Michael Conroy / AP

Florida's Corey Brewer and teammate Al Horford (42) celebrate their 73-57 victory over UCLA in the national title game Monday. Horford had 14 points and Brewer 11.

Noah had five blocks by halftime, already one better than the NCAA championship game record set by Arizona’s Loren Woods in 2001, and he finished with 29 for the tournament, shattering Woods’ record by five.

Noah altered plenty of shots, too — enough that UCLA big men Hollins, Lorenzo Mata and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute looked covered underneath even when they weren’t. That’s what happens when you’re facing an intimidating inside presence, and Noah was certainly that.

“Defensively, he’s just long,” Afflalo said. “You know, he has the ability to change shots if he’s not blocking them. He plays with a lot of energy.”

His final block came with about 5 minutes left after the Bruins had cut a 20-point deficit to 12. Hollins tried to take it strong as a last-gasp effort to get back in the game. Noah stuffed the shot, grabbed the rebound and stood there calmly waiting for things to clear.

About two minutes later, Florida was back up by 16 and those Gator chomps were starting in earnest all around the RCA Dome.

UCLA had all the history behind it, and a pretty good team, to boot. The Bruins just didn’t have enough. Farmar, who chose UCLA over Florida, was their only scoring threat. He finished with 18 points. His backcourt mate, Afflalo, finished with 10, but was shut out in the first half, while this game was getting away.

Florida is still 10 titles behind UCLA, but this was one that should quiet the diehards who said it couldn’t be done in Gainesville.

Donovan did it while his old coach at Providence, Rick Pitino, watched from the stands, wearing an orange tie. It was Pitino, now at Louisville, who 10 years ago urged Donovan not to take the Florida job, fearing the commitment simply wasn’t there. He wasn’t alone. Not even Florida’s previous coach, Lon Kruger, said the Gators could sustain in basketball the way they did in football — and Kruger had taken them to the Final Four a few years earlier.

Turns out, there’s plenty of money, talent and support to make Florida’s “other” program run.

“I said Billy, ‘They don’t have any players. If the AD isn’t patient, it’ll be a death trap for you,”’ Pitino said.

The patience paid off.

“He coached almost the perfect game tonight, offensively and defensively,” Pitino said.

It wasn’t hard with this group of players.

Humphrey ended up with 10 3-pointers during this Final Four and found himself open for most of them.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

Moss, the only senior on the roster, had nine points and six rebounds off the bench, almost all in the first half.

Four years ago, he was considered a star of the future. Instead, he was really a very nice piece of a bigger puzzle — a puzzle Donovan put together.

“Our faculty rep said to me before the game that when you start with something from scratch and you build it up to win a championship, that’s something special,” Donovan said.

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