Ohio State’s Firepower Was Too Much for Cal

No one could have asked for a better college basketball matchup. Almost perfect, really.

California, the nation’s best defensive team, against Ohio State, the country’s best offensive team, in the NCAA championship game.

It happened 39 years ago tonight at San Francisco’s Cow Palace, before 14,500.

It seemed a setup for the Golden Bears, who were playing just across the bay from their campus. And they were defending the national championship they’d won the previous season, when they defeated West Virginia and Jerry West, 71-70, in the NCAA title game.

Score one for run-and-gun basketball. as Ohio State won in a runaway, 75-55, in a game that had three future prominent NBA players on display--Ohio State’s Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, and Cal’s Darrall Imhoff.

Ohio State made 31 of its 46 shots, including one stretch when the Buckeyes made 15 of 16. This, against a team that allowed a nation’s-best 47.9 points per game. Ohio State was No. 1 in scoring, averaging 91.5.

Ohio State went to the halftime break with a 37-19 lead and a dizzying shooting percentage of 84.2%.

Fred Taylor’s Buckeyes slashed through the heart of Cal’s defense, sending guards Mel Nowell and Larry Siegfried for repeated driving layups.

There was marquee talent in the preliminary, third-place game too. Oscar Robertson scored 32 points in his collegiate finale, as Cincinnati beat New York University. Tom “Satch” Sanders, another future NBA player, had 27 for NYU.

Oh, a little-used Ohio State reserve named Bobby Knight got to play in mop-up time. He did not score, going 0 for one from the field.

Also on this date: In 1960, the Dodgers announced that construction delays meant Dodger Stadium wouldn’t be ready for the 1961 season, and Kansas’ Bill Nieder broke the world shotput record with a 63-10 heave at Stanford. . . . In 1965, Los Angeles heavyweight Jerry Quarry won the national Golden Gloves championship in Kansas City.