Florida held off UCLA's continuous spurts last night to advance to their fourth straight Elite Eight (though no Final Fours in that batch). The accomplishment is more surprising than it should be. For some reason, Florida is annually one of the most overlooked programs in the country. Preseason, the Gators were ranked 10th. After starting the year 6-2, they were 19th. It took them until week 10 (of 19) before they would crack the top 10; week 17 before they would be number one; and it's going to take a national championship for them to become the AP's unanimous top team now that Wichita State won't be stealing any more of their votes. They've won 29 games in a row.

Part of Florida's problem in generating national attention is their location, where football rules, baseball sort of does, and basketball has had its moments*. No state exhibits stranger fan behavior. College football is the only area that makes complete sense. Florida teams (FSU 2014 national champions, UCF #10 in the final polls) annually excel; fans annually support. Professionally, they have three NFL teams, headlined by the Dolphins. The Buccaneers and Jaguars have had an up-and-down history, but they'll both be OK as long as the NFL continues its course (and stays away from Mark Cuban's projected course). With baseball, things start to get strange. Despite being known as a haven of the game -- the landing spot for star Cuban defectors like Aroldis Chapman and "El Duque;" a place where the current Heisman trophy winner also plays for the school's baseball team, and a prime spring training destination -- both of the area's professional teams (Miami, Tampa Bay) struggle with attendance. Both have also had some admirable success over the years.

Finally, we can talk about Florida basketball. Though the game has never been taken that seriously in the region -- a fact not necessarily helped by a professional team set in Disney World and called the "Magic" -- it seems to be followed with decent enthusiasm. Both the Magic and Heat have energetic fan bases that sometimes leave early during NBA finals games and miss epic comebacks (see below).

It makes sense that one of the state's schools should thrive in basketball like the University of Florida has. After all, the area is big enough to produce quality recruits; someone has to enroll them. At the same time, Florida's reign under Billy Donovan doesn't always make complete sense, given no other Florida school has shown any type of consistency in college basketball over the last decade. Plus, Donovan's teams don't rely as significantly on future pros as other big name programs (though he's had his share of them). What the 18-year head coach has done in Florida reminds me most of what Tom Izzo has done in Michigan State, except Donovan's had to do it in a more puzzling area of the country.

* Keep in mind, this article is told through a New Yorker's perspective.