It's the 10th anniversary of perhaps the most famous backcut in NCAA tournament history. One year after winning the 1995 NCAA championship, a seasoned UCLA squad with 23 wins again won the Pac-10 conference. But some early blowout losses out of conference didn't help their seeding and the Bruins were assigned a #4 seed, against a Princeton team with the best scoring defense in the country. One day before the matchup, then L.A. Times beatwriter Tim Kawakami asked, "are the methodical Princeton Tigers the worst kind of matchup the error-plagued UCLA Bruins ?"
But when retiring Princeton coach Pete Carril was asked that same question, he scoffed, or at least he did so publicly. "That's a bunch of baloney," Carril said (in the L.A. Times) before the Tigers' final workout at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. "They're strong, they're fast. For the Bruins to lose, they'd have to just totally disregard everything their coach has taught them."
The Bruin players were respectful, but confident that they would win. But one senior was not so sure.
"It's a scary situation because the Tigers play so fundamentally sound," said Kevin Dempsey in the Times. "And sometimes we rush things a little bit too much."

We all know the outcome. The Tigers threw the more athletic Bruins out of their game, but it wasn't because of their offense. The Bruins did not fall to the backdoor cuts throughout most of the game. Instead it was the Tigers' matchup zone defense that confused the Bruins and kept the score close.
But it was the last offensive play for Princeton that will always be shown on highlights this time of year.
"The one time I went backdoor, O'Bannon went with me," Gabe Lewullis said in an AP report. "So I went back up to the top, came back down again and he got it to me on the bounce. All I had to do was put it in."
UCLA would miss a game-tying shot on its last attempt. Final score: Princeton over UCLA, 43-41.

I've never heard so much cussing and swearing in Westwood than I did that night.