Victory Map: More Than 40 NCAA Champions Posted Higher Win Margins Than Kentucky '12
There has been some smooth sailing, but it is usually a rugged road en route to becoming NCAA kingpin. Talk of this year's Kentucky squad being one of the all-time greatest teams is somewhat silly insofar as 41 previous NCAA champions posted higher average victory margins in the tournament.
North Carolina '09 became the 12th NCAA Tournament champion to win all of its playoff games by double-digit margins. The first nine champions in this category came before the NCAA field was expanded to at least 64 teams in 1985.
Most titlists have near-death experiences and are severely tested at least once on the serpentine tourney trail. In 1997, Arizona won each of its playoff contests by a single-digit margin.
A total of 48 champions won a minimum of one playoff game by four points or less, including 22 titlists to win at least one contest by just one point. Wyoming '43 would have become the only champion to trail at halftime in every tournament game if the Cowboys didn't score the last three baskets of the first half in the national final to lead Georgetown at intermission (18-16). Four titlists trailed at intermission in both of their Final Four games - Kentucky '51, Louisville '86, Duke '92 and Kentucky '98.
UCLA '67, the first varsity season for Lew Alcindor (became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), set the record for largest average margin of victory for a champion when the Bruins started a dazzling streak of 10 consecutive Final Four appearances. They won their 12 NCAA playoff games with Alcindor manning the middle by an amazing average margin of 21.5 points.
Which of John Wooden's 10 national champion UCLA teams did the Wizard of Westwood perceive as his best?
"I've never come out and said it," Wooden said before passing away last year, "but it would be hard to pick a team over the 1968 team. I will say it would be the most difficult team to prepare for and play against offensively and defensively. It created so many problems. It had such great balance. We had the big center (Alcindor) who is the most valuable player of all time. Mike Warren was a three-year starter who may have been the most intelligent floor leader ever, going eight complete games once without a turnover. Lucius Allen was a very physical, talented individual who was extremely quick. Lynn Shackleford was a great shooter out of the corner who didn't allow defenses to sag on Jabbar. Mike Lynn didn't have power, but he had as fine a pair of hands around the boards as I have ever seen."
The roster for UCLA's 1968 national champion included six players with double-digit season scoring averages, but senior forward Edgar Lacey dropped off the team with an 11.9-point average following a dispute with Wooden after a ballyhooed mid-season defeat against Houston before 52,693 fans at the Astrodome. Lacey, assigned to defend Cougars star Elvin Hayes early in the game, was annoyed with Wooden for singling him out following Hayes' 29-point first-half outburst. Lacey, the leading rebounder for the Bruins' 1965 NCAA titlist when he was an All-Tournament team selection, missed the 1966-67 campaign because of a fractured left kneecap.
The three Lew-CLA teams rank among the seven NCAA champions with average margins of victory in a tournament of more than 19 points per game. It's no wonder a perceptive scribe wrote the acronym NCAA took on a new meaning during the plunderous Alcindor Era - "No Chance Against Alcindor."
"Bill Walton might have been a better all-around player (than Alcindor)," Wooden said. "If you were grading a player for every fundamental skill, Walton would rank the highest of any center who ever played. But Alcindor is the most valuable, owing to the pressure he put on the other team at both ends of the court."
North Carolina won all six of its playoff contests by double digits in 2009 but the only titlist to win all of its tournament games by more than 15 points was Ohio State '60. Center Jerry Lucas, a first-team All-American as a sophomore, averaged 24 points and 16 rebounds in four playoff contests for the Buckeyes. He collected 36 points and 25 rebounds to help them erase a six-point halftime deficit in their Mideast Regional opener against Western Kentucky.
