Tag: Bill Walton

How it happened: Ducks upset No. 12 UCLA 68-63, keep tournament hopes alive

Two meetings, two upset victories over the UCLA Bruins. Not a bad night for the Oregon Ducks.

It’s pretty hard to argue against the notion that Oregon gets up for big games now, isn’t it?

Yet again, faced against tougher competition with No. 12 UCLA in town, the Ducks pulled off the upset and left Matthew Knight Arena with a 68-63 win. It was a victory that was much-needed for Oregon’s waning NCAA tournament chances, but kept them alive with three games left on the schedule.

It was a pair of transfers who got the job done for the Ducks, with De’Vion Harmon and Jacob Young leading the way down the stretch. Both came up clutch at the end of the game and were able to hit their free throws to close it out.

Here’s how all of the action played out:

Notre Dame celebrates anniversary of historic win over UCLA

Who remembers this?

With no game scheduled for Wednesday, Notre Dame is taking time to look back at arguably the program’s finest moment. When UCLA entered South Bend on Jan. 19, 1974, it had won a record 88 straight games as well as the past seven national championships. With the John Wooden-coached Bruins being led on the court by future Hall of Famers Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes, there was little reason to think this game would be any different from the recent past. Instead, the second-ranked Irish decided enough was enough:

The victory catapulted the Irish into the top ranking for the first and only time that season, but nobody thinks about that. What they do think about is the Irish took down a powerhouse, and those who were alive for it have fond memories to this day. Also, who wouldn’t storm the Joyce Center court after that? Hopefully one day, there will be a moment that will surpass that, like a national title.

Which Boston Celtics centers populate HoopsHype’s estimate of the best to play the game at the 5?

The Celtics check in with seven alumni among HoopsHype’s recent list of the 20 greatest centers in NBA history.

The center position may have lost some of its luster in the NBA of today, with it often being seen as perhaps the most replaceable position after decades of the five being among or even the most important position in the sport.

And with a team as storied as the Boston Celtics are, you have to think that any list of the sport’s top centers in league history has to be peppered with quite a few Celtics alumni. Such an assessment would be a solid one, given a recent such list published by our sister site HoopsHype to highlight the 20 greatest centers of all time was populated by seven former Boston big men.

Let’s take a look at the players so honored.

Gameday Picks: Lee Corso, Bill Walton and crew make picks for Oregon vs. UCLA

Everyone on the ESPN College Gameday crew picked the UCLA Bruins to upset the No. 10 Oregon Ducks, including Bill Walton and Lee Corso.

Is it still an upset if the home team is technically the betting favorite?

Regardless of how you stand there, the UCLA Bruins were getting some love from the pickers at ESPN’s College Gameday on Saturday morning, being picked to upset the No. 10 Oregon Ducks by everyone on the crew.

Lee Corso, who has had a loving relationship with Oregon’s mascot Puddles over the years, picked the Bruins, saying that it was “strictly business” and he still loved the Duck.

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Here is how the rest of the crew decided to go when asked their opinions:

We will see if the guesses can come true, or if the Ducks will start to turn around their season and put a better product on the field to kick off the second half of the year.

Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m. PT on ABC.

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College Gameday Staff Predicts Notre Dame-USC

Are you a fan of the Bill Walton act?

The College Gameday crew spent the Saturday morning of Notre Dame-USC in Los Angeles.  It’s just that the Irish and Trojans play in South Bend tonight while UCLA hosts Oregon this evening, which was the reason for the location.

UCLA basketball legend Bill Walton was there as the celebrity picker as he sported his UCLA football shirt.  Who did he and the rest of the College Gameday staff pick to win tonight’s rivalry game between Notre Dame and USC?

Fan Vote:  Notre Dame 85%

Desmond Howard: Notre Dame

Bill Walton:  USC

Lee Corso:  Notre Dame

Kirk Herbstreit:  Notre Dame

Howard noted the weather (37-degrees now forecasted) being a factor while Herbstreit says he’s most looking forward to Notre Dame’s secondary taking on Drake London.  Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET and can seen on NBC.

