Nostalgia Regarding Indiana/Kentucky NCAA Tournament Games

The second round win by Indiana vs Kentucky received relatively little publicity considering the magnitude of college basketball in each state and the history involving the two universities.

Only U.C.L.A. with 11 titles has more than Kentucky which has won 8. Next is a three way tie among Indiana and two North Carolina teams, defending champion, Duke and North Carolina.

When I think of Kentucky/Indiana, I recall a 1975 regional final game when Kentucky upset an undefeated Indiana team some say was as talented or more so than their undefeated title team a year later.

The great sportscaster Marv Albert and the great player Jerry Lucas were the announcers for that tilt.

More history and I guess nostalgia: After Kentucky beat Syracuse in one national “semi,” and Richard Washington’s shot lifted U.C.L.A. over Louisville, the great U.C.L.A. coach John Wooden announced the title game vs Kentucky would be his last.

His team sent him out as the greatest winner in college sports history beating Kentucky for an incredible 10th title in 12 seasons.

Richard Washington, pictured above, hit a last second shot to lift U.C.L.A. to a victory over Louisville in the 1975 NCAA semi-finals. Then the Bruins as U.C.L.A. is called, defeated Kentucky giving their legendary coach John Wooden his 10th title in 12 seasons, in his last game.

On some level, I can still hear my father applauding and surely I hear Coach Wooden’s well pronounced and so meaningful “sorry,” when I told him of my father’s recent death, just before I interviewed him in 1994.