SPECIAL REPORT / Final Four / Seattle, 1995 : The Wizard’s Wonder Years : JOHN WOODEN’S TEAMS IN THE FINAL FOUR

1962 at Louisville, Ky.

Cincinnati 72, UCLA 70

Wake Forest 82, UCLA 80

John Wooden finally reaches the Final Four in his 14th season (good thing he didn’t have to follow John Wooden). This team, with future coaches Walt Hazzard and Gary Cunningham in the lineup, suffers a pair of close defeats.

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1964 at Kansas City, Mo.

UCLA 90, Kansas State 84

UCLA 98, Duke 83

The Bruins do more than complete a perfect season, at 30-0, and win a national championship, they begin one of the great dynasties in sports history. Keith Erickson scores 28 in the semifinal. Gail Goodrich scores 27 in the final and the Bruins use a 16-0 run to beat a pre-Coach K team led by Jeff Mullins and Jack Marin.

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1965 at Portland, Ore.

UCLA 108, Wichita 89

UCLA 91, Michigan 80

Wooden’s highest-scoring tournament team: The Bruins average 100 points in four tournament games to win back-to-back titles. Goodrich scores 28 against Wichita and 42 in the championship game against a Michigan team led by Cazzie Russell.

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1967 at Louisville, Ky.

UCLA 73, Houston 58

UCLA 79, Dayton 64

How’s this for a lineup? Lew Alcindor (19 and 20 points in Final Four, first of three MVPs), Lynn Shackelford (22 and 10), Mike (Not Michael Yet) Warren (14 and 17), Lucius Allen (17 and 19) and Kenny Heitz. Sophomore-dominated team is too much for Houston and Dayton, with stars Elvin Hayes and Don May, respectively.

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1968 at Sports Arena

UCLA 101, Houston 69

UCLA 78, North Carolina 55

During the regular season, in the game that raised college basketball to a new level, Houston snapped UCLA’s 47-game winning streak in the Astrodome. The highly anticipated rematch is no contest, as Hayes is held to 10 points. The final (sorry, Dean Smith) is anticlimactic.

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1969 at Louisville, Ky.

UCLA 85, Drake 82

UCLA 92, Purdue 72

The end of the Alcindor era begins with a scare against Willie McCarter and Drake, but John Vallely scores 29 and Big Lew scores 25. Purdue sharpshooter Rick Mount has 28 in final, but it’s not nearly enough as Alcindor finishes his career with 37.

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1970 at College Park, Md.

UCLA 93, New Mexico State 77

UCLA 80, Jacksonville 69

This season, UCLA doesn’t have the dominating center and Jacksonville has 7-foot-4 Artis Gilmore. But the Bruins have power forward Sidney Wicks, who blocks Gilmore’s shot early in the title game to set the tone. Vallely, who rarely gets his due when great Bruin guards are mentioned, scores 23 and 15 points in the two games.

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1971 at Houston

UCLA 68, Kansas 60

UCLA 68, Villanova 62

This Final Four is notable for a number of reasons. It is played in a dome for the first time, UCLA stalls on offense to get Villanova out of its zone defense, and the runner-up Wildcats are disqualified for using an ineligible player (Howard Porter). Steve Patterson, answer to the trivia question of who played center in Westwood between Alcindor and Bill Walton, scores 29 in title game. One key unanswered question: Could these national champions have beaten the freshman team?

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1972 at Sports Arena

UCLA 96, Louisville 77

UCLA 81, Florida State 76

The Walton Gang, led by the big redhead and fellow sophomores Keith Wilkes and Greg Lee, sets an NCAA record that still stands by outscoring opponents by 30.3 points a game. Until the championship game, only one team gets as close as six points. Walton scores 33 in the semifinal.

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1973 at St. Louis

UCLA 70, Indiana 59

UCLA 87, Memphis State 66

Simply the greatest individual performance in NCAA championship game history. Walton makes 21 of 22 shots and scores 44 points in a rout of Memphis State for the Bruins’ seventh consecutive title and their second consecutive undefeated season. Note: Memphis State’s best players are Larry Kenon and Larry Finch, now the pudgy coach of the school renamed Memphis.

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1974 at Greensboro, N.C.

North Carolina St. 80, UCLA 77 (2 OT)

UCLA 78, Kansas 61

Jim Murray’s column in The Times on March 24, 1974, began: “Well, the sun set on the British Empire, didn’t it?” After seven consecutive national titles and 38 NCAA tournament game victories in a row, the Bruins blow an 11-point lead in the second half and a seven-point lead in second overtime against David Thompson and the Wolfpack, who go on to beat Marquette for the title. Discouraged UCLA starters consider sitting out third-place game, then relent. “I think consolation games are for the birds,” says Wooden, who hasn’t had to worry about it for 12 years.

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1975 at San Diego

UCLA 75, Louisville 74 (OT)

UCLA 92, Kentucky 85

Talk about your inspirational speeches. After the narrow victory over Wooden protege Denny Crum and Louisville, the Bruin coach announces that the championship game will be his last. He then uses only six players--Dave Meyers (24 points), Marques Johnson, Richard Washington (28 points), Pete Trgovich, Andre McCarter and Ralph Drollinger--to end his career with his 10th NCAA title in 12 years.