When Friday night and early Saturday morning have come and gone, there will be eight teams left in the NCAA Tournament.
Which means the Elite Eight will leave us with four really happy teams and four that feel devastated that they were so close to being in the Final Four.
I have seen it from both sides.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s better to get bear earlier because the carrot is right there, and you can’t reach it and it is more painful.
Today, the High Five looks at my rankings of the five best Gator appearances in the Elite Eight and it’s based on a number of things including the hospitality rooms at each site (just kidding).
1. Florida-Boston College 1994
Remember that this was Florida’s fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. BC was a nine seed, but the game was close until Craig Brown started draining threes in Miami. Florida won 74-66 (Brown had 21) and went to its first Final Four. Grown men cried that day and Lon Kruger was one of them.
2. Florida-Dayton 2014
That Florida team made it 30 straight wins in a crazy atmosphere in Memphis where the Dayton fans kind of took over Beale Street. I’ll never forget the chaos late in the game going up and down the court and Scottie Wilbekin stopping everything with his dribble to calm everyone down. Florida broke a streak of three straight Elite Eights without getting to the Final Four with a 62-52 win as Wilbekin scored 23.
3. Florida-Villanova 2006
The team that was pegged as an NIT team before the season made it to the Final Four (and eventual national title) with a 75-62 win. Villanova saw what Joakim Noah would become in the finals as he had 21 points and 15 rebounds and made 13-of-15 free throws with that unique style of shooting.
4. Florida-Oklahoma State 2000
Nobody saw this coming as the Gators won in Syracuse 77-65. The thing I’ll never forget was Billy Donovan at the podium finding his wife Christine in the press conference and arching his eyebrows as if to say. “Look at what we did.”
5. Florida-Oregon 2007
The only reason I put this one last was that this was more about whether they would win it all for a second time than anything else. The Gators got it done 85-77 despite 27 points from Aaron Brooks in part because Lee Humphrey, who holds the NCAA Tournament record for most career threes, scoring 23 points in this one.