UNC and Duke are playing a version of old Pac 8 basketball.
It had UCLA, which was the dominant program in the country from the mid-1960s to John Wooden’s retirement with his tenth national championship in 1975, when there were only 32 teams in the not-so-Big Dance.
In those days, all the Bruins had to do was win two games always in their home west region to reach the Final Four and cut down the NCAA nets. UCLA was rarely on national TV with an occasional headliner against Notre Dame and other big brands at the time.
The Pac 8 was a closed regional conference, playing home-and-home weekend games with UCLA and Southern Cal, Stanford and Cal, Oregon and Oregon State, Washington and Washington State. This was before TV took over scheduling with large rights fees being paid by NBC, ABC and eventually ESPN.
For the 16 conference games, the two LA schools made weekend trips to San Francisco, Oregon and Washington and hosted the same schools on other weekends, usually Thursday or Friday nights and Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Everyone got to play UCLA at home and on the road, which was their secret sauce.
So much has happened with college expansion since then, that cool format is long gone. UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington are in the Big Ten, Stanford and Cal are in the ACC. Oregon State and Washington State are trying to figure out what to do in the years ahead.
But Duke and Carolina are playing copycats this week.
The Blue Devils are at Cal in Berkeley late Wednesday night after the Tar Heels take on Stanford in Palo Alto at 9 p.m. Duke fans aren’t happy with their 11 p.m. start against the Bears, but they get closer to prime time Saturday night against the Cardinal at 6 after the Heels face Cal at 4.
Both programs have enough money to fly out to San Francisco however and whenever they want, but you think they might be staying at in the same hotel?
On paper, they should be good games. Cal and Stanford are both 13-4 overall, but the Bears are 1-3 in the ACC a game behind Stanford (2-2). Top-ranked Duke (4-0) and No. 14 Carolina (2-1) are both solid favorites to come home with two more wins and stay near the top of the standings and the polls.
Of course, the old crows in the home crowds will remember when 7-foot giants Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton led Wooden’s almost always undefeated Bruin teams into their bandbox gyms. Neither Cal nor Stanford were ranked high in those days, prouder of their academic prowess. But Stanford does have the second-leading scorer in the ACC and Cal the No. 8 rebounder in the conference.
The Cardinal’s head coach is Kyle Smith, who came from outcast Washington State. Cal head coach Mark Madsen is a former Stanford player and assistant.
Sort of like Jon Scheyer succeeding Dean Smith? Nah!
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/J.D. Lyon, Jr.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
