If nothing else, the John Wooden Public Memorial at Pauley Pavilion is a reminder that UCLA was once a real dynasty in college basketball.
UCLA won 10 national championships in 12 years from 1964-1975 during the culmination of the Wooden era. But nothing lasts forever, as we discovered in the 1980s when Magic and Kareem's Showtime Lakers won five NBA championships and replaced the Bruins as L.A.'s home team. UCLA went through one dismal stretch between 1983 and 1988 where the program was operating on emergency generators - making the NCAA Tournament just twice in six years and dismissing coaches Walt Hazzard and Larry Farmer.
"There was almost a decade where the entire college basketball scene out here went through a drought and coaches like Lute Olson of Arizona and Jerry Tarkanian of UNLV came in and built their teams off the backs of Southern California kids," St. John's new coach, Steve Lavin, says. "But everything is cyclical."
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2010/06/29/2010-06-29_st_johns_hoping_steve_lavin_who_helped_uclas_revival_can_do_same_for_red_storm.html#ixzz0sGrnhJT3