PERFECT FIT

Arizona center--and team spokesman--Loren Woods says that the 2000-01 Wildcats can do something that no NCAA Division I basketball team has done in 24 seasons--go undefeated. It’s a feat that has been accomplished 12 times in the “modern era” of college basketball (starting in 1937-38, as established by the NCAA Basketball Records guide.) A look at the 12 teams that had undefeated seasons:

1938-39

LONG ISLAND UNIV.

Record: 24-0

Coach: Clair Bee

Top Player

Irv Torgoff: 9.5 points per game

In ‘30s and ‘40s, there was no bigger name in coaching than Clair Bee, whose career winning percentage (.826) is the highest in the NCAA’s major schools category. A defense mastermind, Bee developed the 1-3-1 zone, and his teams rarely allowed an uncontested shot. Bee was influential in having the three-second rule implemented--and showing he had the “write” stuff off the court--he was also the author of the fictional Chip Hilton sports books for kids. The 1938-39 Blackbirds won the first of two NIT championships for Bee, but his collegiate coaching world would come crashing down after the 1951 season. When LIU was among the New York City schools (CCNY, NYU and Manhattan were the others ) implicated in the point-shaving scandal of two years earlier, Bee promptly resigned. The Blackbirds would have to take their broken wings and learn to fly again--the program was discontinued until 1957.

1939-40

SETON HALL

Record: 19-0

Coach: John “Honey” Russell

Top Player

G Bob Davies: Not Available

Almost four decades before Magic Johnson and “Showtime,” and about five years before Bob Cousy, “the Houdini of the Hardwood,” would dazzle college basketball, there was Davies--the player who helped take the sport out of the dark ages of two-hand set shots and chest passes. Davis is credited with being the first player use a behind-the-back dribble in a college game. In 1941--a year after Seton Hall compiled an unbeaten record but did not participate in a postseason tournament--Davies stunned a Madison Square Garden crowd of 18,000 in an NIT game by dribbling behind his back during a drive to the basket. One newspaper account called Davies a “catlike court magician.” Five years later, after serving in the military, Davies took his night moves to the brave new world of the NBA and became its first showman and one of its best players.

1943-44

ARMY

Record: 15-0

Coach: Edward Kelleher

Top Players

Edward Christl and Dale Hall: NA

With war being waged in both Europe and the Pacific Ocean, little attention was being paid to college basketball, but the games did go on. At Army, team captain Edward Christl and Helms All-American Dale Hall led a quiet charge to a unbeaten season. Christl graduated from West Point that year and went off war. He was killed in Austria in 1945. In 1986, Army’s 5,043-seat venue for men’s and women’s basketball was named Christl Arena in his honor.

1953-54

KENTUCKY

Record; 25-0

Coach: Adolph Rupp

Starting Lineup

F Lou Tsioropolous: 14.5

F Billy Evans: 8.4

C Cliff Hagan: 24.0

G Frank Ramsey: 19.6

G Gayle Rose: 6.7

What should have been Hagan-Dazs for Kentucky--a hook shot-cranking scoring machine at center surrounded by a talented cast--melted in the dark. Kentucky was banned from competition in 1952-53 for being one of the schools implicated in the point-shaving scandals that signaled the end of the innocence for college basketball, but came back with a vengeance in 1953-54--battering opponents by an average of 27 points a game. However, the Wildcats refused to play in the NCAA tournament after its three “postgraduate” (fifth-year) stars--Hagan, Ramsey and Tsioropolous--were declared ineligible for the postseason.

1955-56

UNIV. OF SAN FRANCISCO

Record: 29-0

Coach: Phil Woolpert

Starting Lineup

F Carl Boldt: 8.6

F Mike Farmer: 8.4

C Bill Russell: 20.6

G K.C. Jones: 9.8

G Gene Brown: 7.1

USF had to retool after losing three starters from its NCAA championship team in 1954-55, but it still had Russell--basketball’s version of the Sultan of Swat. So dominant was Russell in the NCAA tournament that the Dons defeated each of their opponents by double digits without another future basketball Hall of Famer, the defense dynamo Jones, who was declared ineligible in the postseason as a fifth-year player. The first of USF’s tournament victims was UCLA, coached by then-mere mortal John Wooden.

1956-57

NORTH CAROLINA

Record: 32-0

Coach: Frank McGuire

Starting Lineup

F Lennie Rosenbluth: 28.0

F Pete Brennan: 14.7

C Joe Quigg: 10.3

G Tommy Kearns: 12.3

G Bob Cunningham : 7.2

Frank McGuire’s famed “underground railroad” annually brought the cream of New York City’s high school basketball crop to Chapel Hill in the ‘50s, and it was particularly fruitful in 1956-57. North Carolina’s entire starting lineup was composed of street-savvy New Yorkers whose dogged determination wouldn’t allow them to ‘Heel to any opponent. They needed every ounce of toughness to survive three-overtime battles with Michigan State in the NCAA semifinals and Wilt Chamberlain-powered Kansas in the final. Adding to the “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” theme: 5-foot-11 Kearns jumping center against the 7-foot “Wilt the Stilt” to start the final.

