Hoops HD

With the 2019 NCAA tourney tipping off next month, we will spend this month taking a walk down memory lane with a choice collection of players/coaches who are celebrating an awesome anniversary this year. From a comeback win to clinch the 1954 tourney title (65th anniversary) through a last-second loss in the 2014 Final 4 (5th anniversary), these legends have all carved out a little piece of history in past Marches. We continue our series with Mark Montieth (who wrote articles and worked on various projects about John Wooden) and Alan Karpick (President/Publisher of Gold & Black Illustrated). It is near-impossible to summarize all of the success that Wooden had in the sport: 3-time All-American as a player at Purdue, NAIA runner-up as a coach at Indiana State, followed by 10 NCAA titles in a 12-year span from 1964-1975 as coach at UCLA. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1960 and as a coach in 1973 and inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Mark/Alan about the 55th anniversary of Wooden’s 1st NCAA title at UCLA in 1964 and whether he is the greatest coach of all-time.

After his family moved to the town of Martinsville in the mid-1920s he led his high school team to the Indiana state finals for 3 consecutive years (and won it all in 1927) and was a 3-time All-State player: why did he decide to attend Purdue and play for Coach Ward “Piggy” Lambert? MM: Wooden considered Indiana/Butler/Purdue and was familiar with all 3 campuses. He chose Purdue because he wanted to major in civil engineering but changed his major to English to avoid going to summer school so he could help on his family farm and stay closer to his high school girlfriend. AK: He decided to come to Purdue partly for the curriculum: he wanted to study English. He looked at Indiana but Purdue offered more from an academic standpoint. He was originally interested in engineering before switching to English.

He was the 1st college player ever to be named a 3-time consensus All-American and he helped the Boilermakers win a national title in 1932: how was he able to be such a dominant player, and how much of a hero was he on campus? MM: He was dominant because he was a superb athlete: quick/aggressive/rugged. If you look at old photos he would often have bandages on his knees: the football team would sit behind the basket to help him get back onto the court! He was big on campus but it was a different era with only local newspaper coverage. AK: The 1932 title was a “mythical” title: the NCAA tourney had not yet been formed. Purdue was dominant in basketball: there were even movies made in the 1940s that mentioned how good they were. It was arguably 1 of the top 3 or 4 programs in the country back then. He teamed up with 6’6” Stretch Murphy to form a Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside combination that was hard to beat.

In the 1962 NCAA tourney as head coach at UCLA, tourney MOP Paul Hogue had 36 PTS/19 REB and Tom Thacker made a 25-foot jumper with 3 seconds left in a 2-PT win by eventual champion Cincinnati: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of his career? MM: I doubt that he would describe it as “devastating” given his approach to the game, and as it was his 1st Final 4 appearance I think he was thrilled just to have gotten there. There was less pressure on coaches back then: it was his 16th year at UCLA. AK: Wooden had several heartbreaks before winning his 1st title but he would probably not describe any of them as “devastating”.

In the 1964 NCAA tourney Ken Washington had 26 PTS/12 REB to help beat Duke and finish the season undefeated to clinch Wooden’s 1st title: what did it mean to him to win a title, and how was he able to keep them focused for 30 straight games? MM: No doubt he was thrilled but you never saw him show that much emotion on the bench. I do not think that they had any wild parades back then. He kept his teams focused due to his daily practices: they never lasted more than 2 hours because he was very focused/efficient. Some of his players looked forward to practice because there was no punishment of his teams being forced to run laps. AK: Winning titles for him were just a nice byproduct of a good regular season. He took it seriously but it was never about him. That team had a bunch of players under 6’5” so it was amazing that they were able to win. They were not full of themselves.

The Bruins’ 47-game winning streak was snapped by Houston in the “Game of the Century” on 1/20/68: why did he agree to play at the Astrodome, and do you think the 2-PT loss might have come out differently if Lew Alcindor had not been playing with a scratched left cornea? MM: I think that Alcindor’s injury definitely affected the outcome. I assume there was a good amount of money at stake for that. I remember watching it as a kid because there were not a lot of nationally-televised marquee games back then. AK: He may have had a player from the Houston area that was part of the reason for playing there…but if he knew that it would turn into such a spectacle I do not know if he would have agreed to it. He always respected Coach Lambert for turning down some opportunities to play in the NCAA tourney. I think that a healthy Alcindor would have changed the outcome: it would be hard to argue otherwise.

A couple of months later in the 1968 NCAA tourney, tourney MOP Alcindor had 19 PTS/18 REB in a 32-PT revenge win over Houston in the semifinals en route to winning a 4th title for Wooden: do you consider that UCLA team (national POY Alcindor, All-Americans Lucius Allen/Mike Warren, along with Lynn Shackleford/Mike Lynn) to be the greatest team in men’s college basketball history? MM: I think that the loss in the Astrodome helped them in the long run. I do not think it is the greatest team ever: Alcindor is certainly among the all-time greats but none of the other 4 had a fantastic pro career. The 1976 Indiana team had 5 starters who all had solid pro careers. AK: They were all extremely good players and coming off of a title in 1967. You can argue for teams like Indiana in 1976 but in terms of dominance they are 1 of the greatest teams in the history of sport.

