Mike Bianchi: Gators are National Chompions once again and Gator Nation is back!

SAN ANTONIO — Drink up, Gator Nation.

Gobble this up and gorge yourself on what you just experienced.

It’s been a long time, baby!

You deserve it.

For years, University of Florida faithful have been stranded on a deserted island of fandom, surviving on the bitter berries and hard-shelled nuts disguised as second-tier bowl games and early exits from the NCAA Tournament.

It had been nearly two decades since the Gators last played for — and won — a national title in either football or basketball.

Until now.

Until this manic Monday night when the Florida Gators — coach Todd Golden’s amazing, hair-raising, reach-for-the-sky, never-say-die Florida Gators — somehow some way rallied once again to defeat the Houston Cougars 65-63 to win it all in the Alamodome.

You heard me, the Gators are National Chompions once again!

“The Gator Boys are back!” exclaimed star player Walter Clayton Jr. as orange-and-blue confetti rained down from the rafters.

And Gator Nation — after all these years, all these tears and all these crying-in-their-beers — is back, too.

Gator fans didn’t just celebrate this title — they devoured it. They relished every rebound, every 3-pointer and every defensive stand in this magical March Madness run. Let’s face it, when you’ve been a castaway for years, eating bugs and collecting rainwater just to survive, that first bite of warm bread and cold beer back in civilization hits you differently.

When you’ve endured hunger and heartbreak, you don’t take a national championship feast for granted.

As someone wise once said: “Without adversity, how would we really know what joy feels like?”

“You can just tell how hungry our fans are and how much they’ve loved this ride,” UF forward Thomas Haugh said. “Honestly, I think they have enjoyed it even more than we have.”

Mike McGinnis, a former Gator from the 1960s and a longtime booster, said it best before the game even started: “No doubt about it, when you’ve suffered a little bit, the success tastes all that much sweeter.”

And oh, how sweet this one was.

Golden’s Gators, down by 12, pulled off one of the biggest second-half comebacks in championship-game history while Golden, at age 39, became the youngest head coach to win the title since Jim Valvano in 1983. Valvano, 37 at the time, also beat Houston and the famous Clyde Drexler-Hakeem Olajuwon “Phi Slama Jama” Cougars.

This Houston team came in as the top defensive unit in the country and wanted to turn this game into a barroom brawl. The Gators gladly obliged them and then proceeded to outslug and outmug the battle-hardened Cougars. Until Monday night, Houston had been 33-0 when holding opponents under 70 points.

And who would have ever thought the Gators could win when Clayton, the team’s star who accounted for 64 points in the previous two games, didn’t score his first point Monday night until the 14:57 mark of the second half and didn’t make his first field goal until there was 7:54 left in the game?

Didn’t matter.

Will Richard kept the Gators within striking distance by hitting four 3-pointers in the first half and held down the fort until Clayton got going later in the game. And how ironic that it was Florida’s defense, not Houston’s, that came up big when it counted most?

Richard swiped at the ball and caused a Houston turnover on the Cougars’ next-to-last possession. And then Clayton forced Houston’s Emanuel Sharp to pick up his dribble and intentionally drop the ball to keep from being called for traveling before Alex Condon dove on the loose ball as the final horn sounded and the celebration began.

The buzz surging through Gainesville and beyond for weeks erupted into a full-on roar. Gator Nation wasn’t just back — they were on top again.

I’ve followed the Gators since I was a kid growing up in Gainesville and I’ve been covering them as a journalist in some form or fashion since I was a UF student in the 1980s.

I was there in Charlotte when Lon Kruger took UF to its first Final Four in 1994 — an incomprehensible feat at the time considering the unremarkable history of UF basketball.

I was there in New Orleans when Steve Spurrier’s Gators walloped Florida State, 52-20, to win the school’s first national championship in football — the biggest moment in UF sports history considering the opponent and football-fanatical passion of the UF fan base.

I was there in Indianapolis and Atlanta when Billy Donovan’s Gators won back-to-back national championships in 2006-2007 — an unprecedented accomplishment that marked the first time in modern history that a traditional football school had transformed itself into an elite basketball powerhouse.

And I was there in Phoenix and Miami in 2006 and 2008 when Urban Meyer’s Gators won two national championships in three years, encapsulating a euphoric time when the beloved Tim Tebow was quarterbacking the team and an historic time when UF became the first school in modern times to simultaneously hold football and basketball national championships.

But as any long-suffering fan knows, dynasties rise and fall. After Donovan left for the NBA and Meyer’s tenure came to an end, Florida’s spotlight dimmed. The Gators still had their moments, of course, but they were just occasional flickers.

That’s why this championship run feels different. It wasn’t just about the possibility of cutting down nets; it’s been about the journey to get back, the revival, and the rediscovery of the true meaning of that famous UF cheer and chant we heard reverberating throughout the Alamodome late Monday night:

“It’s great to be a Florida Gator!”

For fans who lived through the golden age of Florida athletics, this run felt both nostalgic and new at the same time. For Gator Nation, the current journey to the championship game brought back all the old feelings — and then some.

“When you see how happy the fans have been during this run, you want to go out and play hard to make them proud,” Richard said. “We all want to play our best, not just for ourselves but for all the fans we’re representing. Just seeing how much joy this is bringing them, you realize you’re playing for something bigger than yourself.”

Fans fell in love with this team. Not because it steamrolled its way to the title game with NBA lottery talent, but because it earned every inch of it. These Gators played with heart, hustle and a brand of unity that reminded longtime fans of the Kruger-coached “Find A Way” Gators of 1994. They’re gritty. They’re gutty. They’re resilient. They’re relentless.

They beat two No. 1 seeds and the two-time defending national champions to get here. They rallied in the second half to beat UConn. They were down nine to SEC champion and No. 1 seed Auburn in the second half. They were down nine to Texas Tech in the Elite 8 with less than three minutes left. And they were down by 12 in the second half to Houston.

Wow.

Just wow.

And, unlike the Donovan national-title teams, Gator Nation didn’t necessarily expect wins this time around but cherished them more. They hung on every possession, celebrated every stop, savored every second. It was not so much about raising another banner; it’s about being back in the conversation, back in the national spotlight, back where they believe they belong.

Yes, the Gators won the national championship on Monday night, but they also won something even more valuable.

They won back the hearts and souls of their fans.