The way CBS commentator Billy Packer sees it, Florida's 73-57 victory over UCLA in last year's national championship game actually gives the Bruins an advantage in Saturday's rematch.
"Emotionally, the fact that UCLA is the team that Florida beat gives UCLA a little bit of a leg up," said Packer, who will be working his 33rd Final Four on Saturday and Monday.
Packer also sees Darren Collison, who replaced Jordan Farmar as the Bruins' starting point guard, as another plus.
"Collison is a better factor for UCLA than Farmar was last year because of the way the game is played," he said.
Of the Bruins as a whole, Packer added, "I think they have an understanding of what it takes to beat Florida, so it may be a one-up for UCLA in terms of the emotional factor. I think that will all play out in the first five to 10 minutes of the game."
CBS studio analyst Clark Kellogg agrees with Packer.
"When teams are evenly matched and they return primarily the same personnel, the advantage always, psychologically, goes to the team that has lost," Kellogg said.
"You cannot manufacture the kind of hunger that a team that is seeking revenge has. You can't drum that up. You can't drum up the emotional high pitch that comes with being an underdog, that comes with having the salt in the wounds."
Packer and Kellogg were on a conference call with reporters, and Packer interjected, "Not only did they lose, they got hammered. They were a better team last year than the result indicated. It's one thing if Florida had eked out a victory. When you get hammered by somebody, that is a heck of a motivating factor."
Packer, careful not to carry his theory too far, said, "The reverse of that is, this Florida team is obviously very experienced and they are a champion and a lot of times a champion just isn't going to go away.
"That's what makes this such an intriguing matchup."
Packer said the Gators remind him of the Nevada Las Vegas team that was trying to repeat in 1991 and was upset by Duke in the Final Four semifinals.
"I think that UNLV team came into the Final Four bordering on becoming one of the great teams in college basketball," Packer said. "But they kind of lost focus of what they had to get done in that Final Four. And they probably lost it midway into February.
