UCLA v. FLORIDA

Another NCAA basketball season comes to an end tonight and few would have pictured a final of UCLA against Florida.

Florida lost 2 players early this year and went with a young athletic lineup, while UCLA has been rebuilding since Ben Howland took the reins from Steve Lavin almost 3 years ago. I'm a UCLA fan so anything I have to say right now may be biased in that regard.

This tournament has been great with more upsets than anyone could have imagined. George Mason in the Final Four? Give me a break. That's what will happen when you put freshmen in the lineup and so many teams had freshmen in critical positions (i.e. point guard) that is is not surprising that mistakes were made and losses incurred. Duke and Syracuse both played freshman point guards and both lossed early, although Syracuse has had its ups and downs this year. Both Memphis and LSU, while talented, depended far too much on freshman and had their great years ended by UCLA.

Tonights game should be a good one and the big questions remains whether Florda can handle the physicality (I never knew such a word existed) of UCLA. If so, they will win easily, but I have my doubts and will take the experience of Jordan Farmar and Aaron Aflalo (both sophomores) to stake UCLA to their 12th NCAA championship.

But don't bet the house on it.