Basketball fans miss the NCAA basketball tournament partly because of the anticipation of upsets and Cinderella runs to the Sweet 16 by double-digit seed underdogs.
One of the biggest David over Goliath wins came in the 1977 tourney when unheralded Idaho State took down No.2 powerhouse UCLA, 76-75.
But let me lay the groundwork for how such a game even came about in the West Region semifinals.
Back then, there was no prime-time coverage of the entire tournament. The field was set at 32 teams and at large bids were hard to come by. In 1977, only 18 of the Top 20 ranked teams received an invitation.
Eleventh-ranked Alabama did not play (No. 15 Tennessee was the only other Southeast Conference team to make the field besides No. 3 Kentucky) and No. 15 Minnesota was snubbed (No. 1 Michigan and unranked Purdue represented the Big 10). Conference tournaments were the exception, not the rule.
Idaho State, despite it’s 23-4 record, was largely unknown nationally. ESPN was a couple of years away from launching, so the lowly Big Sky Conference was rarely on television east of the Continental Divide. Further, the Bengals had started the season a mediocre 2-3.
UCLA (23-4) was still considered a dynasty, even two years after the retirement of legendary John Wooden. The roster was dotted with future NBA players such as David Greenwood, Marques Johnson and Kiki Vandeweghe.
Idaho State began the tournament by defeating Long Beach State, 83-72, and the powerful Bruins dispatched Louisville, 87-79, to set up the seeming uneven matchup.
The Bengals main weapon was 7-foot center, Steve Hayes. But unbeknownst at the time, Idaho State also had a few NBA players on its roster. Besides Hayes, Greg Griffin, Ed Thompson and Jeff Cook were drafted and played in the pros.
The game was played at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah so many in the crowd were from places much closer to Pocatello, Idaho than to Westwood, California. Plus, the underdog was a favorite in tournaments then even as now, especially against established giants like UCLA.
Many probably thought that Idaho State was doing well by trailing just 38-32 at halftime and expected that the Bruins would pull away in the second half. Few aside from Bengals’ coach Jim Killingsworth and his players thought there was an upset in the making.
Hayes proved to be a matchup nightmare even for the athletic Bruins, scoring a game-high 27 points. Thompson finished with 14, Griffin 12 and Cook 8. But it was a freshman, Ernie Wheeler, who hit four straight free throws down the stretch — his only points of the game — to hold off UCLA once Idaho State got the lead late.
Idaho State advanced to the Elite 8 where the Bengals fell to No. 4 ranked UNLV, 107-90. The coach turned back into a pumpkin for Idaho State, but what a ride it had been.
Ironically, I saw Idaho State play in person at the old Marshall Invitational Tournament in Huntington, West Virginia in December 1976. The Bengals’ third loss of the young season came to host Marshall in overtime in the championship game. Little did I know then that this team would make NCAA tournament history.
The upset of UCLA effectively ended the Wooden dynasty as the Bruins would not make another Final Four until 1995. Coach Gene Bartow left to help start up the athletic program at Alabama Birmingham, serving as its first coach.
Killingsworth took the head coaching job at Oklahoma State and the Idaho State program has never had a season like the 1977 miracle since.
The NCAA expanded the tournament field to 48 in 1980 and to 64 in 1985, establishing the basis for the format we have known for the past 35 years.
Still, few outcomes have shocked the college basketball world more than Idaho State taking down mighty UCLA.