The UCLA All-Time Basketball Team: Who Made the Cut?

We take a look at the UCLA All-Time basketball team and see who made the cut.

UCLA All-Time Basketball team Who Made the Cut?

UCLA has a long and storied history in college basketball The Bruins have won 11 National Championships and produced countless All-Americans and NBA Stars With so much talent to choose from, who makes the cut for the all-time UCLA basketball team?

For this exercise, we will focus on the modern ERA of UCLA Basketball which began with the hiring of Head Coach John Wooden in 1948. Coach Wooden led the Bruins to 10 national championships in 12 years, cementing UCLA as one of the premier programs in college basketball

We will select a starting five and two bench players from among the many Great players who have donned a UCLA uniform. The criteria for selection are as follows:

-The player must have played for UCLA during the modern era (1948-present)
-The player must have been an All-American or won an NCAA championship while at UCLA
-The player’s individual accomplishments must outweigh his contribution to team success

With those criteria in mind, let’s take a look at the all-time UCLA basketball team

The All-Time Starting Five

When it comes to choosing the all-time starting five for the UCLA men’s Basketball team there are a few things to take into consideration. First, only players who have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame can be considered. Secondly, only players who played for at least two seasons can be considered. Lastly, the players must have played their College Basketball careers at UCLA. With those parameters in mind, here is UCLA’s all-time starting five.

Point Guard: Earvin “Magic” Johnson
Although he only played two seasons at UCLA, Magic Johnson is one of the greatest players in College Basketball history. He was a first-team All-American in both of his seasons and led the Bruins to an NCAA Championship in his freshman year. He was also named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four in both of his years at UCLA.

Shooting Guard: Reggie Miller
Reggie Miller is one of the greatest pure shooters in NBA history and he honed his skills while playing four years at UCLA. He is second on UCLA’s all-time scoring list with 2,560 points and he also holds the record for most three-pointers made in a career with 344. He was a first-team All-American in 1987 and led the Bruins to four straight NCAA tournament appearances.

Small Forward: Bill Walton
Bill Walton is one of the most decorated players in college basketball history and he did most of his damage during his three years at UCLA. He is UCLA’s all-time leader in rebounds with 1,370 and he also holds the record for most blocked shots in a season with 143. He was a three-time first-team All-American and led the Bruins to two NCAA Championships while being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four both years.

Power Forward: Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar)
Lew Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he converted to Islam but we will refer to him by his birth name for this exercise. Alcindor was simply dominant during his three years at UCLA, averaging 26.4 points and 15 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 60 percent from the field. He was a three-time first-team All-American and led UCLA to three straight NCAA Championships while being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four all three years. Alcindor finished his career as UCLA’s All-time leading scorer with 2,325 points and he also holds the record for most blocks in a career with 311.

The All-Time Bench Players

The all-time bench players for the UCLA basketball team are:

G: Mo Williams
G/F: Richard Jefferson
F: Travis Knight
C: Jelani McCoy

The All-Time Coaches

When building an all-time team, you have to start with the man in charge. UCLA has had some of the greatest Basketball Coaches of all time. Here are the top three.

John Wooden is easily the most famous college basketball coach of all time. He won an incredible 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, including an unprecedented 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973. His teams also holds the record for the longest Winning Streak in NCAA history, at 88 games.

Jim Harrick led UCLA to a National Championship in 1995, the school’s first in over 20 years. He is also one of only two coaches to have won both an NCAA title and a National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championship.

Ben Howland took over as head coach in 2003 and led UCLA to 3 straight Final Fours from 2006 to 2008. He is UCLA’s second-winningest coach of all time, behind only John Wooden

The All-Time Greatest Moments

When it comes to college basketball there are some seriously iconic moments. Just thinking about them gets us all fired up for the upcoming season!

And while we could list dozens of amazing players and clutch performances, we wanted to focus on the moments that truly made history. These are the games, plays, and upsets that left their mark on the sport forever.

So without further ado, here are the all-time greatest moments in UCLA Basketball history!

The All-Time Rivalries

The best basketball teams not only have great players but also intense rivalries. The UCLA Bruins have had some of the best rivalries in college basketball Here are some of their most intense rivals.

The Kentucky Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins have been two of the most successful college basketball programs of all time. They have met a total of 27 times, with Kentucky holding a 17-10 lead in the series. However, UCLA has won the last two meetings, including a 97-92 victory in December 2014. These two programs have produced some of the greatest players and coaches in college basketball history and their rivalry is one of the most intense in all of sports.

The USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins are two of the most successful collegiate athletics programs in history. They compete in a variety of sports, but their Greatest Rivalry is in men’s basketball. The Trojans hold a slight edge in the all-time series, but the Bruins have won four out of the last five meetings. The intensity of this rivalry was on full display when USC Head Coach Kevin O’Neill got into a shouting match with UCLA Head coach Ben Howland on January 4, 2013.

The Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins were two of the dominant forces in college basketball during the 1990s and early 2000s. They met a total of 12 times between 1996 and 2005, with Arizona winning eight of those meetings. However, UCLA won the last meeting between these two programs, which was also one of the most memorable games in recent College Basketball history. On March 24, 2002, Arizona beat UCLA 96-93 in overtime to win their first-ever NCAA Tournament title.

The All-Time Record Holders

The UCLA All-Time basketball team is a selection of the best players in the history of the sport at the University of California Los Angeles The team was selected by a panel of experts assembled by ESPN in 2008. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time.

The team is made up of 12 players, all of whom have had their jersey numbers retired by UCLA. They are:

-Bill Walton
-Wilt Chamberlain
-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
-Oscar Robertson
-Jerry West
-Sidney Wicks
– Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
-Gail Goodrich
-Toby Kimball
-Cazzie Russell
-Neal Broten

The All-Time NCAA tournament Results

UCLA has the most NCAA Championships with 11, so it’s no surprise that they also have the most players in the top 100 of the NCAA tournament All-Time scoring list. Here are the results:

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA) – 1,617
2. Bill Walton (UCLA) – 1,370
3. Lew Alcindor (UCLA) – 1,335
4. Jerry West (West Virginia) – 1,293
5. Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati) – 1,040

The All-Time NBA draft Picks

In honor of the upcoming NBA Draft we decided to take a look back at the all-time greatest players to come out of UCLA. From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Russell Westbrook these are the Bruins who made it big in the NBA.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the most decorated basketball players of all time. He played for the Bruins from 1966-1969, averaging 26.4 points per game and 15.5 rebounds per game He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996.

Russell Westbrook also had a storied career at UCLA, playing for the Bruins from 2006-2008. He was drafted 4th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2008 NBA Draft and went on to become a 3-time NBA All-Star and an NBA MVP

Other notable UCLA alumni who were drafted into the NBA include:

Travis Knight (1996)
Matt Barnes (2002)
Jason Kapono (2003)

The All-Time Legacy

The UCLA All-Time basketball team is a select group of the best players in the history of the program. Chosen by a panel of experts, the team celebrates the legacy of UCLA basketball and recognizes the outstanding achievements of its members.

who made the cut?