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Message: [QUOTE="tzznandrew, post: 4823571, member: 168"] And the two games they had to win were actually against teams from the Western part of the US, and that region did not have the depth of teams that the East, Southeast, and Midwest did. They were regularly beating teams like a Russell-less San Francisco and a Baylor-less Seattle for Final Four trips. Wyoming, Pacific, New Mexico State, Santa Clara, Long Beach State, Utah State, BYU, Weber State: these were the types of teams they were abusing to get to the Final Four. Not like these UCLA teams weren't fantastic, but they basically got a pass into the Final Four up until early expansion in the mid-1970s. You look at Final AP rankings and what teams in other regions had to go through—just to get into the damn tournament because their conferences were so good relative to UCLA's Pac 8—and you get a sense of just how much easier they had it. [/QUOTE]