What builds championship-caliber teams? Players with talent is a given, of course. But you also need drive, determination and a little luck.

What about team chemistry? It seems like chemistry hardly ever draws much attention, unless it’s bad. There’s been a fair share of bad chemistry players in the NBA over the years – Ron Artest, Steve Francis, Allen Iverson and Latrell Sprewell – but the NBA players have things a lot different than college players; private planes and a hefty salary are two of the obvious ones. College basketball also has the NCAA Tournament, a month-long tourney where winner takes all and loser takes the bus home. If chemistry, whether it’s good or bad, is going to be a factor that would be the place.

So, how do you build good team chemistry? Take the boys out on the town to get to know one another? That might be a good idea, as long as there aren’t any Indiana Pacers’ players in attendance. That may build some emotional chemistry, which is a good start, but the real chemistry is a physical element on the court. If your guard moves the ball in a way your star center isn’t comfortable with, your team may have trouble getting the ball downcourt and in the basket.

The best example of how great team chemistry can win a championship is last year’s champs, the Florida Gators. The Gators were special in how they won, because no one expected it. Go back and look at all the preseason polls from last season and look for Florida. On most of them there won’t be a word about the Gators. The talk was all about overloaded talents like Connecticut, Michigan State and Duke. All three of them had more talent than they knew what to do with, but none of them even made it to the Final Four.

The Gators may not have the blow-you-away talent that the Spartans and Huskies had last year, but what they did have were five starters who played as a unit better than any other team in the nation. What should really scare the rest of college basketball this season is that all five guys are still there. If other teams want to work on chemistry, they should study the video of Florida’s tournament run last season. It will give them fresh new material for chemistry class.

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