Texas Western didn't take advantage....

CloverforkCat

Junior
Jun 3, 2013
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of their winning the NC in 1966, they went 22-6 the next season with practically the entire roster back. They made the NCAA tourney, but lost to Pacific 72-63 in the West region semi's.
In fact their NCAA tourney appearances have been few and fairly far between !
 

mjj_2K

All-American
Jul 11, 2010
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College basketball was totally different back then, vastly more regional than it is now. Add in segregation, and an unstated quota system at many of the large schools that weren't segregated, and you had a situation where schools without a ton of resources could pop up from nowhere and become powers for a year or a small period of time. San Francisco wasn't much before Bill Russell, neither was Cincinnati before the Big O. It's not a coincidence that the 60's through the early 70's saw a ton of schools make FF's who didn't have huge athletic programs- Cincinnati, Loyola, Wichita State, Texas Western, Houston, Drake, Jacksonville, St. Bonaventure, New Mexico State, Western Kentucky. And a big, big part of UCLA's ascent was that they were probably the first school with significant resources that was able to recruit great black players on a national level.

Texas Western was a little regional school that hit the jackpot. They never had the resources to sustain that, and it's not a coincidence that they aren't in a power 5 conference now.
 
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CloverforkCat

Junior
Jun 3, 2013
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College basketball was totally different back then, vastly more regional than it is now. Add in segregation, and an unstated quota system at many of the large schools that weren't segregated, and you had a situation where schools without a ton of resources could pop up from nowhere and become powers for a year or a small period of time. San Francisco wasn't much before Bill Russell, neither was Cincinnati before the Big O. It's not a coincidence that the 60's through the early 70's saw a ton of schools make FF's who didn't have huge athletic programs- Cincinnati, Loyola, Wichita State, Texas Western, Houston, Drake, Jacksonville, St. Bonaventure, New Mexico State, Western Kentucky. And a big, big part of UCLA's ascent was that they were probably the first school with significant resources that was able to recruit great black players on a national level.

Texas Western was a little regional school that hit the jackpot. They never had the resources to sustain that, and it's not a coincidence that they aren't in a power 5 conference now.
Loyola, out of Chicago won the NC in 1963 starting 4 black players. This IMO steals a lot of thunder from Texas Western.
 

TopCatCal

Heisman
Dec 10, 2012
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After watching a replay on ESPN I thought I was watching a Duke game considering the number of free-throws Texas-Western shot. No wonder we didn't win!
 

uk78_rivals88018

All-American
Feb 6, 2003
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I told you....refs (LOL). Actually, to me it wasn't that different than our team this year in terms of a good shooting team but lacked a strong inside presence. So many of the fouls which were correct were due to Texas Western having better interior players and could grab rebounds or take it to the basket and Kentucky had to foul to compete.