Basketball: And the Big Good Bruins

A curiosity of the current college-basketball season is that a regular on what Wichita State Coach Gary Thompson calls “the second best team in the country” only occasionally gets a chance to play. That team is the second string of the U.C.L.A. Bruins, who last week won their 40th game in a row, demolishing Minnesota 95-55, as 7-ft. 1½-in. Lew Alcindor poured in 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

If anything, the N.C.A.A. Champion Bruins are more awesome this year than last. Alcindor has hit on 62% of his shots from the floor and averaged 25.3 points a game; against previously unbeaten Bradley (whom U.C.L.A. trounced 109-73), Lew blocked eleven shots in the space of 24 min. For a supporting cast, there is Guard Lucius Allen (15-point average), Forward Mike Lynn (13 points), Forward Lynn Shackelford (12 points), Forward Edgar Lacey (12 points) and Guard Mike Warren (12 points).

Notre Dame Coach Johnny Dee predicts that at least three men from the U.C.L.A. squad will be picked in the first round of this year’s pro draft. And those will not include Alcindor, Allen, or Shackelford—all of whom are juniors and thus ineligible. There is hardly an expert who does not expect the Bruins to sail through an undefeated season: in last week’s two wire-service polls, only one vote for the No. 1 spot went to a team other than U.C.L.A.