Back in black

ST. LOUIS – The Florida Gators come to the Final Four in Atlanta wearing black hats.

They were handed the black-colored caps after beating Oregon 85-77 for the Midwest Regional championship on Sunday. They've been wearing them figuratively all season long.

"Keep hatin'!" Joakim Noah shouted to no one in particular. "Keep hatin'!"

This is defending champion Florida's evolution from tournament darling (when it wasn't lining up against George Mason) to tournament villain (even in next Saturday's NCAA title rematch with 11-time champion UCLA, if you listen to the Gators). They have learned to play the role and even to embrace it. They wear the hats well – even on top of Noah's bushy mane.

"We win," Noah screamed, "we eat!"

That was Noah-speak for feeding the Gators' need to repeat as champions, according to his interpreters.

"He's just talking about how it's us against the world because we're No. 1," small forward Corey Brewer said. "Everybody kind of wants us to lose because everybody usually cheers for the underdog. I know I used to cheer for the underdog in the NCAA tournament."

"We love winning, and [Noah] personally hates when other people hate on us," said point guard Taurean Green, the region's most outstanding player. "And we use this as energy ourselves. We thrive off that. We know every game we play now is going to basically be an away game because nobody will be rooting for us."

That, in sum, is the major difference between the Gators' championship run of 2006 and their ongoing pursuit to repeat in 2007.

They have heard the boos. They have fallen behind early in many contests, unable to match the energy their opponents seemed to muster in their quest to defeat the defending champion. They were analyzed and dissected and at times criticized, one year after entering the NCAA tournament largely ignored. No warnings could prepare them for what they were about to encounter.

Yet here they are. Noah was perceived as their star going in, but few teams have been more selfless. Among the starters, only 61 field-goal attempts separate the player with the most shots taken (Brewer, with 337) and the fewest (Noah, with 276).

"They have been able to get to a Final Four when they were totally unheralded and then when there was totally a bull's-eye," coach Billy Donovan said. "They've had a chance to get there on two opposite ends of the spectrum.

"We've had to go this journey a different way. We couldn't do it exactly the same way because people were not going to allow us to do it the same way."

They advanced to the Final Four despite being outscored 34-24 in the paint by the smaller Ducks. But Oregon coach Ernie Kent second-guessed himself for concentrating so much on Noah and Al Horford that Green and Lee Humphrey were left alone to combine for 11 three-pointers and 44 points.

"When you look at it, [allowing] a two is much better than a three," Kent said.

"If anything got away from us, we gave them too many three-point shots. And that was due, in part, because of our rotating down defensively and trying to shut down the big guys."

The second of Humphrey's seven three-pointers literally ripped the nets, causing a 10-minute delay while officials scrambled to find a new one and a union laborer who could attach the new net to the rim. That episode provided Brewer with one of the funnier lines of the postgame news conference, after a reporter asked why Humphrey had shot only 12 free throws this season.

"He's shooting the nets off," Brewer exclaimed. "Would you foul him?"

Now the attention turns to a Final Four rematch with the UCLA Bruins after the Gators won so convincingly in their 73-57 championship victory last season.

"I think this year's UCLA team is probably tougher mentally because they've been through the grind a second time now," Kent said. "They've been through a much more grueling Pac-10 Conference that has gotten them tougher mentally as well.

"I think it's going to come down to defense. If they can defend Florida inside, at the same time taking away those great three-point shooters outside, they'll have an opportunity to play with them and win a game."

Donovan laughed at the inevitability of the question and said he would have to look at the game film before commenting on the difference between the UCLA team of 2006 and the Bruins of 2007. But he knew that they probably have been through a lot because he knew what his own Gators have experienced.

"Give the UCLA kids a lot of credit," Donovan said. "Half the Final Four from last year is back. That's kind of a neat thing, too."