On scales of greatness, Gators weigh in at ... No. 4?

Those UCLA teams had future NBA Hall of Famer Alcindor (who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and future NBA All-Star Lucius Allen. In the Bruins' three title-game victories, Alcindor averaged 30.3 points and 18 rebounds per game.

Best team(s) of all time right there. Please don't argue with me. You'll only look stupid, and stupid is no way to go through life.

The UCLA teams that came next -- the ones led by Bill Walton and Keith (Jamaal) Wilkes -- romped through the NCAA Tournament by 18 ppg in 1972 and by 16 ppg in 1973. Walton was among the best college players of all time, averaging 20.3 points, 15.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists. How good was Walton, and how good were his Bruins? UCLA had a backup center named Swen Nater who averaged 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds as a senior. Pretty crappy center, right? Wrong. In 11 seasons in the ABA and NBA, Nater averaged a double-double (12.5 ppg, 12.1 rpg).

Second-best team of all time right there. And the gap between the 1972-73 Bruins and whoever dares to come next is as wide as Chris Richard's rump.

So the real question -- the only question -- is this: How does 2006-07 Florida look compared to 1991-92 Duke?

And the answer: Not bad. Not bad at all.

Not that this Florida group is as good as those Duke teams. Not quite. Those Duke teams had all-time NCAA great Christian Laettner being thrown passes by the NCAA's career leader in assists, Bobby Hurley, who also averaged 17.4 ppg as a senior. And when it wasn't Hurley or Laettner, it was future NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill.

Florida has better scoring balance than those Duke teams, but lacks the star power. Joakim Noah is great, but he's not Laettner. Corey Brewer doesn't compare to Grant Hill. Taurean Green isn't Bobby Hurley. Lee Humphrey isn't Thomas Hill. Only one Florida starter, center Al Horford, definitely would have started for those Duke teams.

At coach, though, I'm willing to call it a toss-up. At age 41, Florida's Billy Donovan has been to three national championship games and won two of them. In the year 2007 Duke's Mike Krzyzewski clearly has the superior body of work, but in 1992 he had two titles in four title games, and he was 45. Sounds about even to me.

So where does Donovan's Florida program compare to Coach K's at Duke? Or to John Wooden's powerhouses at UCLA? Donovan, who has been diplomatic all week while dancing the line between Florida's present and Kentucky's future, was diplomatic on this issue as well.

"All I know," Donovan said, "is (we) have to go down in history as one of the greatest teams of all time."

Fourth greatest, to be exact.