Billy Donovan’s bookshelf is one volume down. Early this season, he lent Udonis Haslem a copy of Underboss, thinking that his star center, a mafia buff, would enjoy the story of how Sammy "The Bull" Gravano snitched on John Gotti to protect the honor of the mob. Donovan’s still waiting for its return. After the 6'9", 246-pound bruiser devoured the book in one sitting, he started to live his life by its code. “If I have to do something for the good of the team,” Haslem says, "I’ll do it, even if it makes me look bad."

Friend: The Terps can't do without Dixon Kirkpatrick: Gooden & Collison lead the Jayhawks Forde: Tough defense is the standard in Con-USA Liang: Haslem is comes up big for the Gators. Burton: Don't question Duke's toughness Feldman: Sampson's teaching are getting through Hockensmith: Dickau knows how to finish Wojciechowski: Johnson makes or breaks the Illini Thamel: UConn women are more than their starters Hodes: Look out for the women of the Big 12 Hodes: Lady Cardinals believe in Magic

UD is Florida’s heavy. With his superhero strength (he can bench 300 pounds) and killer conditioning (he completed 28 suicides on a queasy stomach last fall), the senior outbangs and outlasts the competition. (He’s averaging 15.9 ppg and 8.4 rpg entering postseason play.) Throwing his weight around. Diving for loose balls. Picking up teammates when they go down. Haslem does it all -- even though he wears a lower-back support to nip the beginnings of a bulging disk. Nothing stops Udonis from going to the mattresses with his crew.

Yes, NBA scouts worry about his height. (The Gators list him at 6'9", he says he’s 6'8", we’re guessing 6'7".) But Haslem, who bumped his range to 15 feet this summer to neutralize fellow heavies, is tired of the doubters. "Look, if you’re two inches taller or two inches smaller, I’ll dominate you," he says. "Two inches don’t matter." Bolstering his argument, UD had 24 points and 11 boards against Western Kentucky’s 7'1" Chris Marcus in a Tourney win last year; he schooled the NBA’s No.1 draft pick, 6'11" Kwame Brown, over the summer; and he went for 14 and 16 against 6'10" Temple widebody Kevin Lyde in November.

Haslem says he’s seen Scarface about 60 times, but Gotti is still his favorite mob guy. So as long as Udonis is mixing it up down low and gunning for Florida’s first NCAA title, you can call him the Underboss. Or, better yet: UDon.

This article appears in the March 18 issue of ESPN The Magazine.