Coach K weighs in on Florida's repeat bid, praising their pursuit while acknowledging Houston's formidable challenge and the ultimate test of Duke.
Florida won its first two national championships in basketball in back-to-back fashion for the 2006 and 2007 seasons under head coach Billy Donovan.
After winning the title in 2025, the Gators earned a No. 1 seed and are set to try and defend their championship under head coach Todd Golden.
UF didn't look like a contender in early December when a loss to UConn dropped the program to 5-4. However, Florida rebounded, going 16-2 in SEC play and have looked like one of the best team's in college basketball outside of Duke.
Still, winning back-to-back national championships is hard to do. It means a team has to win 12 tournament games in a row.
Legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski did it one time in his career, winning national titles for the 1991 and 1992 seasons.
During an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Monday, Krzyzewski said he thinks Florida has a "chance" to win this season. He thought the Gators were the "hottest" team in the country until they lost to Vanderbilt in the SEC semifinal.
Still, he noted that No. 2 seed Houston will present a challenge for Florida.
“The thing, if they advance all the way, the one and two (seeds), they’re going to play really another No. 1 seed who’s a No. 2, and that’s Houston, who (head coach) Kelvin Sampson has done an incredible job there,” Krzyzewski said, via On3.
“It would be a man’s game. I see more of those games throughout the tournament than I did last year. I think this has a chance to be just a great, great tournament.”
Coach K said repeating was all that was on his mind after Duke won in 1991.
“The thing is when we did that in ’91 and ’92, after we won in ’91 people said, ‘You’re defending your championship,'” Krzyzewski said. “And I had a meeting with my guys in April of that year right after we won.
"I brought the trophy in, I said, ‘Look, this isn’t going away. We don’t have to defend a (expletive) thing. What we have to do is pursue. Let’s pursue the next one.’ And I think this Florida team is pursuing right now.”
Even if Florida beats Houston, Duke appears to be the best team in the country with star freshman Cameron Boozer. It'll take a titanic effort from any program, including Florida, to knock that team out.