NBA Draft in defense of Joakim Noah and the Florida Gators

Florida has won the NCAA tournament as I predicted and based on all the "experts" it seems that the biggest loser from the tournament has been Joakim Noah's draft stock. I am getting the same feeling as Vince Young in Joakim Noa being disrespected

I am not sure how much of the following is the truth but is what I am speculating. I think the main reason the o'fours came back to repeat their championship was the influence of Joakim Noah. Corey Brewer had the most to lose so Noah's responsibility was to the team and to the other Florida players.

His play to me showed that he cared more for the team and his other Florida players then his own stats, so you would expect his stats to decline unless the team was losing. The elephant in the room when discussing Noah's performance is that Florida never needed Noah to score and it shows how good a team mate is by not wanting to take shots. Noah's field goal percentage went up from 55% to 64% which for me shows that a large number of his shots were from offensive rebounds. Interesting that the time when Florida was losing is when Noah was not his normal self.

The biggest knocks on Noah are his age, scoring and handling the hate against him. I can't see him being the guy in the NBA but can see him being the solution to a team to win a NBA title. One thing going for him is his hands they look like Jordan's and Birds hands.

In defense of the Florida's team in history, the arguments against Florida is the strength of the college competition is less, there are less NBA players in the team and older repeat teams would beat them.


In terms of strength of competition this draft will be one of the best ever and at least six of the top 12 players was in the Final Four, So I don't get that argument.

In terms of potential NBA players for Florida you have 3 that will go in the top ten with the potential of another five NBA players. But even if that doesn't occur a champion team beats a team of champions which is well documented and is especially relevant to basketball e.g Olympics.

The argument that teams of fourty years ago would win a game against the gators has to be the most illogical. The athletes of today are so much stronger and faster then the athletes of the past. To think in a heads up game with the older teams that they still would have the same advantage as they had against their competition is absurd. One other fact is College basketball competition is harder now is because they have more better players eg Overseas Invasion.

But in the end the best argument is that in the last two years NCAA tournament Florida Gators closest game was six points. Their is no question that Florida has dominated the NCAA Tournament like no other team in a very long time.