Related:

Fighting Irish Wire and Trojans Wire staff predictions for tonight

Notre Dame-USC: Fun facts about epic rivalry

College Football Experts Predict Notre Dame-USC outcome

ESPN FPI projects each remaining Notre Dame game, including USC

NBA continues reveal of 75 greatest player list; 7 Boston Celtics represented

The storied franchise is well-represented on the 75th-anniversary list.

The Boston Celtics continue among the best-represented teams on the NBA’s commemorative list of the 75 greatest players in as many years. The league is publishing the list as part of the hype of it reaching the three-quarter century mark, and it is doing so in three 25-player bursts.

On the second day of the league’s celebratory listmaking reveal, the Celtics find themselves with seven players selected from their historic rosters. Boston dominated the 50th-anniversary list a quarter-century ago and seems poised to have a similar proportion of players once the whole list has been released.

Let’s take a look at which Celtics made the second 25-player list.

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 5

This is every player in Boston’s history who wore the Celtics’ No. 5 jersey for at least one game.

The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.

In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack in some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history, with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.

Today’s installment focuses on the 21 players who wore No. 5 over the years.

What Celtics from the NBA’s 50th anniversary All-Time list might not make the 75th?

A number of those who made the cut 25 years ago might not make the NBA’s 75th-anniversary list.

With the arrival of the NBA’s and the Boston Celtics‘ 75th anniversary season comes the expansion of the list of the 50 greatest players in NBA history released for the league’s commemorations festivities for hitting its half-century mark of existence.

As one might expect, the new list will have 75 players representing the NBA’s best players over the course of its 75 years of history. But there is no guarantee that having made it in at the 50-year mark means that a player will make it onto this expanded list. In fact, there are a number of Celtics who are in danger of being cut in light of previous snubs and more recent achievements.

Let’s take a look at who might not make the cut of the Boston players who populated the 50th-anniversary list.

How many of the NBA’s official 50 greatest in 1996 were Boston Celtics?

In 1996, the NBA released a list of its 50 greatest players up to that year to celebrate as many years of play as a league. Can you guess them all?

In 1996, the NBA decided to assemble a panel of 50 players, media members, and team representatives in total to select the 50 greatest players of the league’s first 50 years on the anniversary of the NBA’s first season of 1946-47.

The league again plans to assemble a similar list to honor the 75th anniversary of its foundation in 2021, but before we begin to speculate which alumni of the Boston Celtics will be added to the list, let’s take a look at the old one. Dominated by names once populating the championship eras of the team from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, a total of 14 of the NBA’s 50 greatest players once donned the green and white.

Let’s review who made the cut, and when they were Celtics.

The Pac-12’s dominant showing in March Madness desperately needs Bill Walton

Make it happen!

Among the weirdest developments from the first weekend of the men’s NCAA Tournament was that the Pac-12 suddenly became an unstoppable force in college basketball.

The conference had five teams to make the Big Dance, and come Tuesday, four of those teams — USC, UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State — are off to the Sweet 16. Only Colorado, which lost in the second round to Florida State, suffered a loss for the Pac-12.

It’s all crazy, considering for much of the season season, we heard about how the Big Ten was college basketball’s best, deepest, most talented conference. Nine teams from the Big Ten secured bids to the men’s NCAA Tournament. All are done except for Michigan.

But as we approach a Sweet 16 that will have a very Pac-12 vibe to it, the Turner/CBS coverage wouldn’t feel right without the Pac-12’s biggest fan: Bill Walton.

Well, we might be in luck depending on how you read into Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott’s remarks to The Los Angeles Times.

https://twitter.com/latbbolch/status/1374473695549263874

Scott had the “sneaking suspicion” that CBS or Turner would reach out to the ESPN commentator and basketball Hall of Famer. While Walton’s quirky and hyperbolic commentating style isn’t for everyone, his appreciation for Pac-12 basketball is undeniable. He continues to call the league the “Conference of Champions” despite it going 24 years without a men’s basketball championship.

And nothing could break the tension of Sweet 16 games quite like this commentary:

Again, it’s unclear what exactly Scott meant there as CBS and Turner have already set their announcing teams for the Sweet 16. It could be along the lines of a studio-show appearance or a game-broadcast cameo. But we do hope they can work something out, especially for the all-Pac-12, Oregon-USC matchup.

The Pac-12’s showing this March deserves it.

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