On Monday night, you'll see perfect ending to Gators' season

INDIANAPOLIS -- Florida isn't the perfect college basketball team, but it's close.

The Gators have size and quickness in the frontcourt, they have size and quickness in the backcourt, and they have one great shooter in Lee Humphrey. If the Gators had one more great shooter -- Taurean Green is a good shooter, not great -- they'd be the perfect college basketball team.

Physically, Ben Howland's Bruins can play with the Gators -- but that's only part of the battle. (AP)

As it is, the Gators are still good enough to be the 2006 national champion.

There's work to be done, of course. After getting past George Mason on Saturday in the Final Four, the Gators face UCLA on Monday night in the championship game. And while Florida is better, UCLA is no slouch.

The Bruins beat LSU on Saturday in the Final Four, their 12th consecutive victory. In the last 10 days, UCLA has beaten three of the country's top 10 teams in Gonzaga, Memphis and LSU.

UCLA's Jordan Farmar is a future NBA point guard. Arron Afflalo, the most polished shooting guard in the Final Four, is another future NBA player. Come to think of it, so is 6-7 power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, once he adds perimeter range to his Josh Howard-like game. The Bruins win with defense and teamwork, but they have oodles of ability.

In Florida, though, the Bruins will play the country's best all-around team. Florida is what UConn and Texas could have been, and should have been, had those teams grown up. They didn't. UConn never learned to play with passion for 40 minutes, an aloofness that finally caught up to them in the Elite Eight against George Mason. Texas couldn't count on a consistent All-American (or even All-Big 12) effort from sophomore center LaMarcus Aldridge, a flaw that cost Texas in the Big 12 title game against Kansas and ultimately in the Elite Eight against LSU.

Poll Who will win the national title?   48%  UCLA     52%  Florida     Total Votes: 24607

Florida has no such flaws. The Gators play hard for 40 minutes, which means smaller, effort-oriented teams like George Mason (and UCLA) can't expect to get by on hustle alone. Plus, the Gators' stars play like stars on a consistent basis.

UCLA will give Florida a different look -- a more physically demanding look -- than George Mason. Like George Mason, the Bruins are guard-oriented and quick in the post. Unlike mid-major George Mason, the Bruins do that with high-major size. Farmar, Afflalo and Cedric Bozeman are 6-foot-2, 6-5 and 6-6, more than enough to hang with Florida's Green (6-0), Humphrey (6-2) and Corey Brewer (6-8). Mbah a Moute is smaller than Florida's 6-9 Al Horford and 6-11 Joakim Noah, but he's quicker than either of them. UCLA center Ryan Hollins is weak, but he's nearly 7-1 and awfully agile.

Physically, UCLA can hang with Florida. Realistically, though, the Bruins will need to slow the tempo to keep Florida's score down, and hit 3-pointers to boost their own score up. Against a Florida team that has NBA athletes across the board, accomplishing both tasks in the same game is a bit much to ask.

The pick here? The first basketball national championship in Florida history.