Florida is "greedy"

Cutting down nets is becoming routine for the Florida men's basketball team.

The third-ranked Gators did it for the fifth time in the last two years Wednesday night, this time in celebration of just their second outright Southeastern Conference regular-season championship after their 63-49 victory over South Carolina at the O'Connell Center.

The most recent clips join pieces from two SEC Tournament titles (2005 and 2006), reaching the 2006 Final Four and winning the 2006 NCAA championship. They complete a collection because an SEC regular-season title was the only thing the Gators lacked.

"We thought about it the whole season," senior center Chris Richard said. "Everybody on the team other than the [four] freshmen has won everything we could possibly win. We won tournaments. We played in a Final Four, national championship, SEC Tournament championship. Winning it tonight was a great accomplishment for all of us."

It will be savored, junior forward Joakim Noah said, but not overemphasized.

"It's great, but we're greedy," said Joakim Noah, who became the third Florida player this season to surpass 1,000 career points. "We want more. We've won everything that we can possibly win, but it's still not satisfying. We still want more."

The Gators' only other outright SEC regular-season title came in 1989. They shared the title with Kentucky in 2000 and 2001.

"You want to get to the point where you win championships," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "Don't take it for granted. What happened tonight was beyond significant in my opinion. ... Any time you win a championship, you need to celebrate. You need to enjoy it. You need to cherish it."

Horford's 20 points were just two shy of the junior big man's career high of 22.

Meanwhile, Richard tied his career high with 14 points. He finished 6 of 7 from the field and added six rebounds. Brewer scored just six points, but he added 12 rebounds and three assists. Joakim Noah scored six points, giving him 1,003 in his career, and added 13 rebounds, three assists and four blocks.

"They were playing our post one-on-one, and we were just throwing it inside," Brewer said. "If anybody wants to play our post one-on-one, they [Florida's post players] should have a field day, and Al played great today."

The Gators held the Gamecocks to 35.7 percent field-goal shooting and were especially stingy in the first half. South Carolina made just 5-of-26 shots (0 for 5 from 3-point range) and trailed 30-13 at the break.

The victory was Florida's 17th at home this season, breaking the previous record of 16 held by the 1985-86 and 2005-06 teams. The Gators have won 18 games in a row at the O'Connell Center, two shy of the school record.

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