ESPN Men's Basketball

LOS ANGELES -- Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden watched the Bruins fall to Florida in Monday night's NCAA men's national basketball championship from a hospital bed, surrounded by family members.

E-Ticket: The Wizard At 95
Wooden At an October 2005 birthday bash for John Wooden, UCLA legends revealed why the greatest coach ever is an even greater human being. For Eric Neel's E-Ticket story, including photos and Motion, click here.

The Los Angeles Times, in a story first posted on its Web site, reported the 95-year-old Hall of Fame coach was suffering from an attack of diverticulitis. His daughter, Nan Muehlhausen, said she had taken her father to a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday morning.

Diverticulitis is an inflammation of the area around the colon.

Muehlhausen, who watched the game with Wooden and her brother, Jim, told The Times she expects her father to be released as soon as Tuesday morning.

"He is fine," Muehlhausen told The Times. " ... He looks good, his color is good, but he is not very happy with me, because he wanted to leave today. He had a commitment to make a speech for the American Fund group. You know how he is about his commitments.

"But I told him the doctors thought he should be here another day, and if that meant that I had to sleep in the chair in his room all night, then I would. So he stayed."

Word of Wooden's hospitalization began leaking out just before Monday's tip-off. UCLA made a brief announcement, emphasizing that Wooden's condition was not considered life-threatening.

"We were hoping to keep it quiet," Muehlhausen told The Times. "You know my dad. He didn't want this to take any attention away from the Final Four."

Wooden retired from UCLA in 1975 with a record of 620-147 in 27 years as coach. The Bruins won 10 national titles under the "Wizard of Westwood," including seven in a row. The streak included 38 straight NCAA Tournament victories.

Wooden was the first person inducted into basketball's Hall of Fame as a coach and player. A native of Martinsville, Ind., he starred on Purdue's basketball team in the 1930s.

The former UCLA coach had hoped to travel to Indianapolis to watch the Bruins play in the Final Four.

"I'd like to very much because that's home back there," Wooden said last week.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels wanted Wooden to appear at the Final Four for a special presentation, but the coach turned him down.

In 1995, when the Bruins won their 11th national championship, Wooden attended the title game in Seattle, quietly slipping out before the final buzzer to keep the focus on the players.

Wooden endures a certain amount of wear-and-tear whenever he attends games because he's constantly approached by a stream of fans, young and old.

"He's so gracious," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "Everybody is wanting to get close to him, touch him and get autographs. This is his program."

The current Bruins have turned into defensive stoppers under Howland, UCLA's third-year coach.

"It's outstanding," Wooden said. "I've seen them come together each year a little better. The first year they didn't do very well, second year they turned it around, and this year is even better.

"He's just getting youngsters to buy into his philosophy, which is a little more physical."

Wooden scoffed at the notion that UCLA had fallen by the wayside in recent years.

"I'll sort of laugh at that," he said. "They just hadn't won a lot of championships. If you check the results through the years, it compares quite favorably with most anybody else and they have one championship in '95."

Of course, Wooden set an impossibly high standard that no coach has come close to matching.

"It was an exceptional run and it wasn't going to continue," he said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.