GATORS HUMBLE BUCKEYES

Fort Wayne, Indiana.It is 8:41 a.m. and Patrick is in bed with Junior.
I must have said last night about a hundred times, shaking my head:

"I can't believe we beat them by TWENTY SIX POINTS!!!!!

more later.

Junior got me a pepsi commemorative sixpack bottles of Gators 100 years of Football. Gotta go.

Back. Here are some AP excerpts:

Ohio State (10-2) used a 9-0 run to start the second half and erase a 38-29 deficit. Then Horford took over.

"The first half I was a little nervous just because of my ankle," Horford said. "But then the second half I got more comfortable and decided to go out there and play and be aggressive like I always am."

He had two jumpers, two dunks, a layup, a free throw and several rebounds over the next few minutes to help the Gators (11-2) put the game away.

Taurean Green and Corey Brewer also came up big in the 33-9 run that turned a tie game into a rout and had the largest crowd in the O'Connell Center's history (12,621) in a frenzy.

Green had 10 points, including two three-pointers, in the spurt. He finished with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting.

Brewer, who had a 102-degree temperature in Florida's first loss against Kansas and sat out the second loss at Florida State, had 18 points.

Florida shot 74% (20-of-27) in the second half and looked very much like the team that swept through the NCAA tournament last season and claimed its first national championship.

"The games are a test," Noah said. "And Ohio State was like the exam for the first semester. We passed it. We got an A. We're pretty happy right now. We're going to show mommy and daddy the grade and then we're going to do it all over again the second semester."

The Buckeyes shot 36.5% for the game — well below their season average — and were outrebounded 42-25.

"I am in shock," Ohio State guard Ron Lewis said. "I never thought this team could be beaten like that. It is something we just have to learn from."

Oden was 2-of-6, hampered by Horford, Noah and Chris Richard, who went right after the player many consider to be the best center in college basketball. They used one post player to bring him out of the paint and then tried to get another one the ball down low — hoping to minimize Oden's shot-blocking ability.

Oden finished with four blocks and a steal.

He missed his first shot and picked up a foul trying to get the rebound.

"The one thing we talked about doing against him was to keep running him, keep going at him, keep being aggressive, keep challenging, keep attacking him and don't let him just sit back there and block shots and don't try to play away from him but to play at him," Donovan said. "It was probably hard on Greg. We're throwing three guys at him and he has to guard three different people."

The Gators had struggled to match opponents' intensity and enthusiasm — maybe a natural byproduct of trying to repeat. They had little trouble getting up for this one.

Tickets were sold out long ago. At least 20 NBA scouts were on hand to see what was touted as a game featuring three of the best big men in the country. It also was considered a possible precursor for the Bowl Championship Series national title game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz. between the schools.

Gators football coach Urban Meyer can only hope for the same success. He was courtside with his family and spent the second half chatting with former Ohio State football star Cris Carter.

With a few minutes to play, the crowd chanted "over-rated." They followed that with chants of "just like football."

On TV they said Matta left a note on Coach Meyer's seat that said "We're going to kick your ass in football" Yeah, right. I just wonder if Coach told Billy Conovan about that...