It's roughly 2,500 miles from Santa Barbara, Calif., to Gainesville.
But the two cities have a tie that binds the major universities. In 2010, Cal-Santa Barbara and the University of Florida broke dry spells to get into the NCAA Tournament.
Both were quickly bounced out.
Both are back -- the Gators (26-7) meeting the Gauchos (18-13) at 6:50 p.m. today in Tampa -- in the Big Dance.
Both want much, much more this time around.
"I think last year we were kind of content with making it to the tournament because our school hasn't been there in a while," UCSB forward James Nunnally said. "But this year we're in it to win it, hands down."
Santa Barbara, which lost 68-51 to Ohio State in the opening round last March, won the Big West Tournament this season to advance but is the No. 15 seed in the South Regional while the Gators are the No. 2 seed.
"We're big underdogs," said Nunnally, averaging 16.4 points and 5.7 rebounds a contest. "I know that. I've heard that's the word. But we're coming in to play because we don't feel like we're that big of underdogs. We feel we can play with anybody."
In last year's 99-92 double overtime loss to Brigham Young in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City, Florida forward Chandler Parsons twice bounced into the air for shots that would have sent the Gators into the second round.
Both times, at the end of regulation and the first overtime, he just missed. BYU finally won it in the second extra period to move on.
Like the Gauchos, the Gators were home watching the rest of the tournament on TV. But it is even worse for Parson and fellow seniors Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin -- if they lose tonight it will mean they were never be on a team that won an NCAA tourney game.
Tyus and Parsons were part of the recruiting class after UF's second of back-to-back national titles in 2007 while Macklin transferred from Georgetown and is in his second and final season at Florida. To go from being the nation's best to winless in the Big Dance in your career?
"I've just got to move on from that," Parsons said of last year's disappointment. "I would love to have the ball in my hands again at the end of the game. You learn from that. Just because I missed those shots, I want to take them even more now."
Parsons was named the SEC player of the year by both the coaches and Associated Press. It's been a good year, including the league regular season title for the Gators. But there's still the desire to go deep in March.
"That's something I couldn't control," said Parsons, of one of two last-second shots that almost went in against BYU. "It went in and out, it was a good look, a well-executed play. I just couldn't hit the shot."
The smallest of things can mean the difference between moving on or packing up. The current Gator starters -- all back from last year -- all realized that after the first-round loss.
"The littlest of things add up to winning," Parsons agreed. "It can come down to one possession, like last year in the SEC Championship what Demarcus Cousins did against Mississippi State (a Kentucky bucket to win at the buzzer). It comes down to crazy things like that sometimes at the end of games.
"Last year, we had a whole different mindset. We were like, 'We can't wait to get to the tournament.' . . . This year we have a lot bigger goals than that. We want to make noise when we get there."
The Gators have even more motivation in the fact that their high seeding is being questioned by some. But not by the Gauchos.
"Someone said, 'What a great draw,' " UCSB coach Bob Williams said. "I said, 'Yeah, that would be a little bit like sitting in the doctor's office and someone telling you that you have cancer, but it's a good cancer. No. Playing Florida in the second round is a great draw? It's not a great draw.
"They're really talented. There's just no comparison on this thing. Physically they're a No. 2 seed, you could stretch it and say they're a No. 1 seed. I don't think physically they are going to be overmatched against anybody they play."
Nice try on his part but too late. The Gators are already a little irritated at being called overseeded. It's just another motivator in a pile of reasons for both teams to be eager to do well tonight.
The key player on either team is probably Orlando Johnson, the UCSB talented guard who led the Big West with a 21.1 average and made 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. If he's on, it changes the complexion of the game by limited UF's open court chances.
"As long as the guys in the locker room believe in what we've been doing all season, then we have a chance," Johnson said.
He could just as well have been speaking of the Gators' doubters.
