The run through March Madness that the Florida Gators took was one of the craziest runs a team has ever had to go on. Outside of its opening contest against Norfolk State and the second half against Maryland, Todd Golden and company were locked in some of the most intense and wildest games we have seen in a long time.
Taking a peek over at the NBA, it appears the New York Knicks watched the run Florida went on and are trying to top it in an even more ridiculous fashion.
Like the Gators, the Knicks don't care about win probability
The NBA was riddled with negative headlines all season about how nobody cared about basketball anymore and how the NBA was boring.
Now that the playoffs have begun, that narrative has flipped, and at the center of the insanity are the New York Knicks.
If you rewind to their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons, New York won game three by two points, game four by one point off a controversial non-call, and had Jalen Brunson make a three with 5.1 seconds left to prevail in game six.
One could say those games mirrored Florida's game against UConn, where Dan Hurley couldn't stop whining about the refs and Walter Clayton Jr. had to take over late to help the Gators prevail.
Games one and two against Boston, however, have a closer vibe to the national title game against Houston and the Elite Eight game against Texas Tech. Florida never fell behind by 20, but they had just a 6% chance of winning in the final three minutes against Texas Tech.
And much like Clayton had an inconic defensive play to close out the national championship against Houston, the Knicks had key defensive stops to close out games one and two to take a 2-0 series lead.
Maybe it's the connection between the two teams' wearing blue and orange. Maybe it's the connection of Brunson being a second-round pick, kind of like how Clayton was once a zero-star prospect. Maybe it's Maybelline.
The odds would say it's not a great strategy for the Knicks to keep falling behind by 20, but the Gators didn't worry about the odds either and have a national title to show for it.