"For now, Florida is the best"

Right now, Florida is the best men's college basketball team in the nation.

No question about it.

Despite defeating Duke in sports' best rivalry Wednesday night, North Carolina showed some vulnerabilities that could plague it come March. This is not to take anything away from the Tar Heels' victory. A win at Duke is a win at Duke.

Special. Especially when you do it two years in a row.

But North Carolina didn't look invincible like it did two weekends ago when it clobbered Arizona, making me stand up and declare, "That team is the best in America."

I've reconsidered.

The great thing for the Tar Heels is that they're extremely young. They're inexperienced. They're going to make mistakes that veteran teams - such as Florida - avoid. The hope down in Chapel Hill, I'm sure, is that as the season progresses into March those miscues will become part of the past and this team will start performing like the upperclassmen-dominated squad that won Roy Williams his first national title two years ago.

If not for Josh McRoberts picking up his fourth foul with just under 12 minutes remaining last night, allowing North Carolina sophomore Tyler Hansbrough to hit two shots sandwiched around a Wes Miller 3-pointer to tie the contest at 52-52, the Tar Heels might not have ended up on top. Freshman sensation Wayne Ellington, purportedly North Carolina's best outside shooter, couldn’t find his touch Wednesday, making just 2-of-8 field goals for four points.

Luckily for the Heels, senior Reyshawn Terry stepped up and hit two 3-pointers and Miller added that key triple to make up for Ellington's off-night. Against a good, but not great, Duke team, that was enough. Especially with freshman point guard Ty Lawson making two strong layups in the final 2 minutes.

But Wednesday's effort would not have been good enough to dethrone the Gators.

What makes Florida the best team in the country is that everyone has a role and knows exactly what it is. There is no confusion. Joakim Noah and Al Horford dominate down low, often catching ally-oop lobs from their teammates for easy buckets. Corey Brewer can hit 3-pointers but can also drive to the hoop. Taurean Green runs the offense - and occasionally drops a big 3 - and all Lee Humphrey does is hit 3-pointers.

It's beautiful to watch. Game after game, night after night, the Gators execute the same game plan. Sometimes they're down in the first half. Sometimes they're even down in the second half. But with their poise, they never deviate from their recipe for success, and the results are victories. If I'm a Gators fan, and they're down 10 with 15 minutes to play, I'm not worried. They'll pull it out.

If I was a North Carolina fan last night, trailing by 10 with just over 16 minutes to play, I wouldn't have been concerned. But that's only because it was Duke. When was the last time these two teams didn't play a close game? That's another story for another day.

Another concern for North Carolina has to be the fact that it doesn't show up for some games. Specifically, the Virginia Tech and North Carolina State road games - the Tar Heels' two conference losses. Williams said he was perplexed after his players didn't come prepared for NC State last Saturday, allowing the mediocre Wolfpack to upset the Tar Heels.

Isn't North Carolina State supposed to be North Carolina’s second rival? And the Tar Heels had to know that Virginia Tech is a very dangerous team. Yet they didn't seem to wake up until they made a furious second-half rally from a huge deficit that made the final score respectable.

One of these cases in the NCAA tournament, and North Carolina will be done. Again, a lot of this probably has to do with youth. But no one in Chapel Hill will be making excuses for this bunch of ultra-talented athletes in March. The expectations are set very high, and anything short of a national title will be a disappointment for these Tar Heels.

Wednesday night's win was big. Huge. But at the same time, it is clear that Florida is still the best team in the country and has to be the favorite to win the national championship.

As disgusting as a Gators’ threepeat sounds.