A Slight Case Of Being Superhuman

At least that's what everybody thought, including Walton, who, with about 17 minutes left and a 20-point lead, shouted to Wooden, "Hey, how about taking off the press?" When the Bruins did, they relaxed. Walton committed two quick fouls (his third and fourth) and with him on the bench the team proceeded to exhibit some of the worst basketball any UCLA team has played since before the pompon was invented.

During one four-minute period the Bruins abandoned cohesion, lost poise, forced shots, incurred three-second penalties and committed a throw-in violation and a technical foul. At the same time UCLA was failing to score, Indiana's Quinn Buckner stopped throwing air balls, John Ritter hit outside and Downing was strong inside. The result? The Hoosiers scored an astonishing 17 straight points to come to 54-51.

Then, with 9:24 left, Walton, back in the game and wheeling across the lane, collided with Downing as the thunder rolled. Referee Joe Shosid raised his arm for the obvious foul—Walton for charging or Downing for blocking?—and pointed...at Downing. It was his fourth foul and when he went out of the game with his fifth shortly afterward most of the battle went out of the Hoosiers. Through the stretch, freshmen Jim Crews and Buckner were picked apart by Curtis and Larry Hollyfield as UCLA pulled away to win 70-59.

Indiana will always wonder what would have happened if Shosid's call had gone against Walton, if the tall redhead had left the game and Downing had remained. Wooden said UCLA would have won anyway. Knight, unconvinced, mentioned his team had taken 14 more shots than UCLA, committed six fewer turnovers and that Downing had outscored Walton 26-14.

Memphis had reached the climax with a 98-85 victory over Providence that contained drama, intrigue, heartbreak and a wonderful little order of fettucini on the side.

The noodles were provided by Ernie DiGregorio, who had whiplashed the Friars from the East to a 27-2 record. Upon arrival in St. Louis, Ernie D expressed confidence that Providence would be the one to finally knock off UCLA. Then he put on a sweat suit and ran all the way from his hotel down Market Street to the Arch and back.

Two days later DiGregorio nearly ran Memphis State out of the tournament in the first half with an assortment of quick shots, lob bomb passes and behind-the-back assists. When Providence went to the dressing room at intermission the Friars held a 49-40 lead, and DiGregorio was responsible for 18 of their 22 baskets. But Ernie did not go inside. Instead, he paced impatiently down the corridor, furious that Bad Marvin Barnes, the Friars' dominating post man, had suffered a dislocated knee early in the half and looked unable to continue.

Suddenly Providence Coach Dave Gavitt, who had worried beforehand that Memphis "had three Marvins," did not have even one himself. When play resumed Kenon and Robinson, recognizing that Marvin was starvin' on the bench, dominated the rebounds. Finch started scoring more and the three players roused Memphis to pass the Friars.

DiGregorio, who had to do everything now and got scoring help only from Fran Costello, rushed his shots, began to tire and soon was flailing for air. Though he finished with 32 points, he missed 12 of 19 shots in the second half and failed to record an assist.

Barnes finally persuaded Gavitt to let him back in the game with six minutes to go—and he did score a courageous fast-break basket to cut the lead to one point—but he was hobbling too much to be any kind of a match for Dr. K and Big Cat.