2008 Woodie Awards
Bruins Are Gator Bait
Florida dominates UCLA en route to their first National Championship
Chris Fries and Dakota Rubin
Issue date: 4/11/06 Section: Sports
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Unlike UCLA's previous foes in the tournament, the Gators did indeed fly past the Bruins to win the National Championship, 73-57.
Two of the best young coaches in the game, Billy Donovan (Florida) and Ben Howland (UCLA), were looking for their first ever National Championship. Billy Donovan was looking to become one of the youngest coaches to win a national championship in history, while Ben Howland had the legacy of the UCLA program behind him in his quest for the title.
The game got off to a fast start with the fearless Gators jumped out to a quick 11-6 lead. Sophomore guard Jordan Farmar helped keep UCLA in the game during the first ten minutes with a couple of clutch shots and key assists, but Florida expanded the lead to double digit at 25-15.
Florida's big men and two of their stellar sophomores, Joakim Noah and Al Horford, dominated the inside making several key blocks and putting the UCLA big men in critical foul trouble. Farmar continued to keep UCLA in the game with his hardnosed play, but the Gators continued to push and the lead grew to as much as a dozen before the half ended with the score 36-25.
While UCLA was touted as the better defensive team, it was Florida that showed up on that end of the floor. Noah broke the blocked shots record for a championship game with five in the first half alone. Fellow Gator sophomore Corey Brewer held UCLA's Arron Afflalo (who scored 60 points in one game this year) to zero points in the first 28 minutes of the game.
"All our guys heard about for the last day and a half was how great defensively UCLA is," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "I don't think our basketball team got a whole lot of credit about how good they are defensively."
Similar to in their Final Four game against George Mason, it was Lee Humphrey, the lone junior on the starting lineup, who put the game out of reach for the Gators. The sharp shooting junior buried three three-pointers to start the second half as Florida stretched the lead to 20 points with just 15 minutes remaining. The Bruins simply couldn't claw back.
UCLA had all the tradition, but it was the Gators with the superior talent. As put by Bruins guard Afflalo, "They played to perfection tonight."