Mike Segar / Reuters

Florida's Al Horford jokes with his teammates on the bench while their team plays the UCLA Bruins.

As for UCLA — well, what really is there to say after a loss in which the final, 10-point margin belied the actual game? The Bruins rolled through the Pac-10 again this season and looked like championship material in dispatching Kansas and Howland’s old team, Pittsburgh, on their way to the Final Four.

But they were overmatched again, and getting their best players in foul trouble early certainly didn’t help. Afflalo finished with 17 points, but they all came after the game was out of reach.

He was crying in the locker room.

“The only thing disappoints me a little bit is that I wasn’t there full-time for my team,” said Afflalo, the junior who might leave for the NBA. “I’m trying to keep my head high and be strong for my teammates. I’m in a lot of pain right now.”

Mata, not a big scorer, was no factor anywhere on the court, finishing with six points and two rebounds before he fouled out.

Mbah a Moute was at least willing to take the ball up in the paint despite constant rejections. His night ended when he picked up his fifth foul with 9:02 left after scoring four points.

Josh Shipp, absent last year and thought to be a possible difference-maker in this matchup, led the Bruins with 18 points, but he couldn’t do it on his own.

In the leadup to this game, many of the Bruins said they thought Florida celebrated a little too hard at their expense last year in Indianapolis. The Gators didn’t hold back this time, either.

Noah tugged on his jersey and thumped his chest a couple of times. Brewer pointed at the crowd, shouted and mugged for the camera. Of course, who wouldn’t be pumped watching the kind of tomahawk jams Horford and Richard put back when noboby boxed them out after their teammates missed shots?

The meeting against the Buckeyes will be a rematch of a regular-season game in Gainesville that Florida won 86-60. Ohio State was a much different team then, mainly because freshman center Greg Oden was just coming back from a torn ligament in his right wrist and hadn’t rounded into form.

“They’re a very, very good team,” Donovan said. “It was a game where I think their team and our team have probably gotten better since then.”

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