[gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] Mike Bianchi, Weauxfing King

I'm proud of this year's team. The way they have pulled together thru the early season adversity. The way they have grown on and off the court. The way they play for each other and the University. We are fortunate to have 4 guys that have chosen the program over playing in Europe for money.  

I hope Patric learns from his mistake Thursday night, and doesn't get caught up in a bad call and let it effect his game. 

I know & believe these guys will come into the FedEx Forum tonite and take care of business methodically, because that's what they do. 

GO GATORS!!!!!!

SHANE

Sent From Shane's iPhone

Go Gators!   &   Skol Vikes!

ALPCA #8756 

Europlate #1045

On Mar 29, 2014, at 7:57 AM, "John Bowers" <jbowers4@cfl.rr.com> wrote:

Billy Donovan's Gators are Cinderella's worst nightmare

UF's cold-blooded assassins are sure to knock out underdog Dayton, advance to Final Four.

 

Mike BianchiSPORTS COMMENTARY

8:10 p.m. EDT, March 28, 2014

 

MEMPHIS — Sorry, Cinderella, the party's almost over.

Take off that ballroom gown, put on your tattered old dress, retrieve your mop and pail and get back to work.

Once again, the No. 1-ranked Florida Gators are on the verge of snuffing out the hopes and dreams of underdogs everywhere and sending No. 11-seeded Dayton back to Ohio to spend more time with Urban Meyer's family.

I know, I know, all of you romantics out there are going to cheer for Dayton tonight and act like you want the Flyers to beat the big, bad Gators in the South Regional final. But it's a lie — you know it is. Yes, it's great when Cinderella pulls off upsets early in the NCAA Tournament, but now it's time for little Cindy to take a seat and make room for big-boy basketball in the Final Four.

"Even if a team may be a Cinderella, that doesn't have any bearing on what happens when the ball gets tipped up," Florida center Patric Young says. "The best team's going to win."

And that team is traditionally the Gators — aka The Florida Dream Destroyers. The Gators don't just make a habit of ousting dark horse teams from the NCAA Tournament; they have a habit of wiping them off the basketball map.

Remember what happened to George Mason?

The Gators bludgeoned the Patriots in the 2006 Final Four and sent them back to Virginia where we really haven't heard from them since. "All good stories," former UF point guard Taurean Green said at the time, "must come to an end."

Remember what happened to Florida Gulf Coast?

The Gators grounded the high-flying kids from "Dunk City" and turned them into "Klunk City" during last year's NCAA Tournament. And now FGCU is "Shrunk City," evidenced by their off-Broadway ouster from the first-round of the NIT two weeks ago.

"We try to play every game the same way and with the same intensity regardless of who we're playing," Florida point guard Scottie Wilbekin says. "What we try to do is not focus on who we're playing, but focus on ourselves and how we need to play in order to advance."

This is precisely why this Florida team is so special. It doesn't matter who the Gators play or where they play, they are driven by what Young likes to call "chasing greatness." Chances are most of the fans at the FedEx Forum will be raucously rooting for Dayton tonight, but do you really think this is going to distract the unflappable Gators?

"As fans, we want to see the underdog team pull off the David and Goliath story," Young says, "but that has nothing to do with what happens between the lines. We've been in hostile environments before. Even if all the fans are cheering for Dayton, we're still going to stay within ourselves. We won't allow it to affect us."

Adds UF coach Billy Donovan: "I think it makes great headlines … and people try to create that kind of [Cinderella] perception, but it's really an untrue perception. Dayton is a very, very good team. You don't do what they've done in the first three games — beating Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford — if you're not a good team."

See what I mean? This Gator team — from the head coach down to the last player at the end of the bench — is a collection of stone-faced, cold-blooded assassins who never seem to get caught up in the hype and hoopla surrounding them. Their opponent tonight could be Dayton or Duke and it wouldn't matter to them.

It's just a good thing some of the great underdog stories of the past never faced the Gators. If so, they would have knocked out Rocky Balboa in the first round of the first fight and sent the bum back to the streets of Philly to be a two-bit henchman for a sleazy loan shark. They would have swept the '69 Miracle Mets out of the World Series and transformed them into Miserable Mets. If Joe Namath had guaranteed a victory over this Gator team, they would have buried him and turned Broadway Joe into Say-It-Ain't-So Joe.

Dayton will likely suffer the same fate.

The party's almost over, Cinderella.

Next stop, the mop closet.

mbianchi@tribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @BianchiWrites. Listen to his radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on 740 AM.

 

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