The Florida Gators have emerged as a college basketball blue blood since the turn of the millennium, winning three national championships, playing in the title game a fourth time, and making five total Final Four appearances. What was once considered a football school has become a dual threat in two of North America’s biggest sports.
Now that the dust has settled from the Michigan Wolverines’ second-ever NCAA Tournament triumph, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf took on the task of ranking every champion of this century — bearing in mind that there was no champion crowned during the 2020 COVID campaign — beginning with the 1999-2000 season.
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The author employed “a combination of real data and the eye test” in making his assessment, so these rankings are anything but scientific. Take a look at where the Orange and Blue’s three trophy-winning teams landed on the list.
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How they won: def. Houston 65-63
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NCAA tournament margin of victory: 9.5 PPG
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KenPom net rating: +36.46 (third in the nation)
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Non-tourney achievements: Finished second in the SEC; won SEC tournament championship
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Best player: Walter Clayton Jr. (AP All-America first team, NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player)
“The Gators ended the season as one of the hottest teams in the country after losing just one game after Feb. 1, finishing a game behind the NCAA tournament’s No. 1 overall seed Auburn in the SEC standings while securing the conference tournament title. They also ranked second in adjusted offensive efficiency and sixth in adjusted defensive efficiency on KenPom,” Medcalf begins.
“It was Clayton’s rise — he scored 23 or more points in four NCAA tournament games — that helped lift the Gators through close calls in multiple games. They had to fight through sizable deficits in multiple games and managed to launch successful comebacks in each, but they were a great story more than an all-time great team.”
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2006 Florida Gators (No. 12)
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How they won: def. UCLA 73-57
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NCAA tournament margin of victory: 16.0 PPG
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KenPom net rating: +28.28 (1st in the nation)
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Non-tourney achievements: SEC tournament champion
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Best player: Joakim Noah (AP All-America honorable mention, MOP)
“Billy Donovan’s two-peat began with a Florida team that won its first 17-0 games and then struggled through a 5-6 stretch. There were mitigating circumstances, though. Lee Humphrey, the starting point guard, had to overcome a shoulder injury and Corey Brewer needed time to recover from mono,” Medcalf notes.
“On March 1, 2006, however, Noah scored 37 points in a 77-66 win over Georgia that snapped a three-game losing streak. Florida never lost another game. Noah had 30 blocks in the NCAA tournament, as the Gators — whose roster also included Al Horford — ended 2-seed UCLA‘s 12-game winning streak. Plus, their NCAA tournament opponents averaged only 56.6 PPG.”
2007 Florida Gators (No. 5)
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How they won: def. Ohio State 84-75
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NCAA tournament margin of victory: 14.1 PPG
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KenPom net rating: +30.81 (2nd in the nation)
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Non-tourney achievements: SEC regular season champion; SEC tournament champion
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Best player: Joakim Noah (Associated Press All-America second team)
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“Between March 21, 2006, and Feb. 17, 2007, these Gators lost only two games. Their first national title run in 2006 established a new standard for a program that won its second title in a row a year later. How? They thrived on a concept that’s almost impossible to achieve in today’s game: continuity,” Medcalf offers.
“The same starters from the 2006 title game — Lee Humphrey, Taurean Green, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Noah — also started in the 2007 championship win over an Ohio State squad led by freshman Greg Oden (an AP first-team All-American) and Mike Conley Jr. (18 years in the NBA). These Gators didn’t dominate the NCAA tournament, but they were more consistent than the 2006 team and one of the better squads we’ve witnessed over the past 25 years.”
Ranking NCAA tournament champions of the 21st century
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2009 North Carolina Tar Heels
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2005 North Carolina Tar Heels
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2000 Michigan State Spartans
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2013 Louisville Cardinals
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2017 North Carolina Tar Heels
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida basketball’s 3 national championships this century ranked
