helped me a lot. The second year was hard for me.”
Donovan: “He went from this lightning rod, everyone loved him, to his junior year [being] the biggest villain, and he couldn’t understand it. He starts to think, ‘Should I have left? I’m not having fun.’ What started to happen was, as we’re winning games, we weren’t winning by enough. They had some false expectations – we should beat this team by 20, and we win by six. I could just tell and see some of the joy coming out of it for these guys, so I told them, ‘Listen, we’re the ones that are in charge of our own happiness. Every time we come in here, whether we play great or we play poorly, and we win, we’re going to celebrate in the locker room. We’ll make corrections tomorrow, but for today we’re going to enjoy the work you guys put in.’”
We got everybody’s best shot, and I mean everybody, from the first preseason game to our last game.Taurean Green
The Gators were circled not just on opposing team's calendar, but opposing fans, too. And no one took the brunt of hostile fan bases than Noah.
Noah: “That part of it, I enjoyed that part. I loved going on the road and fueling off that energy. That was actually kind of fun. We were still winning, now. They weren’t that creative – ‘You’re so ugly! Noah, cut your hair! – it’s like, ‘Good one, bro.’ Those arenas are so special, and to be able to go in there when you’ve got your crew, your guys, your team. You go in there, you feel like it’s you against the world. Leaving those arenas with a win, it’s a feeling that’s hard to describe.”
Brewer: “We harassed him every day, so it was normal. We were always making fun of each other, joking with each other, so what other people said didn’t bother him. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard. … I think it motivated him more than anything. If they left him alone, it probably would’ve been better for the opposing team because when Jo gets going, he gets going and it’s a long night for everybody.”
At a certain point, though, the chatter from the stands did take a toll, and the Gators switched up their pregame routine for away games and didn't take the floor for warmups until within a half hour of game time.
Donovan: “The only thing I’m asking you guys to do, the other team is going to be looking down at you guys. When you guys come out, I want you to go through warmups like it’s the last five minutes of a close game. I want them to see you guys warming up with such focus that these other teams get totally concerned and nervous.”
Humphrey: “It was awesome. You came in with this mindset, ‘We’re here…to silence the home crowd and win on somebody’s home court.’ There’s no better feeling, I think, than winning at somebody’s home court.”
You came in with this mindset, ‘We’re here…to silence the home crowd and win on somebody’s home court.’ There’s no better feeling, I think, than winning at somebody’s home court.Lee Humphrey
Like the previous season, the Gators hit a rough patch in late February and dropped three of four games after wrapping up the SEC's regular season championship early.
Horford: “There were a lot of things already starting to brew because we all knew that was probably going to be our last year. We were pretty certain of it. Guys were starting to worry about the NBA and ‘Where’s my stock?’ and ‘Where am I gonna be picked?’ and thinking a lot about the future.”
After a loss at LSU, Donovan asked the team what was going on.
Horford: “That was one of the times I stepped up, and I just said, ‘Listen, we need to stop worrying about the future, things we can’t control, about the NBA.’ It was one of those conversations I was very to the point, and it was an elephant in the room that was there and nobody wanted to talk about it. … Once that got out of the way, that was a turning point for us.”
Turning point, indeed. The Gators didn't lose again.
After their late-season swoon, the Gators plowed through the SEC Tournament field with wins vs. Georgia, Ole Miss and Arkansas by an average of 19.7 points per game.
Horford: “We steamrolled through it, and we just took off from there. The funny thing about the SEC Tournament was, the football team just beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship a few months before and then we were playing them in the SEC [Tournament] Championship, so we thought that was a pretty funny coincidence. We were like, ‘Oh, we have to beat them now. Football beat them. We have to make sure we do our part.’”
Green: “Going into the NCAA Tournament, our confidence level was at an all-time high. We did it last year, and we just had that experience and knew what to expect.”
Brewer: “We were able to just stick together. We knew teams were going to give us their best shot. We just had to go out there and play our game, and that’s what we did.”
Donovan: “I could tell the pressure was mounting. … They were putting a lot of pressure on themselves. … Every game that went by, I think they felt more and more pressure. Once they got to the Final Four, it subsided and they went back to being who they were.”
That brought the Gators back face-to-face with a familiar foe, with a rematch vs. UCLA in the Final Four.
Humphrey: "Going into the game, I felt like, hey, we’re gonna do to them the exact same thing that we did to them last year. We know we’re gonna have to play the game over and last year’s not going to influence this year, but I had some confidence because of that.”
Green: “We all had a certain chip on our shoulder. … We had our own personal matchups that we wanted to dominate, but obviously the main goal was to win the game.”
Three Gators scored in double figures – Brewer (19), Lee Humphrey (14) and Taurean Green (10) – while Horford hauled in 17 rebounds and Noah had 11.
Every game that went by, I think they felt more and more pressure. Once they got to the Final Four, it subsided and they went back to being who they were.Billy Donovan
The experienced Gators squared off against the youthful Ohio State Buckeyes, led by eventual No. 1 draft pick Greg Oden, who were a far better team than they'd been when UF put an 86-60 hurting on OSU in Gainesville in December.
Brewer: “We don’t want to lose to these freshmen. Yeah, they’re good, they’re talented, but we don’t want to lose to these freshmen.”
