This championship game has all the makings of the ugliest championship ever. UCLA in the tournament has given up an avg of 52.8 ppg, including 3 games under 50 with the most at 71 to Gonzaga. UF has given up 56.6 ppg, with only 2 games above 60 and the most at 62. These have been the 2 teams playing the best defense in the tournament. Look for a lot of turnovers and lots of misses. Whoever scores 55-60 first will likely win this game, if anyone scores that much.
Normally with other Gator teams in the past this would worry me, but we have been playing nearly as good D as the Bruins and we have been winning the close ugly games lately.
It's going to be a good game I think. Both teams have beat great people to get here, it's just a matter of who plays better basketball for 40 minutes...
Gators really need to cut down on their really really bad stretches. We always have at least 1 or 2 really bad 4-5 min stretches in the 1st half. Normally they are after we go up pretty big early. The key is to jump out to a good start and force the other team to do things they normally wouldn't to try to catch up.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto..._pat&id=2394370 20 reasons the Gators win http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...gene&id=2394278 20 reasons the Bruins win
Truely the ugliest championship game was a few years back when Maryland and Indiana played what some (not me) considered to be a basketball game. It was like they were trying to miss.
I just heard the ratings for the Florida/UCLA game was the lowest of all time for the championship game. Go figure.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">I just heard the ratings for the Florida/UCLA game was the lowest of all time for the championship game. Go figure.</div> Probably because the casual fan's bracket had already been ruined by then.
I thought the game was beautiful. We put on a clinic on how to beat a press and how to play defense. Most other fans would agree that this was one of the ugliest championship games in recent memory.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">I just heard the ratings for the Florida/UCLA game was the lowest of all time for the championship game. Go figure.</div> Neither team has a huge fan following. Well, at least Florida doesn't. Florida also has no past or legacy, whereas UCLA's is stale. If a more storied (and recently successful) team like Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan State, UConn, etc. were in it, then you'd have high ratings. Also, the game was a blowout from just about the jump, so it was easy to lose interest; I know I did. Neither team had a real big college star either. Yeah, Taurean Green and Arron Afflalo had great seasons and Joakim Noah and Jordan Farmar have great pro potential, but none of them compare to J.J. Redick or Adam Morrison. Just think of some of the great personalities we've had in recent title games: Shane Battier, Mateen Cleaves, Sean May, Carmelo Anthony, etc. That element just wasn't there.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Neither team has a huge fan following. Well, at least Florida doesn't. Florida also has no past or legacy, whereas UCLA's is stale. If a more storied (and recently successful) team like Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan State, UConn, etc. were in it, then you'd have high ratings. Also, the game was a blowout from just about the jump, so it was easy to lose interest; I know I did. Neither team had a real big college star either. Yeah, Taurean Green and Arron Afflalo had great seasons and Joakim Noah and Jordan Farmar have great pro potential, but none of them compare to J.J. Redick or Adam Morrison. Just think of some of the great personalities we've had in recent title games: Shane Battier, Mateen Cleaves, Sean May, Carmelo Anthony, etc. That element just wasn't there.</div> UCLA has a following and their fans travel everywhere. You're right though, they didn't have the big name superstar on this team. Jordan Farmar doesn't put up the gawdy numbers and never makes the highlights because he's not a flashy player. I'm sure a lot of fans out here in LA hyped for this game flipped the channel before halftime though. UCLA simply didn't show up and fell too, far behind early on.
