UConn poses threat to historic Florida basketball 06-07 mark in March Madness

INDIANAPOLIS -- Former Florida basketball sharp-shooting guard Lee Humphrey had reason not to pick UConn in his March Madness brackets.

As a key cog in the last men's college basketball team to win back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007, Humphrey would like to see the historic mark the Florida Gators accomplished stand a little while longer.

"I purposefully didn't pick UConn on my bracket because I didn't want to pull for them," said Humphrey, now the color analyst for Florida basketball radio broadcasts. "I think if I was not picking with my heart I would have picked them."

As the No. 1 seed overall seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, UConn poses a serious threat to become the first team since Florida in 2006 and 2007 to win back-to-back national titles. The Huskies, who return head coach Dan Hurley and two starters from last season's team, went 31-3 this season, winning both the Big East regular season and tournament titles.

Golden touch:Florida basketball coach shows Golden touch in year two, authoring 8-win improvement before start of March Madness

How to watch:What channel is Florida basketball vs Colorado on today? Time, TV for Round of 64 March Madness game

Florida returned all five starters -- including Humphrey and Taurean Green, now an assistant player development coach at UF -- from its 2006 national title team.

"Even if they do repeat, we'll be the only repeat with the same starting five, and really the same top six with Chris Richard," Humphrey said. "We'll have that to hang our hat on, but yeah it proves how difficult it is to win a championship back-to-back."

Given the new freedom of player movement in college sports, college basketball may never see another repeat national champion with a returning core, the way Florida did in 2006 or 2007 or Duke did in 1991-92 with the Bobby Hurley-Grant Hill-Christian Laettner-led teams.

"It's definitely rare, especially nowadays with the portal: It's tough to retain guys," Green said. "Guys are jumping into the transfer portal, so for (UConn) to have a lot of their key guys back, it's a testament to that university, I'm sure they love playing for their coach, and I'm sure they like playing together, so, it's a good thing for college basketball."

Humphrey said the pressure ratchets up in repeating, someting UConn will face in the next three weeks.

"The second one was way tougher than the first," Humphrey said. "Once we clinched the SEC regular championship you can see our focus dropped in the results and we lost three or four games, and just a lot of weight on our shoulders. Fortunately, we went through that rough patch in conference play and that kind of refocused us going into the tournament."

Bond remains strong with Florida basketball 06-07 teammates

Green and Humphrey said the bond remains strong with 06 and 07 teammates. Starting forward Corey Brewer is now a player development coach in the NBA with the New Orleans Pelicans after a successful NBA career. Center Joakim Noah is running a charitable foundation, Noah's Arc, after his 13-year NBA career ended in 2020. Forward Al Horford is still playing at a high-level in the NBA with the Boston Celtics.

"We're still brothers," Green said. "Everybody is off doing their own things, everybody has their own lives but we're always going to be connected, we check in on each other, make sure we are doing well, and I'm sure those guys are tuned into the Gators even with all the stuff they've got going on, that bond is always going to be there."

Both Green and Humphrey are enjoying being re-connected to the Florida basketball program. Green is in his second year as a UF player development coach and first as an on-court coach.

"I've been away from college basketball for a long time and I really couldn't follow it too much when I was playing overseas," Green said. "Being able to come back I'm fortunate enough that Todd brought me back, being able to see where we're at as a program and what we need to improve on what we need to do. I'm just happy that we're taking the right steps and the right strides, in getting back to relevance."

Humphrey is in his fourth year as a full-time broadcaster at UF.

"It keeps me in the game," Humphrey said. "I get to be right there in the floor level which is a ton of fun. (UF play-by-play man) Sean (Kelley) is great.

"I think just the way you view the game, it's more from a coach's perspective. You have to think big picture, not just your own role. Obviously, I like to watch the guards a lot, the two-guards, but you try to get an overall feel for the game, kind of what the whole team is doing."