Top 6 Teams of 2006:
6. Florida Gators: Lost in the excitement of the George Mason cinderella story (see below) was the fabulous performance of the Florida Gator's men's basketball team. It's nice to see Billy Donovan getting his due as a top coach, after the title he won for Gainesville this spring. Led by Joakim "I am as Good as I am Ugly" Noah and Corey Brewer, the Gators conquered all in an impressive, fun romp to the title.
5. Italy: The Azzurri finished first in the "Group of Death", squeaked by Australia in a tight Round of 16 match, then blasted Ukraine to reach the semis. There, they handed the host Germans their first loss ever in Dortmund. In the World Cup championship against France, the team survived "The Headbutt Heard 'Round the World" en route to a penalty-kick win. Great, gritty World Cup performance by a seasoned, exciting team.
4. Miami Heat: Sports announcers love to use the "Team of Destiny" tag when playoff season rolls around and one team starts winning games in spite of everything. Miami didn't quite battle the adversity that previous Teams of Destiny did, but they did climb the mountain in some very exciting, hard-fought series - the first round against Chicago and the Finals against Dallas, most notably. They very clearly deserved the title, for the way they jelled toward the end of the season and into the postseason.
3. New Orleans Saints: The new America's Team! What a great story coming out of the Crescent City this fall. How do you root against these guys? Is there a more memorable play from the 2006 season than the blocked punt for a TD on Monday night against Atlanta, in the first game back in the Superdome? But this team isn't just about the return to the devastated New Orleans and the pick-me-up it's providing to the City's residents. There's the steady hand of the cast-off, Drew Brees, and the emerging rookies, Reggie Bush and Marques Colston. No matter what happens in the playoffs, we'll all remember this team.
2. Detroit Tigers: Nobody - and I mean nobody - saw this one coming. Everybody loves an underdog, and a surprise underdog even more - but what impressed me most about the Tigers is that they weren't just getting lucky. This team played fundamental baseball about as well as it can be played, and it was that discipline more than anything else that got Detroit into the World Series. In the end, the talent wasn't quite there - but like the '02 Angels, '03 Marlins, and '05 White Sox before them, this team showed that when you play baseball "the right way," you can get a lot farther than teams with more talent and less focus.
1. George Mason: The little engine that could - George Mason was a lowly revolutionary and an unknown school before the 11th-seeded Patriots romped to the Final Four. There simply was no better story in sports in 2006 than what this team did in March. With apologies to Coach Jim Larranga for not making my Top 6 Coaches list, I name the George Mason men's basketball team as Team of the Year.
*Of course, I hope that 2007 brings GMU a #1 seed and a first-round loss to #16 Mississippi Valley State - it's madness!
Happy New Year to all the Back Seat Drivers!
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