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Questions raised over US terror exercise

For Gators trio, title victory becomes one defining moment

By JOHN ROMANO
Published March 14, 2005

You thought you knew them.

By now, you thought you had seen all you needed to see and suffered as much as you could bear to suffer, when it came to Florida's basketball stars.

You thought David Lee was soft. You thought Anthony Roberson was greedy. You thought Matt Walsh was all hair and no heart.

You had never seen a trio win so much, and achieve so little. They could give you statistics. They could give you high seeds and, briefly, a No.1 ranking. They could give you 20-win seasons like clockwork.

Yet they could never give you a victory of consequence. They could never give you a defining moment that would forever validate them in your memory.

Until now.

Until they put together a weekend, and specifically a Sunday afternoon, that Florida fans had never seen before. The Gators won the Southeastern Conference tournament against Kentucky with very recognizable players in totally unfamiliar roles.

There was Lee, declaring the area underneath the hoop as his very own work space and daring any Kentucky player to mess with his post.

There was Roberson, moving the ball around on offense with more selfless determination than you ever remember seeing.

There was Walsh, stopping a 15-1 Kentucky spurt with consecutive three-pointers that turned the game around in the second half.

Here they are in March, looking like a real team.

Okay, so they've been playing a variation of this game, off and on, for the better part of three seasons. The problem is they could never control when they were off and when they were on. They tended to be on quite a bit in December, but were always way off come March.

In the three seasons they've been together, Lee, Roberson and Walsh have combined for a .753 winning percentage from November to February.

That will get you a lot of attention and a healthy share of postseason expectations.

Which only made their disappearances in March that much worse. After going 23-4 in 2002-03, they went 2-4 in March. The next season, they went from a 17-8 start to a 3-3 finish in March.

And it's not like you can blame it on the competition in the NCAA Tournament.

Florida was a No.2 seed when it lost to No.10 Michigan State in 2003. The Gators were a No.5 when they lost to No.12 Manhattan last season.

C'mon, admit it. You began bracing for disappointment two weeks ago. It's one thing to have a team that simply isn't good. It's completely different to have to explain why your team isn't any tougher.

That's what made this recent stretch seem so much more incredible.

It's not just that Florida has won four games in eight days, but it has beaten four ranked teams along the way. The Gators have been sharp. They've been rugged. Most of all, they've been relentless.

There was a point in the second half of Sunday's game when Florida went from a seven-point lead to a seven-point deficit in six minutes. This was their cue to step aside. To give Kentucky a clear path to the throne.

Instead, Walsh began hitting 3-pointers and UF's defense remembered the tempo that had been established in the first half.

"When they play together, and rebound and play defense like they did, they've seen what they can accomplish," coach Billy Donovan said. "We have to understand what got us here."

From this moment on, it is up to Lee, Roberson and Walsh to determine how much time they have left as teammates. Lee is a senior, and Roberson could head to the NBA after the season. If they have another lifeless NCAA Tournament game in them, they had better start preparing their goodbyes.

You would have thought, by now, they would have a pocketful of NCAA memories. Maybe strands of clipped nets hanging on their bedroom walls.

Lee was one of the most anticipated recruits Florida has ever landed. Walsh and Roberson were instant starters as freshmen. Together, this group was supposed to build on Florida's Final Four appearance in 2000.

Instead, they have won fewer NCAA Tournament games than Craig Brown, Dan Cross and Andrew DeClercq did at Florida. Less than Teddy Dupay, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller. Less, you would think, than any of them expected.

Winning the SEC tournament Sunday was a milestone for a university that had waited forever for the moment to arrive. But it was just as significant for a trio of players who had never enjoyed such a moment of exhilaration.

It will probably be the peak of their careers. The snapshot for which they will always be remembered.

Or maybe it was the beginning of something else. Perhaps it was the first indication they had solved the mysteries of March.

The NCAA Tournament begins this week and Florida, once again, is among the higher seeds. Lee, Roberson and Walsh have confidence. They have momentum.

For once, they have a legacy worth building on.

[Last modified March 14, 2005, 06:01:25]