The UCLA Bruins' march through the NCAA Tournament bracket continues today with a Southeast Region matchup with the No. 2 seed Florida Gators. It is just the third all-time meeting between the two schools, with Florida winning the previous two matchups, in the 2006 and 2007 Final Fours. Today's 11:45 a.m. PDT game will be televised on CBS.
The folks at Bruins Nation think the Florida backcourt will be tough:
Onto the matchups, Florida may have the best backcourt UCLA has faced all year. The tiny Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton dominated UCSB. Assuming his knee is fine and not too swollen, Lee should be able to handle one of them (more likely Boynton) but that still leaves a difficult matchup for UCLA against a good PG. Jones has no excuse here as his legs are fine but Jones and Anderson will have to contain the quicker Walker.
For the second straight round, the Bruins face a team with a power forward who leads his team in both rebounds and assists. Senior Chandler Parsons will be a key battle for the Bruins. Parsons sees a similar team to the Gators in UCLA:
The thing about them is they're very similar to us if you look at their stats sheet. There's not one guy going off every game. They're very balanced so it's not like we can just shut down Josh Smith or Honeycutt. It's not just a couple guys. Any of their starting five are capable of going off at any time, so when you scout them, you're really just trying to limit their looks. And you know who the play is going through when the see the action, but you don't necessarily know who's going to get the ball or who's going to score because they're all very good players and they can all contribute in different ways.
For more UCLA Bruins hoops news and information, be sure to read the SB Nation blog Bruins Nation. For more information on Florida, be sure to read Alligator Army. For the full NCAA tournament bracket, click here.
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