Posted Apr 3, 08:04 PM in Gators by Scott Conley

Well, the 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship is in Gator hands today and my jubilant reverie has only been broken by the regular dinging of my email, as the 14to9 Legion demands to know where The Post is.

Here it is. Along with a new header image! I’ll add more images from this season as they become available on Gator Gallery (link at right).

And you know what? I’m not going to dissect the near-perfect game my guys played last night. MANY others have done that in professional detail, including ESPN’s Pat Forde and Gene Wojciechowski (good onw btw), Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis and Stewart Mandel and a host of others (I liked this one .)

What I will briefly explain is the notable absence of commentary on this site on the Gators’ roundball team in the past two months of this Championship Season (nice ring to it, eh?).

When the Gators hit 17-0, I could not bear to let it go any longer without posting to this, my (then-new) weblog. And what happened? We lost to Tennessee and South Carolina, back-to-back. I had become that which I despise-_a jinx_.

Most of you out there who know me at work find this laughable. Geoffrey just realized Saturday that I am a superstitious nutjob of a sportsfan and laughed out loud in disbelief at me.

Thinking back on this season, I can recall more than a few specific actionables taken for reasons that can only be described as ‘irrational:’

Hat on, hat off. Hat backwards. Stand up. Lean back. Legs crossed, legs down. Shirt selection. Undershirt selection. Watching at home. Watching with strangers. Watching with GEORGETOWN fans. Running trash talk. NOT running trash talk (I know!) Hat selection. Timing of meals.

And now, notably, posting to the blog.

Firstly, for those of you who always swore I was neurotic about something, but you just never knew what it was… well, now you know.

Gieser is going to be his usual ball of clinical disbelief at this segment (usually something about ‘confirmation bias’ mumbojumbo), but you know what? IT WAS ALL TOTALLY WORTH IT! Every shift, decision, bizarro ritual and outlandish shirt/pants pairing.

Monday night’s selections worked out rather well.

And of course, I never did post again about the Gators’ most amazing season ever, and that season never ended.

And it never will.

They won. The title. In a blowout. That’s not superstitious. It’s superlicious!

And you know where I’m looking now? To a couple of other in-state schools that love to brag about the basketball “power conferences” they play in. The ACC. The Big East. Well boys? This is not just Florida’s first NCAA basketball title, it’s FLORIDA’s first NCAA basketball title. As in, the STATE of Florida.

Maybe they ought to just shut up. It’s good luck, you know.

Tidbits Interestingly, I mentioned to Caryn when the tournament started that our young team looked good enough to contend next season, and that we should consider getting tickets to the Final Four 2007 in Atlanta.

Officially: Al Horford is my favorite player from this year’s team. Taurean Green gets my MVP award- yes, even in spite of his 0-7 3pt FG% and his overall FG% against UCLA. He was masterful with the offense and he always seemed to take the right shot (even if he didn’t hit a lot) Brewer could be the best pro of the lot. I picked UF by 12 in the finals. I won five bucks off Max in Columbus, who took UCLA straight up. My bracket- despite the wreckage George Mason did to it- wound up in the 95.8%ile out of the 3 million+ entries into ESPN.com. w00t!

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