By Woodrow Carroll
With the college basketball season heading into the stretch, we might enjoy looking into some of the past NCAA men’s finals and the story that went with them.
The first men’s final was held in 1939 with Oregon the victor. Each and every final since has produced its share of story lines.
Starting with Bill Russell’s legendary 1955-1956 San Francisco team through Indiana University’s 1975-1976 squad that finished unscathed, we have been made aware of the excellence of these teams.
The 1960-1961 Ohio State men reached the championship game of the 1961 final undefeated only to falter to Cincinnati, 70-65, in overtime.
What the loss to Cincinnati in the title game in the 1961 Tournament did was end Ohio State’s 32-game winning streak going back to the previous season. In the previous season Ohio State defeated California, 75-55, in the championship game.
Just how good were the Buckeyes back in 1960-1961? Three Ohio State starters, Jerry Lucas. John Havlicek, and Larry Siegfried, all had long term careers in the NBA. The sixth man was Bobby Knight, legendary college basketball coach.
California won it all in 1959 by beating a West Virginia with Jerry West. A year later, California was no match for Ohio State.
When Cincinnati took down Ohio State for the crown in 1961, we witnessed the defending champion again falling short. Remember, it was Chicago Loyola’s overtime victory over Cincinnati in the 1963 final that denied Cincy a three-peat after the Bearkats’ championships in 1961 and 1962.
•This season, Connecticut and Purdue, each with a 22-2 record at week’s beginning, continue to be at the top of the collegiate basketball poll. Connecticut is in the Big East Conference. The DePaul Blue Demons are in the Big East and struggling.
DePaul has yet to record a victory in the Big East and was 3-20 overall and 0-12 in Big East play.
•The MAC-Sun Belt basketball Challenge came to an end Sunday, Feb. 11. For the MAC men last week’s results were hardly encouraging.
In the final game in the Challenge, MAC’s Bowling Green lost, 86-60, at Louisiana Lafayette. Overall, the Sun Belt teams were 15-9.
•The Northern Illinois men’s two-game winning streak ended in a 75-66 loss at South Alabama Saturday, Feb. 10 as part of the MAC-SBC Challenge.
The Northern Illinois women held their own in DeKalb as part of the Challenge with a 91-84 victory over Georgia Southern.