INDIANAPOLIS “”mdash; It was the championship game. UCLA was the
program with the tradition. Bruin legends Bill Walton and Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar were in the stands.
It was meant to be.
The Bruins had the magical run, a miracle game against Gonzaga
and Bruin fans were predicting the beginning of a dynasty.
But somebody forgot to tell the Florida Gators.
On college basketball’s biggest stage at the RCA Dome, the
Bruins were simply outplayed, out-coached and overwhelmed by the
NCAA champion Gators.
Florida had the better talent, the better game plan and the
better athletes.
“We ran into a very athletic, very well-coached
team,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “I thought they
were terrific tonight. They did an outstanding job of dealing with
our pressure.”
Florida’s superstars Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Lee
Humphrey came out firing from the beginning, and the Bruins
couldn’t recover.
The Bruins, who fell behind early in the first half, played like
a team that was awed by Florida’s size and talent, and some
of the players just couldn’t react.
“They were well prepared. Whatever they did, they were
able to do it very strong,” sophomore guard Arron Afflalo
said. “They knew what to expect tonight and they
executed.”
For UCLA, the game was a learning lesson that has been tough to
swallow.
They are a young team that has overcome a laughable number of
injuries just to even make the NCAA Tournament.
They just ran into a Gator team with freakishly athletic big men
who exposed every last weakness ““ small or big. The Bruins
didn’t save their best performance for the title game, but
the fact is that the more athletic team won that championship.
“Once we got inside the lane, it either was a blocked shot
or changing a lot of shots,” point guard Jordan Farmar said.
“That’s just what their two big men (Horford and Noah)
bring to the table.”
Florida made the extra pass, while UCLA took the quick 3-point
shots, which all resulted in a lot of open dunks for the Gators and
many empty looks from the Bruins and their fans.
The amazing defense that UCLA had prided itself on throughout
the season and during the tournament evaporated in a quick second
against the Gators’ up-tempo offense, and its plethora of
talented 3-point shooters.
“I always felt that if you could be patient against
(UCLA’s) defense, you could be successful,” Florida
coach Billy Donovan said. “We had to make sure that we worked
for the easy shot, and not settle for quick jumpers.”
Donovan had the better game plan Monday, and truly elevated
himself to the elite level of college coaching. Nobody should doubt
that his program is going to be contending for the Final Four for a
long time.
The Gators were the media darlings of the Final Four all week
long. They have the young, dynamic coach and rock-star big man
Joakim Noah. They just looked like the right fit for national
champions ““ at least to the rest of the country. But that
does not mean that the losing team will quickly become an
afterthought.
UCLA accomplished many fabulous things to get this far in the
tournament, and it returns all but two of its seniors for next
year’s team.
This young collection of four freshman and three sophomores will
certainly learn from this year’s tournament run and will be a
force to be reckoned with next season.
They have developed a blue-collar identity that UCLA fans have
embraced. They will return red-shirt freshman Josh Shipp and will
only improve as Howland deepens his mark within the program.
In fact, on a night in which all eyes were on Florida’s
young talent and potential future, Ben Howland cautioned in writing
the Bruins off too quickly.
“We’ll learn from this,” Howland said.
“I mean, our players that are returning in the program are
definitely going to have grown a lot from this season.”
“My message to the team is that our goal is to get back
here again next year and win it.”
And on a night in which there was not much to cheer about for
UCLA, Bruin fans can take solace in that.