Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Wooden's genius

Many folks no doubt think that John Wooden got all-time great big men on campus and then just reaped the benefits of their stay at UCLA. Well, he did have Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, and they helped bring home five of Wooden's ten NCAA championships. But what about the other five?

The stars of the 1964 and 1965 champions were Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich, both guards. 1967, 1968 and 1969 were the Alcindor years, but then in 1970 and 1971 they won with Steve Patterson at center, certainly a good player, but not an all-time great. 1972 and 1973 were the era of Bill Walton. Then in 1975 UCLA won Wooden's final title without a real superstar.

Not only were half of Wooden's titles won without one of his two superstar centers, but his opponents enroute to the titles had some superstars facing UCLA. They had to beat Houston and Elvin Hayes in the semis in 1968 (who had beaten them earlier in the year). In 1969 in the finals they beat Purdue, who was led by Rick Mount and his 33 points per game average. 1973 featured Walton's famous 21 of 22 performance, but folks forget that facing him on the Memphis State team was 6-9 Larry Kenon, who went on to average 17 points per game over a 12-year pro career.

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