Lew Alcindor's freshman team

[ginscpy]

beat the 2 time defending UCLA national champions varsity 75-60 in an exhibition game game in 1965.


not even the great Michael Jordan accomplished that feat
( of course by thattime freshmen were eligable forvarsity sports)

 

[ginscpy]

The UCLA freshman team would have won the NC - not Texas Western.

 

[rightwinger]

That was an awesome team

 

[georgephillip]

Lew's three varsity teams were not bad either.
88-2
One of the losses was on the road to the University of Houston in front of 55,000 screaming Texans.
Lew's eye had been scratched the week before by Stanford and he scored only 13.
Six weeks later the same teams met in LA in a NCAA Tournament rematch.
Houston scored the same number of points in both games (71)
They won the first by one (I think)
They lost the second by 30 (I'm sure)
That was one trademark of a John Wooden team: win big games BIG.

Lew's second loss was the first UCLA suffered at Pauley Pavilion.
There was no shot clock in those days and USC held the ball for 3-4 minutes on some possessions until they got either a layup or a free throw.

At the end of Lew's first varsity season the NCAA outlawed dunking.
Everybody called it the "Anti-Alcindor rule."
Of course, the NCAA said it had absolutely nothing to do with Lew.

 

[deaddogseye]

beat the 2 time defending UCLA national champions varsity 75-60 in an exhibition game game in 1965.


not even the great Michael Jordan accomplished that feat
( of course by thattime freshmen were eligable forvarsity sports)

jordan didnt have anywhere near the college career Alcindor had. Even though he won a national title as a role player behind worthy and perkins - and hit a big shot in the finals -- when he was the man on later teams and at least once the favorite to win the NCAA he fell short. That really shows the greatness of alcindor -- he and his teams dominated at every level he ever played. HS. College Pro. Even at Power Memorial where it was hima nd 4 white schlub catholic boys -- they were #1. He is without equal.

Although do remeber that the defending National champs that his freshman team beat was without a couple of the stars from the team that one that title including Gail Goodrich and Keith Erickson. Still think the freshman would have won but it wasnt really the title team they beat. That has grown out of proportion a bit IMO

 

[rightwinger]

beat the 2 time defending UCLA national champions varsity 75-60 in an exhibition game game in 1965.


not even the great Michael Jordan accomplished that feat
( of course by thattime freshmen were eligable forvarsity sports)

jordan didnt have anywhere near the college career Alcindor had. Even though he won a national title as a role player behind worthy and perkins - and hit a big shot in the finals -- when he was the man on later teams and at least once the favorite to win the NCAA he fell short. That really shows the greatness of alcindor -- he and his teams dominated at every level he ever played. HS. College Pro. Even at Power Memorial where it was hima nd 4 white schlub catholic boys -- they were #1. He is without equal.

Although do remeber that the defending National champs that his freshman team beat was without a couple of the stars from the team that one that title including Gail Goodrich and Keith Erickson. Still think the freshman would have won but it wasnt really the title team they beat. That has grown out of proportion a bit IMO

Didn't UCLA go on to win the championship that year?

 

[deaddogseye]

beat the 2 time defending UCLA national champions varsity 75-60 in an exhibition game game in 1965.


not even the great Michael Jordan accomplished that feat
( of course by thattime freshmen were eligable forvarsity sports)

jordan didnt have anywhere near the college career Alcindor had. Even though he won a national title as a role player behind worthy and perkins - and hit a big shot in the finals -- when he was the man on later teams and at least once the favorite to win the NCAA he fell short. That really shows the greatness of alcindor -- he and his teams dominated at every level he ever played. HS. College Pro. Even at Power Memorial where it was hima nd 4 white schlub catholic boys -- they were #1. He is without equal.

Although do remeber that the defending National champs that his freshman team beat was without a couple of the stars from the team that one that title including Gail Goodrich and Keith Erickson. Still think the freshman would have won but it wasnt really the title team they beat. That has grown out of proportion a bit IMO

Didn't UCLA go on to win the championship that year?

Not in Alcindors freshman year -- although they probably would have had freshmen been elligible. Texas Western won. UCLA didnt even win the Pac 8 that year (USC did) or whatever it was called and since back then you had to win your conference to go to the ncaa (oh the good old days when college bball was agreat sport) UCLA didnt play in the NCAA and i think it also didnt even make the NIT which was respected back then but also heavily dominated by east coast schools.

 

[zzzz]

Back in those days only conference champions were eligible for the NCAA Championships. A lot of really good teams did not even get a chance to compete for a championship. UCLA's run of championships would have been much more difficult under today's playoff setup.

 

[deaddogseye]

Back in those days only conference champions were eligible for the NCAA Championships. A lot of really good teams did not even get a chance to compete for a championship. UCLA's run of championships would have been much more difficult under today's playoff setup.

i dont agree with this at all -- it certainly is said a lot by current fans of college bball many of whom seem to have a need to justify the event as it currently is (decent post season entertainment for people who have little depth of knowledge about the sport but no way to pick a champion). fact is UCLA played 4 games in the tournament each year -- today it would be 6. but those teams would have been a number one seed every year . so one of those games would have been versus a 16 seeded joker and as we all know not one of them has EVER won a game. They werent gonna win one of those games So that wasnt gonna happen. so they would then face team 29-35 assuming they were as low as #4 . That was some conference also ran and the fact is none of them ever gave ucla a game either. so i hear what you say and niether of us can prove it but i say no way it matters. if anything playing under todays rules -- shot clock, freshmen elligible, three pointers would have made them more dominant and DEFINITELY would have resulted in one more title -- not less -- 1966. the other thing the current bs format might well have done is also made it easier as a lot of the other top teams in the country might have been eliminated and they would have faced even lesser teams afte rthe first 2 rounds . I thihnk Coach Wooden would have agreed to all of that change in a heartbeat