Final pits football school against basketball power

INDIANAPOLIS -- UCLA had Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and all those championship banners.

Florida had Lon Kruger saying the basketball program never could equal the football success.

Different programs on opposite coasts with divergent histories meet for the first time tonight in the national championship game.

Even with a pair of "power" programs going at it, this contest offers a reminder of how the success of yesteryear no longer guarantees anything for today.

"Are we a basketball school the way Kentucky and Indiana are?" Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "Not yet. That's the goal. Will we get there? That's the goal 15 years from now."

Getting there is the goal these days. Staying there isn't possible in the way it was when John Wooden coached UCLA to 10 of its 11 national championships.

UCLA oach Ben Howland, in his third year, got the Bruins back to the top by recruiting, selling and building a team in his own image.

In an era where there are no dynasties, maybe the best that can be said for any program is that it keeps playing well enough to get back to the NCAA tournament. This is Florida's eighth straight appearance and, though the Gators failed to get out of the first weekend the last five years, coach Billy Donovan has long insisted that getting there and giving yourself chances is the key.

"We wanted to be a factor on the national scene," Foley said. "And you can't do that without being a player in this tournament."

The Gators most certainly are.