NCAA Basketball: North Carolina the worst preseason No. 1 team of all time

11. 1965-66 UCLA

There has never been and likely will never be a more dominant run in college basketball than John Wooden’s UCLA program in the 60’s and early 70’s. In a span of twelve seasons, the Bruins won ten national championships and had two of the greatest college players of all time on some of those rosters. In the fall of 1965, the Bruins were coming off a second straight title, but Lew Alcindor was still just on the freshman team. That season would not go the Bruins’ way, the only time in a ten-year stretch when they didn’t dominate the Big Dance.

The names on this UCLA squad aren’t known throughout America some sixty years later, but they had plenty of talent from those two early titles. Junior forward Mike Lynn and sophomore guard Mike Warren would both average at least 16 points per game, with Lynn averaging a double-double as the team’s tallest player. In addition, three other upperclassmen all averaged at least 13 points per game: forwards Edgar Lacey and Kenny Washington and guard Freddie Goss. Throw in decent contributions from senior center Doug McIntosh and you had a team that many expected would make waves in the NCAA Tournament again.

Instead, the Bruins got smashed twice early in the season by Duke and spent a good chunk of the season outside of the national ranking, then just a Top 10 poll. The Bruins wound up losing eight games over the course of the season and despite winning their final four contests found themselves left out of the NCAA Tournament, having not won the AAWU title.

Only 22 teams made that Big Dance, including eventual storybook champion Texas Western, with a UCLA team without a future NBA player falling just short. This was the only season between 1963 and 1973 that UCLA did not win the national championship, let alone miss the Tournament.