One Shining Moment

vs.


It all comes down to this. UCLA vs Florida for the 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

Both teams looked impressive in their semi-final wins on Saturday night, using strong team defense and timely shooting to move on.

I'm leaning towards UCLA in this one. They have the size to compete with Florida's front line (especially Noah), and are tenacious on the defensive end. If Florida's going to win this one, they need Joakim Noah to maul the Bruin front line, and/or Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey to shoot the lights out.

My guess: UCLA by 8

Of course, anyone who knows me knows how much I love the traditional "One Shining Moment" video at the end of the telecast. Since this year's matchup doesn't blow me away, that's probably what I'm looking forward to the most out of tonight's show.

Two notes on the first ten minutes of the pre-game show:

• We pass our best wishes on to legendary UCLA Coach John Wooden, who was hospitalized yesterday. According to Greg Gumbel, he will be okay, but it's unfortunate that he can't be in Indianapolis tonight.

• Kudos to CBS for broadcasting Coach Donovan's pre-game speech to his Gators. It's this kind of access to the behind the scenes part of the game that I love, and I suspect most viewers feel the same way. In any case, it's almost enough to make me not complain about Nantz and Packer for the rest of the evening. Almost.

Anyway, on to the game. To get you in the mood, here's last year's One Shining Moment video, courtesy of YouTube:



Enjoy the game, and comment away!