ATLANTA (AP) -- With the confetti still falling, some fans in the Florida section were already thinking ahead.
"One more year," they chanted. "One more year."
Nothing wrong with dreaming, right? In a way, though, the Gators lived out their dream this season.
They took a chomp out of NCAA history Monday night, defeating Ohio State 84-75 for the second straight national championship that was their goal from the time they decided to put off the NBA and come back to college.
It was the first repeat since Duke in 1991-92 and the first ever with the same starting five. It was a difficult task on several different levels -- a success that will clearly put these Gators (35-5) on the list of the best teams ever.
"People can say what they want, but at the end of the day, the Gator boys have two championships in a row -- back to back," forward Joakim Noah said.
Al Horford had 18 points and 12 rebounds, Taurean Green had 16 points and Greg Oden's 25 points and 12 rebounds weren't enough for Ohio State (35-4) to stop the Gators (35-5) from completing their rare repeat.
"These guys turned their backs on millions and they came back for a reason," athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "This is the reason. They played all season with a target on their back. It was hard to do. This is quite an exclamation point."
Another one.
This win completes a 2007 championship-game sweep of the Buckeyes in the two biggest college sports -- men's hoops and football. Florida, a 41-14 winner in the football title game in January, remains the only program in history to hold both championships at the same time.
"I've said it a thousand times -- once you think you've got it all figured out, you get in trouble," Foley said. "We're just enjoying tonight."
The future is more unsettled.
It's doubtful Noah, Horford or Corey Brewer, all juniors, will return next year.
Meanwhile, Billy Donovan did nothing to quash speculation that he might leave Florida for a possible job offer from Kentucky.
"I'm going to enjoy this moment right now," Donovan said. "All that stuff will be addressed, but now isn't the time to address it."
He earned every bit of his $1.7 million this year, and that number figures to go up next year no matter where he works. He had to keep everyone motivated and focused -- at first when things seemed too easy, then later when the Gators lost three of four toward the end of the regular season.
They finished with a 10-game winning streak and haven't lost a postseason game in 18 tries, counting sweeps of the Southeastern Conference tournaments the last two years.
"We went out not only as champions, but we did it twice," senior Chris Richard said. "We rewrote history again. We broke every single record for our team this year. We did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it."
All season -- including in the 86-60 victory over Ohio State in December -- the Gators have morphed into whatever kind of team they needed to be to win, and this one was no different.
Stopping Oden figured to be the key, but really it was more complex than that. The 7-foot freshman, who may be one-year-and-done with the NBA beckoning, stayed out of foul trouble and played 38 minutes -- just what the Buckeyes figured they needed to have a chance.
But he couldn't do this on his own. Donovan stuck Horford, Richard, Noah and 6-10 freshman Marreese Speights on the big fella.
"They had four bodies running in at me," Oden said. "Chris Richard, I swear he plays on the football team."
Meanwhile, Ivan Harris was the only Buckeye to make a 3-pointer over the first 39-plus minutes of the game, and he finished 2-for-8. Mike Conley Jr. finished with 20 points for Ohio State, but lots of them came late after the Buckeyes were playing big-time catch-up.
That led to a lot of 3-for-2 tradeoffs, with Florida getting the better end of the deal. The Gators went 10-for-18 from 3-point range and did lots of little things that kept Ohio State in comeback mode.
How frustrating it must have been for the Buckeyes to watch Oden block shot after shot -- four in all -- only to see the Gators grab the rebound and feed it back out to Lee Humphrey for a 3.
That happened twice in the second half, both times when an Oden block looked like it might spark Ohio State, which kept the game in reach but couldn't get the deficit below six.
"I thought we fought about as hard as we could," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "We just couldn't turn the corner on them, which is what teams like that do to you."
Green finished 3-for-3 from 3-point range and Humphrey was his usual killer self, going 4-for-7 and scoring 14 points. Florida's versatility showed most in the first half when those two and Corey Brewer (13 points) hit back-to-back-to-back 3s to push Florida's lead to double digits.
Horford had a monster game, bodying up with the 7-foot Oden on defense and more than holding his own on the other end.
Clearly, another year in college has helped this 6-10 junior, who now looks every bit like a lottery pick.
Noah, on the other hand, probably sacrificed the most. He might have been the top pick had he left last season, but the presence of Oden and Texas' Kevin Durant, to say nothing of Noah's dwindling stats, have pushed him down.
He finished with eight points and three rebounds in this one, but big individual numbers were never the point with the Gators this year.
They came back for the championship and anything less would have felt hollow.
But there will be no regrets. Instead, they've triggered a nice little debate about the best programs of all time.
And about next year?
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
