The Ultimate 64: Deciding the greatest all-time NCAA champion - West Region
The Ultimate 64 is an undertaking which will determine the greatest NCAA tournament champion of all time from a field made up exclusively of NCAA tournament champions.
The teams will be judged based on record, quality of wins, overall talent, star power and entertainment value, among other criteria.
The teams have been divided into regions based on their geographical location. Next up: The West Region.
Ultimate 64 Schedule
Midwest Region
West Region
East Region
South Region
Final Four
West Region
Click here to view full bracket.
Round of 64
Eight UCLA teams in the opening round. Six made it through. Each of the six was coached by John Wooden. Of the two losers, one faced another UCLA squad, and the other is post-Wooden. ... The only team to get by a UCLA squad, Jerry Tarkanian's 1990 UNLV Runnin' Rebels, who beat Duke by 30 points in the title game that year. ... The lone championship teams from Utah, Stanford, Oregon, Wyoming, and California each ran into UCLA squads in what may be the deepest and toughest region. ... The lone Arizona championship team knocked off three No. 1 seeds in 1997, but the eighth-seeded 1956 San Francisco Dons take them out here.
Round of 32
The San Francisco Dons won the national championship in 1954-55, then returned their entire lineup the following season when they became the first team in NCAA history to win a championship with an undefeated record. That was part of a then-record 60 straight wins. Lew Alcindor was only nine years old then. ... Bill Walton's Bruins teams earned a clean sweep of the lower portion of the bracket, even knocking off John Wooden's inaugural title team.
Sweet 16
The top four seeds make it through to the Sweet Sixteen. Fitting that two of Alcindor's title teams would face off on one side, while Walton's title teams face off on the other. ... The 1967 UCLA Bruins went undefeated, but the one-loss 1968 squad battled through an injury to Alcindor. ... The 1972 UCLA Bruins won by an average margin of 32 points during the regular season, then won their first three tournament games by an average margin of 22.3 points. The team won games so comfortably that Walton was disappointed with the team's 81-76 victory over Florida State in the title game. "I'm really embarrassed," Walton said, according to HoopsZone. "I can't believe how bad I played. I'd have to say it was one of my worst games. We should have beat these guys with ease. I guess I should be happy that we won, but, in all honesty, I'm not."
Elite Eight
As determined as Walton may have been, he would have had an awful tough time going up against Alcindor. Eight days before a midseason two-point loss to Houston, Alcindor suffered a scratch on his left cornea which forced him to spend three days in hospital. UCLA got its revenge by destroying the Cougars to the tune of 101-69 in the national semifinals before beating up North Carolina 78-55 in the title game.
Images courtesy Sports Illustrated.