Final Four focus won't be on Florida

By SHARON GINN
Published March 31, 2006

Florida fans, be forewarned: In the minds of the talking heads at CBS, the Gators' young team is not the story of the NCAA Tournament.

If comments earlier this week from Billy Packer, Jim Nantz and company are any indication, expect to hear a lot (more) about Cinderella team George Mason, which plays Florida in Saturday's semifinals.

Just because the Gators have been overshadowed, they haven't been overlooked.

"People forget (Florida) is a team that was not even ranked in the Top 25 coming into the year," CBS studio analyst Seth Davis said. "(The Gators) lost their top three guys (from last season), and there was absolutely no reason to think they could even compete for an SEC title.

"It is truly one of the more remarkable stories I've seen in this sport in a long time."

Key word here: more remarkable. Because 11th-seeded George Mason, hands down, is the team getting the royal treatment. Like everyone else, CBS's crew is in awe of what the Patriots have pulled off.

"I think it is wide open, and I think what George Mason has done has made every future tournament down the road look wide open," Nantz said. "There are no sure things anymore in the NCAA basketball tournament, and that's an exciting place to be."

Packer was even more emphatic.

"If you had said to me on Selection Sunday that there was a team in America who could beat Michigan State on a neutral floor, North Carolina on a neutral floor, Wichita State on a neutral floor and UConn on a neutral floor, I would have said not in a million years," Packer said.

"Without question, the story line of this tournament is the incredible way this team has beaten teams of that caliber. Unless you're a fan of the Pac-10 or UCLA or the SEC teams specifically, (George Mason) has become America's team."

Don't expect a lot of talk about Florida leading up to the game. All of the pregame show features are about the other teams: the wonder that is George Mason; the salve that LSU provides to post-Katrina Louisiana; and the return to glory of UCLA.

That doesn't mean no one at the network believes the Gators will prevail. Davis likes Florida. The Gators, he said, have the best player in the tournament in sophomore Joakim Noah. "He's still getting better," Davis said. "He made a play against Villanova where he stole the ball at halfcourt, drove down with his left hand and scored as he got fouled. And I'm thinking, "This kid is 6-11.' When you have the best player at the Final Four, it's a good starting point.

"Billy (Donovan) plays the part of the Grinch this week," Davis said, joking. "He's going to be the guy that beat Cinderella."

[Last modified March 31, 2006, 01:09:18]