All Florida’s Joakim Noah could do as the final seconds ticked off of Monday’s NCAA championship game was kneel and sit near mid-court.
Really, sitting was about the only thing the son of a former tennis star didn’t do all night.
Noah finished the game missing only two shots, scoring 16 points, grabbing nine rebounds and swatting six shots to help Florida dunk its way past UCLA for the school’s first national championship.
Even the Gators’ Taurean Green, who finished with just two points on 1-of-9 shooting, gave the camera a little jig as time melted away in Florida’s 73-57 victory – a fitting end because the Gators, from top to bottom, did it as a team.
While the Bruins hucked up wild shot after wild shot, Florida racked up 21 total assists, often resulting in a easy buckets and slam dunks.
UCLA simply ran into a better, more physically powerful team.
The statistics told the whole story.
The Bruins received just four bench points, and at one point in the second half Arron Afflalo – UCLA’s leading scorer – hadn’t scored a single point in the game.
Likewise, the Bruins were dominated inside by Noah and company and had no answer outside, shooting just 3-of-17 from beyond the arc.
Despite the lackluster performance in their biggest game of the season, the Bruins will certainly finish the year as one of the surprise teams.
After all, they were predicted to finish third in the Pacific-10 Conference – behind Arizona and Stanford – at the annual Media Day.
While the Bruins’ run to the championship game Monday was a surprise for many, it also highlighted the impressive performances by
Pac-10 teams and players and helped reaffirm the conference’s standing as one of the nation’s best.
Lost among the hype of Duke’s J.J. Redick and Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison, Washington’s Brandon Roy finally got the recognition he deserved.
The senior guard is one of the most talented all-around players in the nation, and he proved it by averaging 23 points per game in the Huskies’ three tournament games.
Roy had Washington 1.8 seconds away from an upset against top-seeded Connecticut and a trip to the Elite Eight.
Arizona, which struggled this season, opened with a dominating 94-75 win against Wisconsin and then nearly knocked off No. 1 seed Villanova in the second round.
Memo to the rest of the nation: There’s some good basketball out here on the West Coast.
For much of the year, the Pac-10 teams were perceived as playing a soft style of basketball.
Because of that perception, many overlooked teams such as the talent-laden Bruins and the prospects of a Pac-10 team actually making a run at the championship.
With UCLA returning nearly its entire squad with the exception of center Ryan Hollins and guard Cedric Bozemon, don’t expect the conference to be disregarded again next season.

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