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The 1968 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 23 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAADivision Icollege basketball. It began on March 9, 1968, and ended with the championship game on March 23 in Los Angeles, California. A total of 27 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.
UCLA, coached by John Wooden, won the national title with a 78–55 victory in the final game over North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith. Lew Alcindor of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player for the second of three consecutive years. This UCLA team, composed of three All-Americans, Player of the Year Alcindor, Lucius Allen, and Mike Warren, along with dead eye pure shooter Lynn Shackleford (most of his shots would be 3 pointers today) and burly senior power forward Mike Lynn is considered to be one of the greatest teams in college basketball history.
The NCAA semi-final match between the Houston Cougars and UCLA Bruins was a re-match of the college basketball Game of the Century held in January at the Astrodome, in the Cougars' home city. The match was historic, the first nationally syndicated college basketball game and the first to play in a domed stadium before more than 52,000 fans. It was UCLA's only loss in two years, a two-pointer, to the then-#2 Houston, but with UCLA's dominating center Alcindor playing with an eye injury that limited his effectiveness after being hospitalized the week before. The loss broke a 47-game winning streak for UCLA. In the March NCAA Tournament Final 4, the Bruins at full strength avenged that loss with a 101–69 drubbing of that same Houston team, now ranked #1, in UCLA's home city at the Memorial Sports Arena. UCLA limited Houston's Elvin Hayes, who was averaging 37.7 points per game but was held to only 10. Bruins coach John Wooden credited his assistant, Jerry Norman, for devising the diamond-and-one defense that contained Hayes.
This would be the last year of the 23 team field, as the field would stay at 25 teams for the next six seasons until the expansion of the field to 32 teams in the 1975 tournament.
Four teams - East Tennessee State, Florida State, New Mexico and Weber State - made their tournament debuts. Weber State would return to the tournament for five consecutive seasons; Florida State and New Mexico would not return until 1972 and 1974, respectively; and East Tennessee State would not return for 21 seasons, until 1989.
Two teams - Bowling Green and Columbia - made their most recent tournament appearances in this tournament. They are tied for the third longest active drought behind Tennessee Tech (1963) and Dartmouth (1959), and are currently tied for the fourth longest drought all-time, after Tennessee Tech, Dartmouth and Harvard (1946–2012, 66 years).
References
Esper, Dwain (March 25, 1968). "Bruins Hope Norman Stays". The Independent. Pasadena, California. p. 15. Retrieved July 22, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
Gasaway, John (June 7, 2010). "John Wooden's Century". Basketball Prospectus. Archived from the original on July 23, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
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