ICYMI: Int'g Bruin Hoops "Outtakes" re. "UCLA Factor" & 1995 Natl. Champions

by Nestor on Jul 22, 2011 12:49 PM PDT

In case you guys missed this, there were couple of interesting notes from Wilner on UCLA hoops few weeks ago (HT What's Bruin Blog):

Action: UCLA forward Tyler Honeycutt and guard Malcolm Lee picked in second round of NBA Draft.
Reaction: Time for another quick rant: No, Ben Howland’s system doesn’t allow for gaudy statistics and SportsCenter-worthy highlights, but his players understand the game, they’re tough, and they play defense … and this has been the case for years. The notion that his coaching style would adversely affect UCLA players in the NBA and negatively impact recruiting — a notion first proposed by the Lavin camp, by the way — has always been nonsense. [...]

Action: The Arizona Republic’s Doug Haller lists the best basketball teams of the Pac-10 era.
Reaction: Haller has Arizona ‘88 on top, followed by UCLA ‘95. I’d flip ‘em — the Bruins, who won 19 in a row to end the season, were the best team of the era and would have been a matchup nightmare for the Wildcats in a hypothetic showdown. Otherwise, it’s tough to find fault with Haller’s list. Well done.

Re. first point that is consistent with the great arguments around "the UCLA factor," Achilles and DCBruins have been laying out on BN (see here and here). So no disagreement there.

Re. second point as someone who was there in person to take in every home game during that magical 1994-95 team, can't agree more. That UCLA team was dominant and what was truly special about it was it got better through the entire season. We only had two losses: 1) an unfortunate loss against Oregon on the road and 2) loss against Cal at home (which IIRC was vacated later due to Cal's NCAA related issues). But by the time we were in the meat of conference season, we became unstopabble.

We finished the season as regular season number 1 and got the overall number 1 seed in the Big Dance. So we had to go through a little heart palpitation in the second round, but for rest of the tournament we dominated it. Don't believe there has been any other Pac-10 team like our 1994-95 team since the days of Coach Wooden. Now I will let my homerific side say this as well - because I am emotionally invested in King Ed as one my all time favorite Bruins ever. I will take that UCLA team against any other Bruin squad as well.

GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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The 95' Championship team

surprised many in the tournament with its athleticism. No doubts about it. Its up tempo, smothering style, with nearly everyone contributing, easily overpowered Arkansas.

I still recall Billy Packer’s incessant harpings of Arkansas’ vaunted “forty minutes of hell”, as he put it, even as Bruins were forcing turnovers, raining shots all over the Razorbacks. But then I knew, as we all did then, that Billy Packer, long before he retired, had sold out his soul already to ACC or any team against UCLA. His commentary merely became some background, annoying chatterings while UCLA feted COACH in attendance a glorious performance reminiscent of the Walton Gang era.

That said, I concurred with you. UCLA won because of Ed O’Bannon’s leadership, singular determination to win, and his stellar skills. Unfortunately, NBA never again saw the finest side of O’Bannon.

I gave the 73’ Walton team the edge.

by Htse005 on Jul 23, 2011 3:46 PM PDT reply actions

It wasn't just Billy Packer either

Dick Vitale and the entire ESPN crew kept prognosticating how the Bruins were going to get knocked out by their East Coast darlings – Maryland and UConn – out in the West.

by Nestor on Jul 24, 2011 8:51 AM PDT up reply actions