Sweet — and historic — repeat for Florida Gators

ATLANTA — It's an ordinary stepladder, the kind Home Depot might sell for $50. But on this court, on this night, one team climbed it to the mountaintop.

It's an ordinary basketball net, what a sporting goods store might sell for $10. But on this court, on this night, the small pieces of nylon these players would snip from it were spun gold — treasure worth the millions they had forsaken in NBA riches for the chance to make this climb just one more time.

The flag planted on the mountaintop said Florida Gators.

Again.

The final score burned into history Monday night was 84-75, although you could barely see the scoreboard after the final horn sounded here in a sold-out Georgia Dome, as a blizzard of confetti and streamers dropped among the fireworks and the Gators celebrated becoming the first repeat champion in NCAA major-college men's basketball since Duke in 1992.

This was why Florida's championship team had astonished the basketball world and returned intact, four starters putting off professional riches. For this night. For this moment. For that short climb up a regular-old ladder, right up into the clouds.

"This is what we came back to school for," said Corey Brewer.

"Cutting down nets," said Joakim Noah, saying it all.

Vanquished Ohio State had ended the regular season ranked No. 1 (to Florida's No. 3) and entered the game on a 22-game winning streak, best by far of any Final Four team. Yet the champ Gators were favored.

"I don't understand it, personally," Buckeyes 7-foot center Greg Oden had said. "I don't know how you can finish the season No. 1 but not be considered the best team."

Now he knows.

Ohio State guard Ron Lewis had tweaked the Gators on Sunday by saying they were a "good team," declining repeated invitation to call them great.

If he isn't changing his opinion now, he isn't stubborn. He's a fool.

These Gators will almost surely disintegrate now, like magic dust. Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and likely Taurean Green will enter the NBA Draft. Fifth starter Lee Humphrey is a senior. Even coach Billy Donovan is being wooed by Kentucky.

What they accomplished, though — that won't disintegrate. It'll be there for all time. Only five times previously in 69 years of the NCAA Tournament had a team repeated, and since 1973 only that Duke team had.

Now these Gators are the new name for greatness. Now the question isn't, Can they repeat? The question is, Where do they rank among the greatest teams ever?

Donovan answered: "One of the best teams to ever play."