UCLA Bruins End Perfect Season

On March 21, 1964, the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team beat Duke by a score of 98-83 to win the NCAA Division I championship, and complete their perfect 30-0 season.

John Wooden (center) with the 1964 NCAA Champions UCLA Bruins.

At the time, the Bruins became only the forth team in NCAA men’s basketball history to record a perfect season.  The other three were the 1953-54 Kentucky Wildcats, the 1955-56 San Francisco Dons and the 1956-57 North Carolina Tar Heels.  The win was just the start of head coach John Wooden’s wonderful run at UCLA that would see him win 10 NCAA championships over the next 12 years, and earn the nickname as “The Wizard at Westwood.”

Since the Bruins’ perfect 1963-64 season, five more teams have record undefeated seasons, however, three of those were UCLA teams from Wooden’s era.  The other two were recorded by North Carolina State in 1972-73 and Indiana in 1975-76.

UCLA has since gone on to win 10 more NCAA Tournaments including eight straight from 1967-1973, with their last win coming in 1995.

They were the NCAA Tournament runner up in 1980 and 2006. They reached the Final Four 18 times, including a 10-year span where they went every year; 1967-1976. Their last appearance came in 2011, when they were making their first appearance since consecutive appearances from 2006-2008. However, the UCLA Bruins are in the back in the mix again this year as they take on Tulsa tonight.

The Bruins have reached the NCAA Tournament 46 times since 1950, including 20 straight years from 1962-1981.

NCAA Selection Sunday

On March 7, 1982, that the NCAA Tournament Selection, also known as Selection Sunday, was first broadcast on live television.  Since then, a live broadcast of the event, which takes place the weekend before the tournament begins, has been used to inform each school of whether they have made it into the tournament, and where they will be seeded.

Both CBS and ESPN televise the selection process, however, CBS owns the official rights to cover the selection of the men’s tournament field as they broadcast the vast majority of the games.  What will happen, as a result, is CBS will announce each bracket first, followed by ESPN only seconds later.

The selection process for College basketball's NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships determines which teams (68 men's, 64 women's) will enter the tournaments (the centerpieces of the basketball championship frenzy known as "March Madness") and their seedings and matchups in the knockout bracket. Thirty-one teams gain automatic entry through winning their conference's championship (commonly through winning a conference tournament or, in the sole case of the Ivy League, the regular season title).

The remaining teams (37 men's, 33 women's) rely on the selection committee to award them an at-large bid in the tournament.

The selection process primarily takes place on Selection Sunday and the days leading up to it; Selection Sunday is also when the brackets and seeds are released to the public. (The women's championship brackets and seeds are announced one day later, on Selection Monday.)

The ten-member basketball selection committee is made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners throughout Division I men's and women's basketball. (There are separate committees for the Division I men's and women's tournaments.)

The committee, whose members serve 5-year terms, is chosen to ensure that conferences from around the country, both major and mid-major conferences, are represented. Generally the men's selection committee consists of all men, and the women's selection committee consists of all women, although there have been exceptions, including Lynn Hickey (see below), who is the 2nd woman to sit on the men's committee (after Charlotte athletic director Judy Rose, who served from 1999-2003), and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference commissioner Richard Ensor, who serves on the women's committee. The tournament selection is only part of the committee members' duties; the panel meets year-round (in-person or through conference calls) to discuss the tournament and its administration, evaluate teams, assign tournament game officials, and determine future tournament sites.

To avoid a potential conflict of interest, committee members must leave the room when their own school is being discussed--or schools in the case of the conference commissioners. The member may be invited to answer factual questions regarding their team (e.g. status of player injuries). An athletic director may be present when other schools from his or her conference are discussed, but he or she may only speak if asked.

The selection committee must first decide which teams will compete in the tournament. Thirty teams receive automatic bids to the tournament by winning their conference tournament; a thirty-first team gains automatic entry by winning the Ivy League's regular-season championship (as that conference does not conduct a championship tournament).

The only teams the selection committee selects are the 37 teams (33 for women) who receive at-large bids. Though each conference receives only one automatic bid, the selection committee can select any number of at-large teams from each conference. The at-large teams generally come from college basketball's top conferences, including the ACC, Atlantic-10, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac-12, and SEC. Many of these at-large teams, however, are "on the bubble," meaning their chances of gaining a tournament berth are borderline, and they will not know if they have gained entry until they see their name during the Selection Sunday bracket announcements.

A number of teams essentially know that they are assured of an at-large berth no matter their performance in their conference tournament. Most teams in the Top 25 in the national polls or RPI are essentially guaranteed at-large berths even if they do not win their respective conference tournament.

However, teams that have been ranked heading into Selection Sunday, but didn't win their conference tournament, have been left out (or "snubbed") by the selection committee despite what the polls and pundits may say. The Missouri Valley Conference has received the most snubs (5 RPI top 40 teams excluded), with Missouri State left out each of the last 9 years, despite RPI's of 21, 34, and 36). Another famous snub was in 2004, when Utah State completed the regular season with a record of 25-2 but was snubbed after losing in its conference tournament, even though it was ranked in the polls at the time.

Selection Sunday this year in March 16.

Inside Warriors Media Day

OAKLAND, Calif. – Last Friday, Sept. 27, 2013, the Golden State Warriors hosted their Media Day at the team’s practice facility in down town Oakland.

GEROME WRIGHT / Courtesy
Golden State Warriors players Andre Iguodala (left) and Klay Thompson (right) talked to media during the teams media day on Friday, Sept. 27, 2013.

The biggest story however wasn’t about the offseason acquisition of super star Andre Iguodala; it was over the undrafted free agent Seth Curry, younger brother of Warriors star guard Stephen Curry.

GEROME WRIGHT / Courtesy
Golden State Warriors guards and brothers Steph (left) and Seth Curry were in jerseys for the Warriors media day on Friday, Sept. 27, 2013.

The two brothers, sons of former NBA three-point sniper Dell Curry, look to be on the floor together when the Warriors suit up for the first game of the season come Wednesday, Oct. 30 when the Warriors host the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I don't think the Warriors would sign him if they didn't think so either," said Steph Curry. "Maybe they paid more attention to him because he's my brother, but nobody's going to throw money and an opportunity at somebody if they don't think he's got an opportunity to make the team out of camp and help the team down the road."

When healthy, the younger Curry, Seth is just as good a shooter as Steph, although the billing might be hard to fit. In his final season at Duke, the senior, Seth averaged 17.5 points on 46.5 percent shooting from the field.

His brother Steph, in his final season at Davidson, as a junior, averaged 28.6 points on 45.4 shooting.
While the numbers look different in terms of scoring, older brother Steph was the main option at Davidson whereas younger brother Seth was one of a few options under Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.

Seth, who likely would have been drafted if he opted for an earlier surgery date, has no regrets on waiting until after the season was done.

"It was definitely disappointing," said Seth Curry. "The biggest thing was just not being able to go through the draft process. It was tough because I had surgery right after the season. I wasn't able to get in front of teams and work out and compete against guys in my draft class. But it was out of my control."

However, Seth will be looking to fill one of just a few open spots on the Warriors roster. With Kent Bazemore back, recently acquired free agent Toney Douglas in the mix, and drafted Nemanja Nedovic in the running too, Seth will have his hands full.

However if Seth doesn’t make the Golden State roster, the road might not take him too far, as the Warriors NBA D-League affiliate is in Santa Cruz, Calif.