The Florida Gators quartet of Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green have managed to remain glued to the task at hand — winning another national title — instead of becoming consumed with how their own numbers affect their NBA stock.

Noah virtually turned down the opportunity to become the No. 1 overall pick a year ago for a chance to defend (Billy Donovan absolutely despises that word) their title.

Brewer sorely needed the cash that a first-round contract would have provided to his family — and an ailing father who has been in and out of the hospital.

But they have stuck together — something that Jim Calhoun's team was unable to do last season.

"I spent a lot of time with these guys after the draft deadline passed last year," Donovan said. "I felt like there's just something different about them."

There are numerous reasons that the Gators have been able to lock down a No. 1 seed and win their first two games and become the first defending champion in three years to follow-up with a Sweet 16 appearance.

One of them is that there aren't street agents running around Gainesville.

Brewer and his teammates don't get the calls hounding them for representation. His parents don't get them, either.

"They're too old," Brewer half-joked. "They wouldn't know what to do with all of that."

Noah's lineage has been well-documented. Dad, Yannick, is a former tennis star while mom was Miss Sweden. He gets sound advice.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, I don't think about it," Noah said. "I feel that everybody on the team is about the right thing. When it becomes all about you, that's when you self-destruct."

Tito Horford played in the NBA and leads the chants of "De-fense" in the Gators fans section. Horford's mother moved to Gainesville and is extremely close to her son.

Then you've got Big Sid. That's Green's father, who was also an NBA player and a former D-1 head coach until a couple years ago.

All of these guys get sound advice — rather than having the ear of a so-called "mentor" or a summer-league coach that may not have their best interest at heart.

Joakim Noah hugs his mom Cecilia Rodhe, with his dad Yannick Noah standing in the background, after Florida defeated Purdue. (Bill Haber / Associated Press)

They listen to their families and the staff at Florida.

"These guys don't have the same problems that a lot of other young players have," Florida assistant coach Larry Shyatt noted. "They deal mostly with their families and their values are strong. That's good fortune on our part and also good fortune on theirs."

"It's hard to monitor everything," added fellow Gators assistant Donnie Jones. "But we try to communicate with our players. Billy does a great job telling the guys that everything will be there at the end and it can't help you today."

But there have still been moments when it appeared as though there was a crack in the foundation.

During Florida's slide toward the end of the regular season, prior to the game against Kentucky, Big Sid noticed something was wrong with his son, Taurean. So he hopped in the car and took a drive.

"I got there and his car was filthy and he looked down and out," Green said.

His intention was to take his son out for lunch, but it ended up where Big Sid took out the entire group.

He brought with him a tape of last year's game against Syracuse.

"I wanted to show them how much fun they had last year when they were playing for themselves and not for everyone else," the elder Green said.

The players responded.

"We saw that look in our eye when we watched that game and it had been missing," Noah said. "If I learned anything this year, it's that you've got to play for the people you love. You can't play for everybody."

"Coach Donovan has managed to keep it fun for us," he added. "When we had a chance to cut down the nets after we won the SEC tournament with four games left, that's what we did. I don't regret a thing, not at all. This time of year is what it's all about. This is what we came back for."

The NBA may be calling, but these guys aren't quite ready to listen.