1977 Idaho State vs UCLA Sweet Sixteen the day UCLA Dynasty officially was over

1977 Marquette basketball    • How Marquette Won It All – 1977 NCAA Champ...  

It was truly the end of the UCLA basketball dynasty.

On March 17, 1977, Idaho State upset the second-ranked Bruins, 76-75, in the second round of the NCAA West Regional in Provo, Utah. Steve Hayes, the Bengals’ 7-foot center, had 27 points and 12 rebounds. Jeff Cook, a 6-10 forward, had 14 rebounds and eight points. The loss ended UCLA’s run of 10 consecutive Final Fours

“They were just better than us,” recalled UCLA forward Marques Johnson, who had 21 points -- 19 in the first half before the Bengals switched to a box-and-one defense.

Coming into the 1977 NCAA tournament, UCLA was ranked second in the country under the guidance of second-year coach Gene Bartow, who had replaced John Wooden and lost to Bobby Knight’s Indiana in the 1976 national semifinals. The heavily favored Bruins had won the Pacific 8 Conference and were eagerly anticipating a West Regional final against Nevada Las Vegas, expecting to make their 11th consecutive Final Four.

Johnson said the Idaho State loss was the final chip out of the UCLA invincibility veneer. “We had lost the year before to Indiana in the Final Four,” Johnson said. “And after the Idaho State game I realized something: Idaho State just had a really good team. They believed they could beat us because they were good.”

"We didn't just respect him," Klos said. "We feared him. We all hung together and listened. He had a good vision. One thing did extremely well was scouting. I would be Marcus Johnson and he had us watch film. We knew every play they ran. We knew their strengths and weaknesses and which way guys would cut."

Added Hayes on preparation for the UCLA game, "We had a good game plan. We knew how to defend them. Once I got into the game and took the first shot I said, "We can play with these guys."

Idaho State did just that and fans know the outcome, a 76-75 win over the Bruins.

"There was no doubt our guys belonged," said then assistant coach Charlie Fenski. "And they knew it."

"We were ridiculed for playing UCLA," Glenn Alford, the sports information director at the time said. "It was interesting dealing with the media after the game. Before they ignored me completely. After the game a reporter from Chicago asked me how many people were in Pocatello. I told him, '40,000 and two million potatoes.'"

According to Alford there were 1,000 fans from Pocatello at the game in Provo, Utah and the University of Utah, who played the first game, had 15,000 fans in attendance.

"By halftime they were all rooting for us," Alford said.