Big men could run afoul

Are the officials going to let the big guys play?

That’s one of the big questions entering tonight’s national title game between Florida and Ohio State at the Georgia Dome.

Buckeyes center Greg Oden is still miffed at how tightly officials called Saturday’s game against Georgetown.

Oden, a 7-footer, and Georgetown’s 7-2 center Roy Hibbert both got in early foul trouble and ended the game with four fouls each. Oden played only 20 minutes and Hibbert played only 24.

“I have no idea why they officiated it harder,” Oden said Sunday.

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Since UCLA won seven straight national titles from 1967 to ‘73, only five teams have won the title and returned to the title game the next year:

* Georgetown, won in 1984, lost to Villanova in 1985.

* Duke, won in 1991, defeated Michigan in 1992.

* Arkansas, won in 1994, lost to UCLA in 1995.

* Kentucky, won in 1996, lost to Arizona in 1997.

* Florida, won in 2006, plays Ohio State tonight.

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Ohio State senior forward Ivan Harris is the only Buckeye remaining from the team coached by Jim O’Brien, who was fired in June 2004 for violations that led to the school having to vacate its 1999 Final Four appearance.

“I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs at Ohio State,” he said.

Actually, the downs came first, before the ups.

“We had the change in coaches, players leaving and transferring, stuff like that,” Harris said. “I stuck through it, and good things happened. Coach [Thad] Matta came into the system and turned things around.”

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Florida Coach Billy Donovan has brought in several prominent figures to speak to his team this season, including Memphis Grizzlies General Manager Jerry West, New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick and sociologist Harry Edwards.

“Coach Belichick talked about how it takes every player knowing his role and doing the little things,” Brewer said. “Harry Edwards came in talking about how we have to stay together.

“If you think about it, it has helped us a lot just because it’s all about sticking together.”

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Here’s a switch after the endless fire-the-coach.com sites.

Just launched: www.KeepBillyDonovan.com.

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Kevin Durant of Texas won the Naismith player-of-the-year award.

Times staff writers Robyn Norwood and Ben Bolch contributed to this report.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com