SEC is sitting pretty

After being shut out of the festivities for the last five years, the Southeastern Conference returns to the grand stage Saturday when Florida and LSU take the court at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis to battle an upstart and college basketball?s most storied program in the national semifinals.

Florida, which fell to Michigan State in the 2000 national championship game, takes on George Mason of the Colonial Athletic Association in the first semifinal Saturday at 6:05 p.m. ET. The NCAA tournament selection committee drew a lot of heat when it gave the Patriots one of the final at-large selections this year, but Jim Larranaga?s 11th-seeded squad has since made the group look like geniuses as it pulled off four upsets to win the Washington, D.C., Regional.

George Mason (27-7) had all five starters reach double figures and became the first double-digit seed since 1986 to advance to the Final Four when a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Connecticut?s Denham Brown caught the front of the rim and bounced back to give the Patriots an 86-84 overtime victory.

Senior forward/center Jai Lewis is the Patriots? leading scorer and rebounder, collecting 13.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Classmates Tony Skinn and Lamar Butler are the team?s top two outside threats and combine for nearly 24 points per game, while sophomores Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell shoot a combined 53.9 percent from the field and provide an average of 21.5 points and 11.6 rebounds per game.

A lot of folks take up the cause of the underdog, and George Mason should pick up some extra support this weekend since it is playing for all the small schools that have never earned this chance. But the Patriots are far from a warm and fuzzy story. Many have questioned their reputation after Skinn was suspended for one game by Larranaga for hitting Hofstra?s Loren Stokes in the groin during the postseason conference tournament.

Florida head coach Billy Donovan has a reputation of being one of the game?s top recruiters, but the Gators failed to advance past the second round of the tournament in each of the last five seasons before breaking through and winning the Minneapolis Regional this season.

Reserve forward Adrian Moss is the only senior on the roster, and the starting five should remain intact as long as no one is tempted by the big dollars of the NBA in the offseason. Joakim Noah and Al Horford give Florida a tough inside presence; 6-foot-8 swingman Corey Brewer was the SEC?s Co-Defensive Player of the Year this season; guard Lee Humphrey can be deadly from the outside; and point man Taurean Green was named most valuable player of the SEC tournament.

The Gators struggled against a methodical Georgetown team in the regional semifinals, but were barely challenged by South Alabama, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and top-seeded Villanova in their other three tournament games. Although it appeared that Florida was plagued by some inconsistency after being knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten in January, Donovan has never lost faith in his team because he felt that they continued to play hard.

Florida, which has won nine straight games, has held each of its four NCAA tournament opponents to under 40-percent shooting. Villanova went 4-of-23 from behind the arc on Sunday and was outrebounded 53-40, with Noah and Horford combining for 30 boards and seven blocked shots.

Humphrey and Green will have to shoot the ball a little bit better after going a combined 11-of-37 against Georgetown and Villanova. The Gators may shoot a lot of 3-pointers, but they can beat teams several different ways, and the clock should strike midnight for Cinderella George Mason some two hours after tip-off.

LSU will take the court about 30 minutes after the Gators game, approximately 8:47 p.m. ET, in the national semifinal against UCLA.

Having won 11 national championships, UCLA returns to the Final Four for the first time since its national championship season of 1995. John Wooden, a former All-American player at Purdue University, took over the Bruins program following the 1947-48 season and earned the nickname ?Wizard of Westwood? after winning 10 national championships, including six straight from 1968-73.

Several coaches have been unable to escape the shadow cast by Wooden, including current New York Knicks head coach Larry Brown, who led Kansas to the 1988 national championship and coached the Detroit Pistons to the 2003-04 NBA title. Scandal chased out Jim Harrick, the coach of the 1995 championship team, and his successor, Steve Lavin, was run off after a 10-19 campaign during the 2002-03 season.

Former Pittsburgh head coach Ben Howland replaced Lavin and went 11-17 in his first season before turning things around and getting the Bruins back to the NCAA tournament last season. Guards Arron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar are superb shooters and have led UCLA to a 31-6 season, combining for nearly 30 points per game.

Either Afflalo or Farmar has been the Bruins? leading scorer in 23 games this season, and Farmar is the team?s play-maker with 5.1 assists per game. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, a 6-foot-7 forward, averages 8.9 points per game on 54.5 percent shooting and is the team?s top rebounder, with 8.1 boards per game.

UCLA survived a scare from Alabama before prevailing 62-59 in the second round of the NCAA tournament and rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit to beat Gonzaga 73-71 in the Oakland Regional semifinals on a basket by Mbah a Moute with 10 seconds left. Senior center Ryan Hollins scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in a 50-45 win over top-seeded Memphis in last Saturday?s championship game.

LSU is in the Final Four for the first time since 1986, advancing as an 11th seed thanks to the play of forwards Tyrus Thomas and Glen Davis. Thomas, who recently returned from a high ankle sprain that caused him to miss four games, scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Davis had 26 points and nine boards in a 70-60 overtime victory over Texas in the championship game of the Atlanta Regional.

To single out the efforts of Davis and Thomas may be a disservice to the rest of the team. Senior Darrel Mitchell knocked down the game-winning 3-pointer in a 58-57 second-round win over Texas A&M, and the Tigers got a double double from forward Tasmin Mitchell and held Duke All-American J.J. Redick to a season-low 11 points on 3-of-18 shooting in a 62-54 win over the overall top-seed Blue Devils in the regional semifinals.

LSU prepared itself for this type of run by overcoming some early-season adversity, which included narrow losses to NCAA tournament teams Northern Iowa, Ohio State and Connecticut. However, it is nothing compared to what the residents of the Gulf Coast region have faced since Hurricane Katrina.

?I think it establishes us right now at this particular time as one of the better teams in the country because of what we have gone through,? Tigers head coach John Brady said.