The Final Four is now set between the Florida Gators, Ohio State Buckeyes, UCLA Bruins and the Georgetown Hoyas. The defending champion Florida Gators will get a chance to become the first repeat champion since the Duke Blue Devils in 1991 and 1992. Since we could possibly have a repeat champion on our hands I thought it’s only fitting that we take a look back at all of the repeat champions in the NCAA Tournament history.
It didn’t take long after the inaugural NCAA Tournament to find the first repeat champion. In the seventh year of the NCAA Tournament’s existence the Oklahoma A&M; Aggies would win the first of their back to back championships. The Aggies were led by coach Henry Iba. Iba coached a team that had outstanding ball control and did a lot of weaving patterns. The Aggies also had a great defense called “the swinging gate”. The best player on the Aggies was Bob Kurland. Kurland was the first seven foot player to ever play in college basketball. The Aggies would defeat NYU to win the 1945 National Championship and they would beat North Carolina to win the 1946 National Championship. The Oklahoma A&M; Aggies are now the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
It didn’t take very long for another back to back champion to arise. In 1948 the Kentucky Wildcats would win their first National Championship. It wouldn’t be the last as they won the following year. The 1948 and 1949 Kentucky Wildcats were lead by Adolph Rupp, one of the most legendary coaches in college basketball history. Rupp was dubbed the “Baron of the Bluegrass.” Rupp was known for recruiting a lot of local talent in the state of Kentucky and his teams won with a very tight man-to-man defense that would cause turnovers and fast breaks in the other direction. Adolph Rupp would later win two more National Champions and 27 SEC Championships before retiring. Kentucky would go on to win another three National Championships after Adolph Rupp.
In 1955 and 1956 the University of San Francisco was the third college basketball team to win back to back championships. The University of San Francisco was coached by Phil Woolpert. In 1955 San Francisco defeated LaSalle 77 – 63 and in 1956 San Francisco defeated Iowa 83 – 71. The University of San Francisco was led by Bill Russell. Russell won the Most Outstanding Player in the 1955 tournament and made the All-Tournament team in 1956.
It was just five years before another back to back champion came along. In 1961 the Cincinnati Bearcats would capture the National Championship after a 70 – 65 win against Ohio State. Carl Bouldin and BobWiesenhahn led Cincinnati to the win with 34 points and 10 rebounds each in the final two games. The following year Cincinnati would win again despite losing both Bouldin and Wisenhahn. Cincinnati once again faced Ohio State in the finals but this time beat them 71 – 59 behind 22 points from Paul Hogue and another 21 from Tom Thacker.
In 1964 the legendary John Wooden would take the UCLA Bruins on a ride like no other basketball program has ever experienced. John Wooden won his first NCAA National Champion in 1964 after his Bruins defeated the Duke Blue Devils 98 – 83. The victory was lead by Gail Goodrich who scored 27 points and Kenny Washington who scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. In 1967 the Bruins won the National Championship again, this time with a win over the Michigan Wolverines 91 – 80. Gail Goodrich again was UCLA’s leading scoring as he scored 42 points in the championship game.
After Texas Western won the National Championship in 1966 UCLA would also be the next team to win back to back championships. This time the Bruins didn’t settle for two championships in a row though. Instead, John Wooden and his UCLA Bruins reeled off seven consecutive National Championships from 1967 to 1973. The first three championships were largely because of Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.) The 1970 championship team was well rounded as Curtis Rowe, Steve Patterson, Sidney Wicks, and John Vallely all pitched in 15 points or more in the National Championship game. In 1972 another big man, Bill Walton would become the big reason for UCLA’s success. When it was all said and done the UCLA Bruins had won nine National Championships in ten seasons.
In 1991 Mike Krzyzewski, or “Coach K” would win his first of three National Championships. In the 1991 NCAA Tournament the Blue Devils upset UNLV in the Semi Finals then defeated Kansas in the Finals 72 – 65. The Blue Devils were led by Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill. The following season was the season where the famous Christian Laettner game winning shot against Kentucky took place. Kentucky got past Kentucky in overtime in the Regional Finals then took out Indiana in the Semifinals and then defeated Chris Webber and the Fab Five in the Finals.
Over the years the NCAA Tournament has gotten much harder to win. Back when Oklahoma A&M; won back to back championships for the first time the NCAA Tournament was only made of 8 teams. As the number of teams increased it got much more difficult to survive the whole tournament. When the UCLA teams made their incredible run the tournament was up to 24 teams. It wasn’t until 1975 that NCAA Tournament increased to 32 teams and it wasn’t raised to 64 teams in 1984. The increase in teams may be the reason why the biggest drought in back to back championships is between UCLA in the 70’s and Duke in the 90’s. Only Duke has won back to back championships in a 64 team NCAA tournament.
Now with the overall amount of talent getting better and with the emergence of good mid major teams it is getting increasingly harder and harder to repeat as NCAA Tournament victors. The current drought is the second longest, just a few years behind the gap between UCLA and Duke. The Florida Gators are the best shot at seeing a repeat champion. They not only won the Championship last year, but they won it in convincing fashion and brought back their entire team. If the Florida Gators don’t repeat, the drought between back to back champions could go twenty years, thirty years or even longer.
