The confetti is slowly getting swept up, but the party is still going on for Florida Basketball and its fans. The Gators pulled off one of the most memorable March Madness runs in order to secure its third national title in program history.
It can be easy to dismiss this title as a flash-in-the-pan moment for Gator fans who will soon turn their attention to football season, but it would be naive to think this title is meaningless in Gainesville.
Here are the three main reasons why this title means so much to Gator fans.
Those Who Dreamed Higher for Florida Basketball Were Vindicated
We have been down the Mike White road and have spilled more than enough words onto a keyboard about his time in Gainesville.
White wasn't a bad guy; he was competent enough to keep the Gators at least somewhat relevant, and Florida never hit rock bottom under his watch.
But Florida was never elite under White. The highest the Gators ever finished in an AP poll under White was 20th, and Florida finished the season unranked in five of his seven years in Gainesville.
Yet those who dared to dream that Florida could do better were called "toxic," "bad fans," "insufferable," and "fair weathered."
The reality is that if you want to win a national title in any sport, you have to have high standards and dream big. The fans who felt the most pain during that era rather than apathy felt the most elation on Monday.
Because as 50 Cent once said, joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain.
Florida is a Basketball School
Compared to a place like Kentucky, the University of Florida is not a "basketball school." And if you were to ask most Gator fans whether they could choose between a national title in football or a title in basketball, 90% would tell you football.
But that doesn't mean that basketball is some sideshow at Florida, as it is for half of the SEC.
Part of the reason for the frustration during the Mike White Era is that people in Gainsville truly care about basketball. This wasn't a moment of "Neat, we won. Now, what time is the spring game?"
This was a culmination of genuine investment in the team throughout the season.
Everyone Around Florida has had Success
If you think about being a Florida Gator fan relative to most fan bases around the country, there are some unique circumstances.
Start with the fact that Florida has two major in-state rivals (FSU and Miami) along with UCF, who act like distant cousins who never got enough attention as kids.
Outside of the Research Triangle in Raleigh with Duke, UNC, NC State, and possibly the state of Texas if the Longhorns and Texas A&M consider Houston, Baylor, Texas Tech, and TCU as rivals, almost everyone else in the country is relegated to one main in-state rival.
Now add on top of that, Florida has Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU as their most notable SEC rivals in football over the years, along with Kentucky being up there in basketball, and there is a lot of constant noise Florida fans find themselves surrounded by while schools like Nebraska can insulate themselves from outside noise.
So even though before this title, Gator fans still had moments of success to point to that surpass anything fanbases like Minnesota, Southern Cal, Illinois, or Arizona have been able to experience, those fanbases haven't also had to watch scores of rivals rise up and have success in the last 15 years.
FSU has had a national title in football more recently than Florida, while Georgia has become a superpower.
Tennessee has beaten Florida in two of the last three seasons in football, turned into a superpower in baseball, and, prior to this year, had finished in the top ten in basketball three out of the previous six seasons.
LSU won the national title in football in 2019, Marco Wilson threw a shoe against them, and they beat Florida in 2023 for the baseball national title.
Kentucky had won a national title in basketball more recently than Florida.
Even Miami had made a Final Four more recently than Florida prior to this year and keeps tweeting out "41-17" at will.
Florida fans needed this win to restore the brand and give ammo to fight back against a barrage of rivals they interact with on a daily basis.
While every day is a great day to be a Gator, it feels a bit more special this week, knowing that 21 million people watched Todd Golden and Company cut down the nets in San Antonio.