No obligatory mention here of how Florida and Ohio State will meet for the basketball National Championship just months after meeting in the BCS Championship Game.  No obligatory mention of how Florida is 40 minutes away from repeating for the first time since the 1992 Duke Blue Devils.  And most importantly, no mention of how Florida dominated Ohio State 86-60 just before Christmas.

The story for Monday is which Ohio State team will we see?  Will it be the top-five team that runs and scraps or will it be the best team in the country who feature one of the greatest inside/outside freshman combos in NCAA history.

Between a hand injury in November and persistent foul trouble throughout the season, the Ohio State Buckeyes are well accustomed to playing at a high level without Greg Oden.

We saw it again on Saturday night after Oden was forced to the sidelines just two minutes and change into their semifinal contest against Georgetown.

"When he came out of the game, all of us had that mind-set that we had to step up our level of play," said Mike Conley, Jr. "Without him in the game, you lose a lot. We had to pick it up the best we could."

Conley usually has Ron Lewis running along with him when Oden is sitting, but the senior didn?t score his first points of the game until there was 6:48 left in the first half, hitting two free throws.

"Those guys collectively did a magnificent job," said head coach Thad Matta. "I hated the fact we played the first seven games without Greg. But today is another example where it probably helps us, because those guys never skipped a beat."

The Buckeyes took a 27-23 lead into the break due in part to Conley but also because Jeff Green didn?t score until nearly 17 minutes into half.  With Oden on the floor, Ohio State runs a lethal transition game.

"I just sat back and watched my teammates take over," said Oden.

"It was real tough in the first half, sitting there because I wanted to contribute," Oden said. "My teammates did really good. They stepped up and didn't allow them to get any offensive rebounds. In the second half, I just wanted to get in there and contribute."

In the second half, Oden controlled the tempo on both sides of the floor and even though Georgetown hung around, there was little doubt that Ohio State would advance.

The opening minutes of Saturday?s nightcap was an exercise in how ugly the game of basketball can be.  Florida and UCLA committed foul after foul and chucked brick after brick.

But soon the cocky old Gators appeared and with a starting five that is as superbly balanced as any team we have seen recently, a clinic was put on in Atlanta instead of a game.

Three-pointers from Lee Humphrey, swagger from swingman Corey Brewer and gritty inside play from Al Horford and Joakim Noah buried UCLA quickly and swiftly.

It is tough to imagine an Ohio State team that can keep Oden on the floor losing a game of Monday?s magnitude.  Like the back-to-back BCS dream that Vince Young and Michael Huff killed for Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, the Florida return will be come up a little short in a classic.