Basketball fans around the country are almost through another exciting NCAA tournament, with upsets and the unexpected happening around every turn.

With this is mind, let's go back to 1974, to a basketball game played at Gill Coliseum between Oregon State and the Bruins of UCLA. As far as upsets go, this one ranks right up there as one of the greatest in OSU men's basketball history.

The date was Feb. 15. A capacity crowd showed up for this one and well they should. OSU was facing a mountain of a team.

At this time, at this game, UCLA was ranked No. 1 in the country, had won seven consecutive national championships and nine of the previous 10. They also carried to Corvallis an astonishing 50-game conference (Pac-8) winning streak going all the way back to Paul Valenti's Beaver squad of '66.

By February, however, UCLA, surprisingly, was not undefeated.

Sporting an 18-1 record, they had been stunned on the road in a one-point loss to Notre Dame, thus ending their phenomenal 88-game winning streak. But this was a fluke. Coach John Wooden's UCLA team was anchored by two All-Americans: Bill Walton at center and Keith Wilkes at forward. The two had led their team to a "pay back" 94-75 victory over the Irish at Pauley Pavilion just before their trip to Oregon.

OSU Head Coach Ralph Miller's team was young but had gained much experience on their way to an 8-11 season. Against Walton, Wilkes and the rest, Miller started three freshmen--Lonnie Shelton, Don Smith, and George Tucker. A junior, Doug Oxsen, and a senior, Ron Jones, rounded out the starting five.

But it was the Beaver reserves who won the day: sophomore Paul Miller came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points and reserves Steve Erickson and an injured Charlie Neal played key roles.

Reserve Beaver Steve Erickson puts the hammer down on Bill Walton.

George Tucker was a freshman in 1974, but handled the big-game pressure like a pro, hitting four free throws in the final seconds against UCLA.

Ralph Miller coached his team to a 61-57 victory in the historic game. All photos from The Beaver.

The final score, an OSU 61-57 victory, could not have been predicted at intermission.

The Bruins were ahead 34-27 and looked strong. Still, the Beavers considered the game "close" and felt they could catch UCLA in the third quarter. Sure enough, Oregon State evened the points at 45 with 9:10 to play; by the 4:30 mark, the Beavers had a 57-50 lead. Now the crowd began to think the unthinkable, that maybe there was a victory in this somewhere. No one was sitting down. The crowd was hysterical, with noise to match.

UCLA rallied to within a point, then intentionally fouled freshman George Tucker, thinking the young man would buckle under the pressure and not be able to put the ball through the net. How wrong they were! In the final 33 seconds, the rookie from Pasadena calmly hit four free throws in four tries to seal the historic win.

The crowd poured onto the floor at Gill to touch their heroes. The celebration went on through the night all over town. John Wooden was now 18-2.

-- George P. Edmonston, Jr. and Chuck Boice