1963-64

UCLA

Record: 30-0

Coach: John Wooden

Starting Lineup

F Keith Erickson: 10.7

F Jack Hirsch: 14.0

C Fred Slaughter: 7.9

G Gail Goodrich: 21.5

G Walt Hazzard: 18.6

Entering his 16th season at UCLA, Wooden had not yet reached Wizard status. He had compiled a 285-125 record (.712 percentage), but was 3-9 in five NCAA tournament appearances with no national championship. In a whirlwind season, that changed. UCLA’s “Mighty Midgets” (no starter over 6 feet 5) took the NCAA by storm with a devastating zone press--Slaughter pestering the opposition under the basket and Erickson picking off basketballs like an NFL safety in the back--and lightning-like transition game--Goodrich and Hazzard blowing past defenders for uncontested shots. It was poetry in motion, and the start of something big.

1966-67

UCLA

Record: 30-0

Coach: John Wooden

Starting Lineup

F Kenny Heitz: 6.1

F Lynn Shackelford: 11.4

C Lew Alcindor: 29.0

G Lucius Allen: 15.5

G Mike Warren: 11.4

After conquering the NCAA in 1963-64 and ‘64-65 with its “Mighty Midgets,” UCLA rose head and shoulders above the rest in college basketball with 7-foot-1 Alcindor (to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). A frightening cross between Chamberlain and Russell, Alcindor was such a dominant scorer and defender that the phrase “Oh my!” became a staple of a then-fledgling Bruin announcer Dick Enberg. There were other sights to behold, however: Lynn Shackelford’s somewhere-over-the-rainbow shot, the oh-so-smooth play of Lucius Allen at guard, and the pinpoint passing of Mike Warren (to become Officer Bobby Hill on “Hill Street Blues.”)

1971-72

UCLA

Record: 30-0

Coach: John Wooden

Starting Lineup

F Keith Wilkes: 13.5

F Larry Farmer: 10.7

C Bill Walton: 21.1

G Greg Lee: 8.7

G Henry Bibby: 15.7

Five seasons--and five NCAA championships--after the painfully introverted Alcindor had been ushered in to serve as the bastion of Bruin basketball, along came the free-spirited, keep-on-truckin’ Walton, who kept UCLA as the center of attention. Walton’s game was so remarkably well-rounded that he didn’t need to be the focal point on offense for the Bruins to demolish opponents, which they frequently did in compiling a still-NCAA record scoring margin of 30.3 points. There was also the silky style of Keith (to be Jamaal) Wilkes, the dialed-in long-distance shooting of Henry Bibby (who would cross rivalry lines and become USC coach), the workmanlike approach of Farmer and the on-time deliveries by Lee from the point.

1972-73

UCLA

Record: 30-0

Coach: John Wooden

Starting Lineup

F Keith Wilkes: 14.8

F Larry Farmer: 12.2

C Bill Walton: 20.4

G Greg Lee: 4.6

G Larry Hollyfield: 10.7

The Walton Gang pushed past USF’s 60-game winning streak to an NCAA record that would reach a DiMaggio-esque 88 the following season. An added dimension to this team from the previous season was a M*A*S*H unit headed by future first-round NBA draft picks Dave Meyers. But in the end, it was Walton who had the most in reserve. During the 87-66 victory over Memphis State in the national championship game, Walton made 21 of 22 shots and scored 44 points. In the afterglow of a seventh consecutive NCAA championship, Wooden--who always avoided comparing his teams--said, “I’ve never had a greater team.” Walton’s play spoke for itself.

1972-73

NORTH CAROLINA STATE

Record: 27-0

Coach: Norm Sloan

Starting Lineup

F David Thompson: 26.0

F Tim Stoddard: 7.9

C Tom Burleson: 17.9

G Rick Holdt: 8.3

G Monte Towe: 10.0

All dressed up and nowhere to go. That’s how North Carolina State felt after an unbeaten regular season and winning the ACC tournament with no trip to the Big Dance because of NCAA sanctions. So the Wolfpack had to be content with going for all the national marbles the next season with the tough-as-nails 5-foot-5 Towe, the stork-like 7-4 Tom Burleson, and the incomparable skywalker Thompson. In essence, the Wolfpack traded in its go-nowhere unbeaten season for a national-championship-with-one-loss campaign. North Carolina State avenged an early season loss to UCLA with a game-for-the-ages, double-overtime victory over the Bruins in the national semifinals--ending UCLA’s run of championships at seven. A follow-up victory over Marquette was icing on the cake.

1975-76

INDIANA

Record: 32-0

Coach: Bob Knight

Starting Lineup

F Scott May: 23.5

F Tom Abernethy: 10.0

C Kent Benson: 17.3

G Bobby Wilkerson: 7.8

G Quinn Buckner: 8.9

Forget that pathetic, overweight Hoosier Daddy who went clockwork orange for a final time this year and was fired. In 1975-76, Knight was a young whippersnapper of a coach at the top of his game--a snarling man in plaid intent on driving his players to perfection. He had almost accomplished it the previous season, when the Hoosiers went unbeaten until the Mideast final, where they lost to Kentucky, 92-90. So, he dug in even more--and the Hoosiers responded. The 1-2 scoring punch of May and Benson socked it to the opposition, while Buckner and Abernethy put the clamps on Marquette’s Butch Lee and UCLA’s Richard Washington to pave the way for Knight’s first national championship--and the last by an unbeaten team.

--Research and capsules by JIM RHODE