Noah: “By the time they got to the tournament, they were a different team. They were a lot better. I remember them playing some close games. When you play close games like that in the tournament, I felt like it gave you more of an edge.”
Green: “Their guard play was very good. I was on edge. Obviously, you hear about [Mike] Conley, a highly-touted freshman projected to be a first-round pick in the NBA [Draft], so at my position I was on edge, ready to play and ready to compete. … They had a complete team. They were just young, and we had that experience.”
Humphrey: “They were a great-shooting team, which wasn’t that talked about. Obviously, Greg Oden was the centerpiece and people focused on him, but we knew how great of a three-point shooting team they were.”
Donovan made the strategic call that Florida would defend Oden 1-on-1, despite his dominance, believing that no matter the numbers Oden put up, he couldn't single-handedly beat the Gators.
Humphrey: “We’re deep and we’re talented on the front line. If he gets his, he gets his, but we’re not giving up the three-point line.”
Donovan: “I thought whoever played Oden was gonna be on an island. … I said, ‘Jo, you’re going to be in foul trouble tomorrow night. Do the best job you can, and just hang in there on him. If we need to trap we will, but I just need you to deal with him one-on-one because we’ve gotta stop the three-point line. If he gets 25 or 30, so be it, but we can’t have him getting 25 or 30 and them making 10 or 11 three-point shots. That’s how we’re gonna lose. He’s not gonna be able to beat us by himself.’ And sure enough, Jo took it on. Jo was in foul trouble the whole game. And here’s a guy that was gonna be the number one player taken in the draft last year, he’s in the NCAA Tournament, he was the MVP of the Final Four the year before, and this guy totally sacrificed for the team and sat on the bench.”
Noah: “I don’t remember much because I remember being on the bench a lot. … You can look back on it, and this was a real team. We had the luxury of everybody saying, ‘He’s gonna be the top pick [last year],’ and I didn’t even play that much in that game and we still dominated. Lee Humphrey, come on, man. C-Rich, Mo-Speezy, Walter Hodge. We just had a bunch of dogs. Walter Hodge, the heart of an eight-foot giant.”
Green: “[Oden] was an absolute monster, but for me the X-factor that game was Chris Richard. He came in and wore him down, got putbacks, was banging. Chris is a big body, so I think Chris really wore him down and stepped up big when Joakim was in foul trouble and Horf was in foul trouble during that game.”
The tactic worked. Despite Oden's 26 points and 12 rebounds, the Gators had enough firepower to overcome the Buckeyes, 84-75, and claim a second straight crown.
Brewer: “It was a relief. We had achieved the unachievable. We did it. … It was worth it. It was worth all the going into the late-night gyms, workouts, coming back to school for another year, just being able to be with my guys one more time and we’re at the top of the mountain again.”
Humphrey: “The second one is a bit of relief, but also that stamp of validation: we just solidified ourselves in NCAA basketball history.”
Foley: “Pressure sometimes busts a pipe. Sometimes, pressure makes diamonds. Ultimately, they made a diamond there, but it came close a couple times to breaking the team.”
Green: “A little bit of everything: excitement, relief, joy.”
Horford: “They were hard-fought games [in the tournament]. … Once we won against Ohio State and that clock hit zero, it was happiness but it was relief. … I didn’t realize probably how stressed I was.”
The second one is a bit of relief, but also that stamp of validation: we just solidified ourselves in NCAA basketball history.Lee Humphrey
It didn't take much discussion after the second championship to realize this was the end of the road for this dynasty.
Horford: “This was tough, but this was the right thing to do. He didn’t try to hold us back. He just sat us down and he was like, ‘Listen, I appreciate you guys. You guys have been great, and I do believe this is the right time for you guys to go and go be successful pros.’ Coach, throughout the whole time, very supportive, looking out for us, having our best interest at heart.”
Donovan: “They had sacrificed so much. They came back for each other. They came back for the love of Florida, how much they enjoyed playing with one another. And they accomplished what they needed to accomplish. … I thought the time was right for them to go. If they’d said to me they didn’t want to, that they wanted to stay, I wasn’t gonna kick them out the door, but I just told them that I think they needed to go and this was the right time for them to go.”
Though it was the right time, that didn't make it any easier.
Brewer: “That was one of the hardest things to do, to have that press conference. … A couple of us had some tears coming down.”
Noah: “The beautiful part about it was the gratitude of knowing we had something special as a team and we did something really unique.”
Foley: “They had to go. The NBA was calling, incredible financial resources calling. But if you were at that press conference that day, it was not a celebration. And these guys have probably all their lives dreamt about the NBA dream, but at that moment, that day, they were incredibly sad. They did not want to leave. It was a very emotional press conference. I can remember tears being choked back, words being hard to come by – on the part of the players, on the part of Billy – because this was something really, really special, and I think that says a lot about them. Again, the fact that those talented players even came back in the first place, you’re not ever going to see that again, in my opinion.”
And what about the team's place among the all-time greats?
Brewer: “For sure, I feel like we don’t get enough credit! … For sure, we’re one of the top teams to ever play.”
Foley: “I’m in that camp. … I’ve seen incredibly talented teams that had no chemistry, and they’re not as successful as everybody wants them to be because they didn’t have it. This team had it. As I said, they cared about each other, loved each other, they were incredibly selfless. That was a recipe for success. Obviously, a great, great team with a bunch of great players. But as a team, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any better.”
