Not All Are Made to be Broken : COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Coach John Wooden’s 10 NCAA championships aren’t likely to be matched, but truly unassailable are the seven consecutive titles won by UCLA under Wooden from 1967 through ’73

Only Oklahoma State, Kentucky, San Francisco and Cincinnati had won two in a row before the Bruins’ unparalleled run.

In the quarter-century since, only Duke has won back-to-back titles.

But back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back titles? It won’t happen again.

The Wooden era gave birth to yet another almost remarkable record--UCLA’s 88-game winning streak, which was ended by Notre Dame early in 1974, 71-70.

Among other achievements, Dean Smith’s record of 879 victories is daunting, but with more and more coaches hitting 700 victories, it’s not beyond reach.

As for players, the single-game scoring record against a four-year college belongs to Clarence “Bevo” Francis, who scored 113 points for Ohio’s Rio Grande College against Michigan’s Hillsdale in 1954. The rebounding record of 51 in a game was set during the 1952-53 season by Bill Chambers of William & Mary against Virginia.

But a record that should draw more attention belongs to Bill Walton. His 95.5% field-goal percentage in the 1973 NCAA championship game against Memphis State--he made 21 of 22 shots--remains the highest in an NCAA tournament game (based on at least 10 shots). His 44 points in that game are the most in an NCAA title game.

The players’ record that is safest of all? Pete Maravich averaged at least 40 points a game for three seasons at Louisiana State, averaging 43.8 as a sophomore, 44.2 as a junior and 44.5 as a senior during the 1969-70 season.

It won’t happen again. What player of that ability these days wouldn’t already be in the NBA before he’d played three years of college basketball?