Following is a breakdown of the point differential and average margin of victory in the NCAA playoffs for the first 74 national champions:
Championship Team Coach G. Largest Smallest Average UCLA '67 John Wooden 4 49 15 23.75 Loyola of Chicago '63 George Ireland 5 *69 2 23.0 Indiana '81 Bob Knight 5 35 13 22.6 Kentucky '96 Rick Pitino 6 38 7 21.5 UCLA '68 John Wooden 4 32 9 21.25 Michigan State '79 Jud Heathcote 5 34 11 20.8 North Carolina '09 Roy Williams 6 43 12 20.17 Ohio State '60 Fred Taylor 4 22 17 19.5 UCLA '69 John Wooden 4 38 3 19.5 UNLV '90 Jerry Tarkanian 6 30 2 18.67 Oklahoma State '45 Hank Iba 3 27 4 18.67 UCLA '70 John Wooden 4 23 11 18.0 UCLA '72 John Wooden 4 32 5 18.0 Kentucky '58 Adolph Rupp 4 33 1 17.5 Kentucky '49 Adolph Rupp 3 29 10 17.33 Indiana '40 Branch McCracken 3 24 9 17.0 Duke '01 Mike Krzyzewski 6 43 10 16.67 Florida '06 Billy Donovan 6 26 4 16.0 UCLA '73 John Wooden 4 21 11 16.0 Kentucky '48 Adolph Rupp 3 23 8 15.67 North Carolina '93 Dean Smith 6 45 6 15.67 UCLA '65 John Wooden 4 24 8 15.5 Michigan State '00 Tom Izzo 6 27 11 15.33 Oregon '39 Howard Hobson 3 18 13 15.33 Kansas '52 Phog Allen 4 19 4 14.75 Duke '10 Mike Krzyzewski 6 29 2 14.5 UCLA '95 Jim Harrick 6 36 1 14.33 North Carolina State '74 Norman Sloan 4 28 3 14.25 Florida '07 Billy Donovan 6 43 7 14.17 Kansas '08 Bill Self 6 24 2 14.17 Duke '91 Mike Krzyzewski 6 29 2 14.0 Maryland '02 Gary Williams 6 30 8 14.0 San Francisco '56 Phil Woolpert 4 18 11 14.0 North Carolina '05 Roy Williams 6 28 1 13.83 San Francisco '55 Phil Woolpert 5 23 1 13.8 Connecticut '04 Jim Calhoun 6 20 1 13.33 Kentucky '98 Tubby Smith 6 27 1 13.3 Indiana '76 Bob Knight 5 20 5 13.2 Cincinnati '62 Ed Jucker 4 20 2 12.75 Duke '92 Mike Krzyzewski 6 26 1 12.5 Cincinnati '61 Ed Jucker 4 23 5 12.0 Connecticut '99 Jim Calhoun 6 25 3 11.83 Kentucky '12 John Calipari 6 16 8 11.83 Louisville '86 Denny Crum 6 20 3 11.83 Oklahoma State '46 Hank Iba 3 17 3 11.67 Holy Cross '47 Doggie Julian 3 15 8 11.33 California '59 Pete Newell 4 20 1 11.25 La Salle '54 Ken Loeffler 5 16 2 11.2 Arkansas '94 Nolan Richardson 6 19 4 11.17 Stanford '42 Everett Dean 3 15 6 10.67 Indiana '87 Bob Knight 6 34 1 10.5 Connecticut '11 Jim Calhoun 6 29 1 10.33 Michigan '89 Steve Fisher 6 37 1 9.83 Georgetown '84 John Thompson Jr. 5 14 1 9.8 Kentucky '51 Adolph Rupp 4 16 2 9.75 Louisville '80 Denny Crum 5 20 2 9.2 Kentucky '78 Joe B. Hall 5 22 3 9.0 Syracuse '03 Jim Boeheim 6 16 1 9.0 Kansas '88 Larry Brown 6 13 3 8.83 UCLA '71 John Wooden 4 18 2 8.5 North Carolina '57 Frank McGuire 5 16 1 8.4 Marquette '77 Al McGuire 5 15 1 8.0 UCLA '64 John Wooden 4 15 4 7.5 UCLA '75 John Wooden 5 14 1 7.4 Indiana '53 Branch McCracken 4 13 1 7.25 Utah '44 Vadal Peterson 3 10 2 7.0 Texas Western '66 Don Haskins 5 15 1 6.4 Wyoming '43 Everett Shelton 3 12 3 6.33 Arizona '97 Lute Olson 6 8 3 5.33 North Carolina State '83 Jim Valvano 6 19 1 5.33 Villanova '85 Rollie Massimino 6 12 2 5.0 North Carolina '82 Dean Smith 5 10 1 4.6 Wisconsin '41 Bud Foster 3 6 1 4.0 CCNY '50 Nat Holman 3 5 1 3.0
*All-time tournament record (111-42 first-round victory over Tennessee Tech).
NOTE: Fifteen teams participated in a total of 20 overtime games en route to national titles - Utah (1944), North Carolina (two triple overtime Final Four games in 1957), Cincinnati (1961), Loyola of Chicago (1963), Texas Western (two in 1966, including a double overtime), North Carolina State (double overtime in 1974), UCLA (two in 1975), Louisville (two in 1980), North Carolina State (double overtime in 1983), Michigan (1989), Duke (1992), North Carolina (1993), Arizona (two in 1997), Kentucky (1998) and Kansas (2008).