Gonzo on NCAAs: To Upset Florida, You’ve Got to Control Pace

Before everybody picks Florida in their NCAA Tournament brackets, a word of caution: The Gators can be upset by a small college team. I would know – because my team did it to them a decade ago.

Last Saturday, while driving up I-95 to the Basketball Hall of Fame for an induction ceremony for a former player of mine, Luis Flores, a flood of memories washed over me. Ten years earlier, the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina was filled with 26,000 raving maniacs all with their hearts set on seeing Chris Paul and local favorites Wake Forest destroy the Mahnattan Jaspers, my Cinderella squad.

Forty-eight hours earlier, we had pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Tournament history when we defeated the mighty Florida Gators, who weeks earlier were ranked No. 1 in the nation, led by coach Billy Donovan and future NBA All-Star David Lee.

In the locker room before the Wake Forest game, I was so overwhelmed with all the attention we had received after the Florida upset that I had difficulty in focusing on my pregame speech. Mayor Rudy Guiliani, a Manhattan alum, called me in my hotel room after the Florida game, and me thinking it was a prank, I hung up on him.

When he called back and I realized it was really him, he told me that we were now New York’s team, and three years after the 9/11 tragedy, New York had a local team to root for again.

My words turned into a profile on bravery, and I used my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quote: “Success is never final, failure is never fatal, the only thing that counts is courage.”

Five years earlier – and just after hours the press conference announcing my hiring as Jaspers coach – I found myself on the West Side Highway on a recruiting trip to see a little-known prospect named Luis Flores. He had played at Norman Thomas High School and was a 17-year-old Dominican immigrant who lived in Washington Heights, a northern Manhattan neighborhood.

I was introduced to a soft-spoken young man with limited English, but what struck me was he had the rough powerful hands of a day laborer. When I inquired about them, he responded that after school he worked in construction jobs to support his elderly grandparents whom he lived with, as his own parents were back in the Dominican Republic.

At that moment, I didn’t need to know anything else about the young man and I offered him my first scholarship as a Division I coach.

Even though we finished a basket away from beating Wake Forest and going to the Sweet 16, the embrace Luis and I had at the Hall of Fame last week could not have been any sweeter. With tears in our eyes and Luis’ 2-year-old daughter in his arms, we both realized that we had put our indelible stamp on March Madness.

Something for some team to think about when it is drawn as Florida’s opponent in the opening round.

With the current Florida team ranked No. 1 in the nation and on a 24-game winning streak, and with Manhattan’s unlikely berth in The Dance, will the selection committee have the sense a humor to match up the teams again?

If I had to pick a team or two to win it all, I would take either the Gators or Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans.

I believe that if Michigan State gets all its players healthy and on the same page that Izzo, Mr. March, can find a way to win a second title.

The current Florida team is led by four seniors, including Gainesville native Scottie Wilbekin, whom I believe is one of the best point guards in the country. It has what it takes to be national champs.

The Gators are one of the deepest, most talented and athletic teams in the field. While they have no household names, they have any number of players who can step up and beat you on any given night. From Michael Frazier’s 11 threes the other night to Patrick Young’s low post play, pick your poison.

With Donovan having won back-to-back national championships and this team coming off three Elite Eight trips in a row, Florida may be ready to get over the hump.

Many things will have to go wrong for the Gators to lose in a 40-minute game.

One strategy to stay with the Gators is to slow the tempo and turn it into a possession game. The slower tempo would neutralize Florida’s ability to get out in transition and overwhelm you with numbers. There have been stretches this season where the Gators have struggled to score in the half court and have gone through extended droughts.

At this time of year, I always look forward to see who steps up and leaves their mark on this, the greatest of stages.

Bobby Gonzalez is a former Division I coach at Manhattan and Seton Hall now writing March Madness columns for SheridanHoops.com. You can reach him via e-mail.