UCLA suffers stunning loss to Gonzaga, Pac-12 bounced from NCAA tourney

The Pac-12 did it again. It failed to win the NCAA Tournament. The conference, which has not cut down the nets on the final Monday night of the season since 1997 (when Arizona celebrated its lone national championship), got knocked out of the Big Dance on Thursday night in Las Vegas. UCLA, the one Pac-12 team to reach the Sweet 16, couldn’t go beyond that point. The Bruins, who led 46-33 at halftime and were roasting Gonzaga’s defense, improbably went cold in the second half, going over 11 minutes without a made field goal. Their 13-point lead turned into a 72-63 deficit with just over a minute left.

Gonzaga did implode in the next minute, however. A bunch of missed free throws and some carless GU fouls enabled UCLA to take a late lead on an Amari Bailey 3-pointer. For a brief period of time, it seemed UCLA might improbably escape in a manner reminiscent of the Bruins’ 73-71 win over the Zags in the 2006 Sweet 16 in Oakland. The Bruins were down and out in that game but rallied late to steal one from Mark Few. History was on the verge of repeating itself, 17 years later.

It was not meant to be for the Bruins. Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther hit a 35-footer in the final 10 seconds to give the Zags a 79-76 win over UCLA, stopping the second-seeded Bruins in yet another memorable clash between these two West Coast powers.

USC and UCLA will move to the Big Ten in two years. Both schools will get one more chance in 2024 to give the Pac-12 a Final Four team and — who knows? — maybe a shot at a college basketball national championship.

More 1967 national championship!

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire