Matt Zemek
 |  UCLA Wire

Kiki Vandeweghe came to UCLA basketball in the fall of 1976. The Bruins had reached the Final Four in each of the previous 10 seasons, winning eight titles. Even when John Wooden left in 1975, UCLA was able to make the Final Four in new coach Gene Bartow’s first season, 1976. Vandeweghe stepped foot on campus before the 1976-1977 season trying to carry on a proud UCLA legacy. Yet, in his first three seasons, Vandeweghe didn’t have a Final Four to show for his efforts. The Daily Bruin recalled the season which changed everything for Vandeweghe and UCLA:

“That year, Vandeweghe’s senior season and Larry Brown’s first as head coach, was one of the memorable onesnot involving the name John Wooden. ‘It was a really interesting year,’ Vandeweghe said. The team stumbled through its first 14 games, with losses to unranked USC and Oregon.

“‘We started off 8-6, which, at that time, was a terrible record for us,’ the Bruins’ former center remembered. ‘We had a team meeting and just decided to re-dedicate ourselves to the team and the tradition that was UCLAbasketball.’

“The results were more than startling. The Bruins won nine of their final 13 regular season games, en route to a 17-10 record. ‘It was amazing when we did that,’ Vandeweghe said. ‘We just went on a really nice run, and (although) nobody expected us to make the tournament, we were the last team selected.’ It was a small consolation for a program that was only five years removed from the last of Wooden’s 10 championship runs. Nevertheless, in the tournament the eighth-seed Bruins lived by the cliche of taking it one game at a time.

“And leading the way was No. 55. They won the first four games of the tournament, including a 34-point effort by Vandeweghe against Old Dominion in the first round, and a win against (No. 1 seed) DePaul, who was led by future NBA stalwarts Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings. ‘We surprised a lot of people,’ Vandeweghe said. ‘The only people who weren’t surprised, I think, were Coach Brown and the team because we really believed in ourselves,and somehow, the UCLA magic worked for us.’

“The Bruins pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat when, in the Final Four, Vandeweghe and company knocked off Purdue, behind the Bruin great’s 24 points. The stage was then set for a matchup with Louisville on college basketball’s biggest stage. In the game, UCLA held a two-point halftime lead and led by six points late in the second half, but a run by the Cardinals with about four minutes remaining led to a 59-54 defeat for the Bruins, their first in over a month. ‘It was difficult,’ Vandeweghe said of the loss. ‘I really believed we had the game. They just played a really lights out kind of a game, and we unfortunately came up a little bit short.’

“Vandeweghe was named the team’s most valuable player for his effort during the 1980 season, one he said was the most memorable of his career. ‘It was a great run, and I had probably the most fun of my basketball career — that includes the pros, everything,’ he said.”

Kiki Vandeweghe was a very, very good NBA player. He played 13 years in the league and averaged just under 20 points per game (19.7). He was a two-time NBA All-Star. For a man to achieve that richly in the pros and yet look back on one year of college hoops as his most fun time in the sport of basketball, that says a lot about Vandeweghe, the 1980 UCLA team, and a memorable season in Bruin basketball lore.