New season to bring new roads to the Final Fours

The combined distance from Westwood to Indianapolis and San Antonio ““ the sites of the 2010 men’s and women’s Final Fours, respectively ““ is about 3,500 miles, but this year, it often seemed a lot further.

Now that the Duke men and the UConn women have officially cut down the nets on the 2009-2010 college basketball season, it’s an appropriate time to assess just how far each of the UCLA basketball teams is from pulling an Edward Scissorhands of its own on the Final Four nets.

While the men’s team has recently been plagued with departures (see: Morgan, J’mison and Moser, Mike), the future could very well prove bountiful. The losses not only open up more scholarship spots that can be filled via recruiting and supplement an already-solid 2010-2011 class, but they will also assist in obscuring the memory of just how miserable the 2009-2010 season really was for the men’s squad.

Duke and Butler advanced to the championship largely on the strength of veteran players and defense, and that has to be the blue(Devil)print that coach Ben Howland will be preaching. If the program can hold on to its key players and get two or three UCLA-worthy recruiting classes, here’s predicting UCLA is back in the Final Four before Mike Krzyzewski goes gray (OK, probably not a good endorsement. The Bruins will be back by the time the NCAA expands the field to include intramural teams).

Furthermore, next year’s Pac-10 will be UCLA’s for the taking, as Cal, Washington, and Arizona State all lose valuable pieces. Washington State and Arizona will be improved, but a return trip to the NCAA Tournament should be viable for the Bruins.

Ben Howland and Co. will have companions as they march back to national prominence. Nikki Caldwell’s women’s team will continue to be the team that nobody wants to play. Their aggressive defense, playmaking ability, and overall energy will make them a threat for the immediate future.

That said, the Final Four slugfests that involved UConn, Stanford, Baylor and Oklahoma also revealed that the women’s game is becoming a game of powerful post players. The Huskies’ Tina Charles, the Cardinal’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike, and the Bears’ Brittney Griner dominated the event. UCLA will graduate Moniquee Alexander, who is by far its tallest player at 6-foot-6-inches, and usually relies on a frontline of 6-footers Markel Walker and Jasmine Dixon.

Caldwell can definitely recruit, as evidenced by her ability to lure Walker from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. If any dominant bigs find their way to Westwood in the next couple of years, watch out. That lack of overpowering size is the only thing holding UCLA back from the sport’s upper crust.

Would it be too much to ask for Caldwell’s Bruins to take UConn’s approach and potential eclipsing of the UCLA men’s 88-game winning streak personally? I think not. A team will need a chip on its shoulder to unseat the Huskies from atop the women’s ranks. There’s no reason to think that UCLA can’t be that team someday.

In a logistical oddity, the locations for the men’s and women’s Final Four next year will virtually flip-flop. The men will converge on Houston, while the women will target Indianapolis. That 3,500 mile distance may be about the same, but it will seem a whole lot closer.

If you’d like to ride the bandwagon to future Final Fours, e-mail Eshoff at reshoff@media.ucla.edu.

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