The toughest choice on Saturday was the early game. Rick Pitino and a Louisville team with high expectations traveled into Gainesville to take on Pitino's protege, Billy Donovan and his Florida squad. Last years battle saw Louisville roll all over the Gators and help to make sure that a team which had just been named to the #1 position earlier in the week would suffer its second loss of the week, keeping Florida winless all time when they are leading the nation. Neither team was ranked as highly this time, but it doesn't mean the game didn't mean much to both teams. Florida is trying to prove they still have what it takes to compete at the top as they have in the past few years. This year, the talent level is not the same in Gainesville but the expectations are still there. Louisville is still battling back from its opening loss to Iowa out in Maui. They have won every game since and while Pitino thinks the team is still not at its full potential, that doesn't mean they shouldn't play better than they have.

It is conceivable that this game would have been enough to keep me interested, but over on the ESPN Full Court plan was a very close game between South Florida and Michigan. Michigan is coming off a win in the NIT last year and hoping that momentum can carry them into the NCAA tournament this year. However, Michigan was not the story of the game. Rather, that fell to a 6'9" Senior out of Tampa, Florida, named Terrence Leather. Leather towered over the court, leading his team at every opportunity. Every time he touched the ball, he drew the defense to him, and yet, each time he was able to score. He shot inside, laying it off the glass. He would step back and drop in twelve footers over the defenders. He would drive to the basket, playing as hard as he could every minute he played the game.

No one expected Leather to amount to much after his first two years with the team. Something happened to him last year when he averaged 15.5 points a game and became their threat inside. He has carried it over into this season and put on a show in this game. The only thing that kept him from totally dominating, and possibly kept his team from winning, was Leather getting himself into foul trouble. Despite being on the bench for much of the game, with about 15 minutes left in the second half, Leather had 23 of his team's 43 points and they were only down two to Michigan. At that point, Leather got his fourth foul and was sent to the bench. With him out of the game, Michigan was able to take advantage and pull a little further ahead, slowly increasing the lead over the next 5 minutes to 9 points. It would have been worse had South Florida Senior guard Marlyn Bryant not made a massive block inside just before Leather re-entered the game. While he was out, the only player able to do anything for the Bulls was their 5'10" point guard Brian Swift.

Leather coming back into the game was able to provide a small spark and allow the Bulls to once again close the gap as he scored 5 more points. They did not take advantage of him coming back though and feeding him the ball inside did not happen as often as it should have. Instead, South Florida continued to try and live on the outside, a tactic which was not working against Michigan's defense. Down 8, four minutes after returning, Leather fouled out of the game. Once he was out, Swift tried to keep the game close, but he couldn't do it on his own. The Bulls ended up losing by nine. Swift and Leather combined for 41 of the team's 62 points. Not much is expected from South Florida this season after last year winning only one game in Conference USA, but Terrence Leather will definitely put on a show where ever he goes. I know he kept me watching him throughout the game on Saturday.

In between watching Leather's performance, I was taken back in time by watching the Louisville and Florida game. Billy Donovan's clubs have always been known for speed, running their opponents up and down the court and gaining advantages not with superior shooting but penetrating guard play. Rick Pitino wins in a similar way with great guard play, but adds on a pressure defense which is hard for most teams to handle. His attempts to use this in the NBA have never met with much success, but you can't argue with his success on the college level. He seeks to take his third team to the Final Four and this year looks to be the team that can do just that.

Watching both teams on Saturday, I was impressed by how much these teams resembled their teams of the past. Late in the first half, Florida was able to capitalize on their speed and cause turnovers which led to some easy transition baskets. However, you could see the youth of this Florida team, especially Corey Brewer and Taurean Green. Poor shot selection and letting their speed get ahead of them led to a number of turnovers the other direction and allowed wide open shots for the star guards of Louisville, Francisco Garcia and Taquan Dean.

Early in the second half, Garcia was well along the way of taking charge of his team. Within 30 seconds, he hit a three pointer, stole the ball twice and followed that up with another basket, all resulting from the tough press defense which Louisville successfully used to keep Florida from running on them.

It wasn't that Florida didn't try to stay in the game. I was very impressed by David Lee, who has lost a great deal of weight from last season. He looks like a totally different player out on the court. His mobility has improved and this has directly led to him becoming a more productive player for the Gators. Down six with ten minutes remaining, Lee drove the basket in transition and was fouled. The foul was questionably called intentional and Lee hit both free throws. Florida scored on the possession and cut the lead to two.

Swings like this are often enough to get a team back into the game. Listening to the crowd in the O'Connell Center, you would have thought that the Gators had taken the lead or extended it and were ready to pull off the win. Unfortunately for the fans, the team was still down and whatever influence they had, it seemed to drive the Louisville guards even more. Garcia and Dean consistently were able to answer Florida runs and silence the crowd. That is just what happened after this sequence, with Garcia scoring on a pass from Dean. 5 minutes later, it was a Dean three pointer which silenced the Gator crowd.

Florida was able to keep the game close throughout, including a sequence in the final minute when sloppy play by Louisville with Garcia out of the game let Florida have a chance to win. Fully expecting the game to be over with a minute left and the Cardinals up five, Florida was able to rebound a bad three pointer by Dean, taken with 25 second left on the shot clock, and turn it into 2 points on the other end after a foul. A turnover on the next possession by the Cardinals was run down the court by Florida. Strangely, David Lee took a three pointer which hit nothing and fell into Louisville's hands. With their top three point shooter, Anthony Roberson, on the floor, there is no reason that Lee, who didn't hit a three all last year or this year, should be taking that shot. That sealed the game for Pitino. Louisville never trailed the entire game, but still has some work to do to make teams worry about players other than Dean and Garcia. Still, those two were able to lead this team to a win again.

There are days that don't have games with this much appeal, and I was able to watch two at the same time with the rest of Saturday still to follow. Still, I feel sorry for the "Last" button on my remote. At least it will get a break the rest of the week.