It’s UCLA versus Kentucky at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday night, a matchup of college basketball blue bloods, the most decorated programs in the history of the sport.

But while Kentucky’s blue is deep and rich, UCLA’s is a lighter, some might even say faded, hue.

UCLA has won a record 11 NCAA championships — 10 in the 1960s and ‘70s under the guidance of John Wooden. Kentucky is second with eight titles — three since UCLA won its last in 1995. In the last five years, the Wildcats have been to four Final Fours, UCLA none.

This season, UCLA is off to another fitful start with a 4-3 record. Kentucky is 7-0 and ranked first in every major poll.


And the Wildcats’ advantage isn’t only in the win-loss column and rankings.

While Kentucky Coach John Calipari books five-figure hotel suites in the Bahamas, UCLA Coach Steve Alford gets an expense report kicked back when he upgrades out of economy class. While Calipari is shown on a recruiting video fist-bumping the personal chef in the Wildcats’ lavish basketball dormitory, Alford is left pointing to blueprints of a planned team facility that only recently broke ground.

There’s a massive difference in fan support too. Kentucky’s is so strong that it supports its own dating site. UCLA hasn’t filled its home arena in more than a year.

Last week, as the Bruins were struggling during a nationally televised game against Nevada Las Vegas, analyst Seth Greenberg, a former major college coach, chided UCLA for not behaving like an elite program.


“UCLA has an elite tradition, UCLA has an elite brand, but they’re not an elite program,” Greenberg said later, off the air. “And what I mean by that is, they have a terrific basketball program, and a very, very good basketball coach, Steve Alford. But there is a cost of doing business at the highest level.”

Kentucky invests, and reaps the benefits.

Get what you pay for

Last summer, Calipari had a problem. He needed to find proper competition to prepare his team for the season.


Easier said than done. His players were so talented he was having trouble finding worthy opponents.

So Calipari harnessed Kentucky’s financial power, and the deep pockets of a few dozen boosters, and scoured the world for teams to play.

“I needed professional-level teams,” Calipari told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I needed men. I needed experienced, physical guys that knew how to play. That’s what this team needed.”

So he enlisted the national teams from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, along with a French professional team, and met them at the tony Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.


And Kentucky paid for it all — $792,845.68, according to the Courier-Journal. A reception with a band and an open bar was part of the package at nearly $24,000, about the cost of the average American wedding.

Along for the ride came 57 boosters, each paying $6,000.

The financial gap between Kentucky and UCLA is every bit as large as the difference in the products on the court.

UCLA’s basketball expenses were less than half of the $20 million Kentucky spent on basketball, according to the most recent filings required by the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.


Calipari has chartered flights at his disposal and has used them, in one example, to to see recruits, then jet over to a different city to hobnob with LeBron James, then return to a recruiting showcase in a different state — all in the same day.

The travel policy of the University of California system is far more frugal. When Alford was introduced as UCLA’s coach in March 2013, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero was asked if the Bruins might use chartered flights to away games.

Guerrero said it was, “possible at some point in time,” but noted the convenience of having a major international airport near campus.

Alford typically travels on commercial flights, in economy class. And his expenses are watched.


When the coach took a recruiting trip in July 2013, Alford was booked with a first-class ticket for a red-eye flight to Philadelphia. But university policy states business and first-class tickets are allowed only under special circumstances, so Alford’s report was sent back with a note: “Please provide a business justification for such an upgrade or provide an economy quote so that a proper deduction can be made.”

Alford now usually receives dispensation to book an aisle seat.

“If you’re going to have an elite program, then you know what? You’ve got to conduct your business like the Dukes and Carolinas,” Greenberg said.

Kentucky does.


On the team’s trip to the Bahamas, Calipari stayed in a suite large enough to accommodate team meetings. The cost: $1,550 per night.

If you build it…

Three years ago, after Kentucky opened a $7-million basketball dormitory, Calipari filmed a video tour.

He wandered through the facility, joking with players. He showed off memory-foam mattresses and bathrooms custom-made for seven-footers. He surveyed the lounge, with a pool table and ample recliners — “We don’t do couches, you know why? They don’t sit on couches anymore and chairs,” Calipari said. “They want to be on recliners.” — and he fist-bumped the dorm’s personal chef.


The facility is called Wildcat Coal Lodge, and it sits next to the Wildcats’ $30-million basketball practice facility.

After a good relationship with the coach, Alford said, “there’s nothing more important” to recruits than facilities.

“When I played, having one pair of short-shorts and a gray T-shirt, that sufficed,” Alford said. “That’s not the case anymore. It’s an arms race.”

UCLA doesn’t have a basketball dormitory or a separate training space dedicated to the team. But the university renovated Pauley Pavilion in 2012 at a cost of $136 million, and this summer broke ground on a basketball facility budgeted at $35 million.


Alford expressed gratitude for the investment, which he said was “much, much needed. Not just in the areas of recruiting, but in the areas of development, to where our guys have a floor where they can go work on their game.”

State of the ‘Nation’

In July, two Lexington, Ky., men prepared to launch a website they had spent months developing — BBNmeetup, a dating site for Kentucky fans.

But there was uneasiness: Would anyone use it?


The site, inundated, crashed three times in the first 24 hours.

Four months later, the site has about 2,500 members, from all over the country. Such is the power of Kentucky basketball.

It is hard to imagine such a service for UCLA basketball fans.

“We don’t know how many fan bases it would work with,” said Shane Munson, one of the co-founders.


As attendance at Pauley Pavilion lags, Kentucky remains a force. The Big Blue Nation fills arenas in addition to dating websites. It is loud and fervent in anything Wildcats-related. In the past, some fans have inked tattoos commemorating national championship seasons that had yet to be played.

Since 1997, Kentucky has led the nation in attendance in all but three seasons.

Last season, the Wildcats averaged 23,572 fans a game — more than three times UCLA’s average attendance, which trailed San Diego State and Texas El Paso.

UCLA does have advantages few schools can offer. Two years ago, Kevon Looney, a five-star recruit from Milwaukee, surprised even his family when he chose the Bruins. He said Los Angeles — with its beaches, the Lakers and sunshine — was a big selling point.


On Thursday, UCLA expects a capacity crowd — its first since January 2014 — and plans to give out gold shirts for a “gold-out.”

“We’re going to get this place packed, it’s going to be rocking,” point guard Bryce Alford said, hopefully. “That’s going to help us a lot. It’s going to get us energized.”

zach.helfand@latimes.com