UCLA at DEFCON 1

When UCLA freshman Michael Roll carried a video camera onto the court at San Diego State’s Cox Arena for practice just before to the start of the NCAA tournament, Coach Ben Howland took umbrage.

Get rid of that thing, Howland told him. Act like you’ve been here.

Roll and some of his fellow freshmen may have been awestruck at first, but that has long since worn off as the Bruin defensive juggernaut has rolled through the tournament to a place where nobody in a UCLA uniform has been in the last 11 years.

Tonight, for the first time since 1995 and the 13th time in school history, the Bruins will play in the NCAA championship game, facing the Florida Gators at the RCA Dome. UCLA has won 11 of those games, losing only to Louisville in 1980

“There are millions of kids on playgrounds who would love to be in our shoes right now,” Bruin guard Arron Afflalo said. “We feel very fortunate to be here and want to take advantage of the opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity forged by a defense that has turned back time to an era when there was no shot clock. Saturday’s semifinal victory was yet another example. UCLA’s 59-45 victory over Louisiana State was the second-lowest-scoring Final Four game since the introduction of the shot clock in the 1985-86 season.

In holding teams to 58.3 points per game, UCLA has cut off the opposition to a degree unsurpassed in half a century of Bruin basketball. The 1949-50 team limited opponents to 53.5 points per game.

Each tournament game has brought new challenges. Could UCLA shut down the nothing-to-lose underdogs from Belmont, the big inside game of Alabama, national scoring leader Adam Morrison of Gonzaga, undisciplined, sometimes unstoppable Memphis and the Big Baby, Glen Davis, of LSU?

The answer on each occasion was yes.

Tonight offers yet another hurdle in Florida, an up-tempo team with a long-range sharpshooter on the outside, muscle and finesse on the inside, and a defense that may be a step below that of the Bruins, but has been a step above most of its opponents’.

At 32-6, Florida has the same record as the Bruins and nearly as long a winning streak, 10 games.

Where the Gators seem superior to the Bruins is on offense. While UCLA spent much of the season in search of a third scorer behind Afflalo and Jordan Farmar before freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute emerged, Florida is shooting 50.2% from the field and spreads the ball around with five players averaging double figures in points, led by 6-foot-11, 227-pound Joakim Noah.

Noah averages 14.1 points, Taurean Green 13.6, Corey Brewer 12.7, Al Horford 11.3 and Lee Humphrey 10.8.

Humphrey is the biggest long-distance threat, having made 45.8% of his three-point attempts.

The key to this game may be the pace. The Gators like to speed things up, to score points on the run. UCLA likes to slow the game down and force teams into a half-court situation where its defense can clamp down.

“I play that way because I believe in it,” Florida Coach Billy Donovan said. “I like to see the game played in transition. I like player movement.

“Our style of play is very, very hard to coach because there are times that I have to give up a level of control and trust.”

To shift into high gear the Gators must control the backboards. For that, they depend on Horford (7.6 rebounds per game) and Noah (7.1).

That could be a problem for the Bruins if Mbah a Moute, their leading rebounder, isn’t at full strength. He suffered a knee injury in Saturday’s game, but X-rays taken in the arena after the game proved negative. The diagnosis is a bruised knee.

Florida fans with long memories may recall some bruised feelings upon arriving tonight. Six years ago, the Gators, in their only previous appearance in the NCAA championship game, lost in the same building to Michigan State, 89-76.

Noah isn’t worried about a repeat.

“We’re not really thinking about how people are going to remember us,” he said. “This is about seizing the moment.”

For the winner, it will be one shining moment, captured forever on national television.

So leave the video camera home.

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Final results

The UCLA men’s basketball team has an 11-1 record in national championship games:

*--* YEAR RESULTS 1995 UCLA 89, Arkansas 78 1980 Louisville 59, UCLA 54 1975 UCLA 92, Kentucky 85 1973 UCLA 87, Memphis 66 1972 UCLA 81, Florida St. 76 1971 UCLA 68, Villanova 62 1970 UCLA 80, Jacksonville 69 1969 UCLA 92, Purdue 72 1968 UCLA 78, North Carolina 55 1967 UCLA 79, Dayton 64 1965 UCLA 91, Michigan 80 1964 UCLA 98, Duke 83

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MOST CHAMPIONSHIPS

Most national championships in men’s basketball:

*--* UCLA 11 Kentucky 7 Indiana 5 North Carolina 4 Duke 3 Eight tied with 2

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