In the 1969 NCAA tourney, tourney MOP Alcindor had 37 PTS/20 REB to help beat Purdue and win his 3rd consecutive title: how did Wooden feel about facing his alma mater, and where does Alcindor rank among the best players in college basketball history? MM: I would probably vote for Alcindor as the greatest college player ever: nobody could match up with him and he raised the bar for everyone who followed him. I do not think that he relished beating Purdue. He actually opened Mackey Arena by playing in the 1st game there: he thought that it should have been named Lambert Arena. I do not think that he felt any need for revenge or had any ill will towards Purdue. AK: I would not comfortably rank anyone anywhere…but I would say Alcindor is among the 3 or 4 best players ever. I think that it meant something to him to play Purdue but he was such a different duck when it came to such things. They beat an injured Purdue team badly that day but he did not take any great joy in that because he was a gracious man. He battled to keep that team in line because they were relatively young.

In the 1973 NCAA tourney, tourney MOP Bill Walton scored a title-game-record 44 PTS (21-22 FG) and had 13 REB to help beat Memphis State and finish 30-0: do you think that we will ever see another coach win 7 titles in a row? MM: Definitely not, for a lot of reasons. If you were to get a player like Walton today then he would not stick around for 4 years. Players tended to stay in their region for college back then but the parity now is too much. AK: Not in our lifetime! It is just too diverse. Kentucky has a good formula in the way that Coach John Calipari recruits, but back then they only had to win 4 games to win the tourney and now you have to win 6.

On 1/19/74 Notre Dame scored the final 12 PTS of the game in a 1-PT win to end the Bruins’ record 88-game winning streak: had it reached a point where people just assumed they would win every game they played? MM: It might have for UCLA fans but I am sure that the fans of their opponents felt they could pull off an upset. If I recall correctly, Digger Phelps had his team prepare by cutting down the nets at practice the day before the game. Wooden did not seem upset about the loss: maybe he felt that it was good for the team to lose and come back down to earth. AK: Pretty much. UCLA had the game in hand before blowing a huge lead down the stretch. You knew that it had to end sometime but those teams were awfully good so it took an unbelievable performance by Notre Dame.

In the 1974 NCAA tourney semifinals tourney MOP David Thompson had 28 PTS/10 REB in a 3-PT 2-OT win by eventual champion NC ST: how close did UCLA come to winning it all yet again? MM: I talked to Walton about that game and it still bothers him. They had the game won and just missed some shots toward the end. I think that Wooden took it in stride. AK: That was akin to the 1972 US-USSR Olympic game in terms of some crazy things happening down the stretch. I remember watching it on tape-delay and were surprise to see UCLA blow another lead. That was a great NC State team.

Take me through the 1975 NCAA tourney:
Tourney MOP Richard Washington scored 26 PTS and made a shot with 4 seconds left in a 1-PT OT win over Louisville (after Terry Howard missed the front end of a 1-and-1 in the closing seconds of OT despite converting all 28 of his previous FTs that season): what was it like to coach against his former assistant Denny Crum? MM: I think he was proud that Crum was doing well at another program but I do not think that it gave him any extra motivation. AK: I think it was difficult for him: there was a lot made of that at the time. UCLA was not the best team in the country that year but Indiana lost to Kentucky in the regional finals after Scott May got injured.

Wooden announced his retirement at the press conference after that game: why did he choose to do it then, and what was the reaction to his decision? MM: He told me that it hit him while walking to the press conference that he did not want to coach any more. He never looked back or was tempted to get back into coaching. When he walked back to the court some fan said well done after losing the previous year. AK: Wooden was so uninterested in making a spectacle of himself, which I think had a lot to do with it. I really feel like he had no desire to make it about him and did not want attention paid to him.

Washington had 28 PTS/12 REB in a 7-PT win over Kentucky to help Wooden win his 10th title in 12 years: what did it mean to him to go out on top? MM: I am sure that it meant a lot and factored into his thinking. It had to be satisfying: not many coaches get to go out on top and be remembered that way. AK: I think it meant a lot to him. The 1st time I met him in person was 3 months before he passed away: I cannot stress enough that it meant far more to his players than to him. He just was not consumed by that stuff.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as both a player (in 1960) and a coach (in 1973), the 1st person ever enshrined in both categories: do you think that it is important for people to remember his on-court accomplishments in addition to what he did on the sideline as a coach? MM: Yes: a lot of people do not know what a great player he was. From what I gathered he was the best guard of the 1st half of the 20th century. The problem is that there are no film clips so all you have are his stats/reputation. He said that it was unfair to compare players from different eras. AK: Yes: he was 1 of the greatest players of all-time. There are not many people alive who saw him play but those who do describe his ability to run and score. He also had a great attention to detail, which carried over into his coaching career.

Wooden was renowned for his short/simple/inspirational messages to his players, including his “Pyramid of Success” (philosophical building blocks for winning at basketball/life): how did he create the Pyramid, and what made it so effective? MM: He worked on it over a number of years and spent a lot of time editing it. I think it is common-sense advice that has had a lot of impact because everyone can relate to it. AK: He just gathered information and fine-tuned it over the years. It became much more of a story after he had retired. The last thing he wanted to do was market himself but after retiring he became a nationally-renowned speaker. That was his legacy as much as anything.

Wooden was a 6-time national COY and in 2009 The Sporting News named him the “Greatest Coach of All-Time”: do you agree with that assessment? MM: Absolutely: not only for the titles he won, but the greatest way to judge a coach is by what his former players think of him. A good number of them would consistently call him and stay in touch. Walton would call him nearly every day and Swen Nater wrote poetry about him. He had such an effect on his players in their adult lives as well because they held him in such high regard. AK: In terms of a holistic approach to what college sports is supposed to be about and teaching the right principles, his success is unprecedented and I would agree with that. The only other coach on his level would be someone like Vince Lombardi.