March Madness: UCLA’s 5 Most Disappointing Tournament Losses

Number 2: Princeton, 1996

Forty-one points. That is what the Bruins were able to muster against the Pete Carril-coached Princeton Tigers in a game that ranks amongst the most unlikely upsets in college basketball history.

The 13th-seeded Tigers won the Ivy League championship but were given little to no chance against the mighty Bruins, who won the championship in 1995. With Toby Bailey, Jelani McCoy, Charles O’Bannon, J.R. Henderson, Kris Johnson and Cameron Dollar, this UCLA squad was a powerhouse that marched through the Pac-10 conference with a 16-2 record.

Steve Lavin and Lorenzo Romar, future head coaches, were assistant coaches to the newly-minted championship coach Jim Harrick, and perhaps did not warn the team about the backdoor cuts and ‘stall ball’ favored by the Ivy League champs.

The game was played at an arduous pace, anathema to a Bruins’ team that liked to get out and run, flying and dunking at will during the regular season. The cerebral, patient approach favored by Carril ultimately led to the coach’s enshrinement in the basketball Hall of Fame, but completely blindsided UCLA, winning 43-41.

Though Herrick was fired the following autumn, allegedly due to lying about an expense report, many alums figure that this loss was the ultimate impetus for his dismissal.