Gators bigs helped shred UCLA's vaunted D

Updated: April 4, 2006, 12:46 PM ET
By Doug Gottlieb | Special to ESPN.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sitting in the RCA Dome, I looked up at the clock with somewhere around 16 minutes left and noticed that Florida already had 45 points -- the same total that Memphis and LSU had mustered in complete games against UCLA. Indeed, Florida was a different animal.

The Gators hadn't really done anything all that special for this game, other than be prepared for every nuance of UCLA's defense. Sounds simple, right? Apparently so, if you have Joakim Noah and Al Horford inside and Taurean Green running the point.

The manner in which Florida destroyed UCLA with dunk after dunk after dunk in the second half actually took root in the first half, when UCLA repeatedly showed its desire to double-team the Gators' low post player with its weak-side post man. Generally, the post double can give you fits if you don't have proper spacing on the weak side and big men who know how to pass out of a double.


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