Bill Walton: College basketball stats, best moments, quotes – NCAA.com

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Bill Walton, a three-time National Player of the Year and a key member in UCLA’s dynasty under John Wooden, was one of the greatest men’s college basketball players ever. Here’s everything you need to know about Walton’s time with the Bruins.
School: UCLA
Position: Center
Height: 6-11
Weight: 210 pounds
Years active: 1971-74
NCAA tournament record: 11-1
College averages: 20.3 points per game, 15.7 rebounds per game, 65.1% field goal shooting
A story published in The Terre Haute Tribune on March 24, 1972 noted that Walton hadn’t lost a game since he was a sophomore in high school in 1967.
UCLA was 86-4 during Bill Walton’s three years of college with the center starting his college career 73-0. Walton’s only four losses came in his senior year (Notre Dame, Oregon State, Oregon and then NC State in the NCAA tournament).
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The Terre Haute Tribune noted that Walton “doesn’t shoot all over the place.” But that led to extreme efficiency.
In a Final Four game against Louisville in the 1972 NCAA tournament, Walton was 11-of-15 from the field, scoring 33 points to go along with 21 rebounds. He had 24 and 16 at halftime.
The Associated Press noted that Walton was double-teamed for most of the game, too.
After the game, Louisville coach Denny Crum told reporters, “I think this is the best UCLA team ever.”
UCLA’s 1971-72 squad quickly became nicknamed “Walton’s Gang,” in honor of the 6-11 sophomore. The craziest part?
We’ll let The Daily Herald explain:
“Walton has averaged 21.3 points per game and 15.5 rebounds per game, despite riding the bench much of the time after the starters had built insurmountable leads,” wrote The Daily Herald‘s sports editor Joe Watts.

Walton led UCLA in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage for three consecutive years:
No sophomore, junior or senior in UCLA history has averaged more rebounds per game, respectively, than when Walton was a sophomore, junior and senior.
He even led the Bruins in assists in 1974 with 5.48 assists per game.
That’s because offensively, Walton played a key role in transition. “Walton … started UCLA’s famed fast break with quick outlet passes,” noted the AP. Wooden said Walton is the best center he had ever seen in throwing outlet passes.
Walton once had a triple-double against SMU with 25 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.
The following series of photographs in The Daily Herald (Provo, UT) show Walton’s technique of grabbing a rebound, holding the ball high over his head and throwing a two-handed overhead pass to a teammate.

Walton’s most famous college performance was a 44-point outburst in the 1973 NCAA tournament national championship against Memphis State, when he made 21-of-22 field goal attempts. He did all that in just 33 minutes, too.
After the game, famous basketball journalist Dick Weiss of the Courier-Post (Camden, N.J.) wrote, “How could any team lose with Bill Walton on its roster? Bill Walton is a 6-11 junior center from Helix, Calif. who is the best college basketball player ever. Period.”
Walton scored eight of UCLA’s first 12 points in the game and never looked back.
Walton scored in a variety of ways against Memphis State. There were running jump hooks and short jumpers off the glass. In fact, the number of jumpers he made outside of the lane might be the most impressive part of his 44-point, 95-percent shooting performance. It’s not like he attempted 22 dunks, and still, he missed only once all game.
The one miss?
It came after a high lob.
Even on his layups and dunks, Walton was incredibly active in his setup and footwork on the low block.
He may not have been fast in the traditional sense at 6-11, 210 pounds, but he was quick. He’d dart across the lane to establish position or to catch a sleeping defender off-guard on his way to the rim. He utilized shot fakes and refined post moves to get clean looks. Walton would takes passes that weren’t necessarily intended to be alley-oops and he score an alley-oop layup off of them.
When UCLA led Memphis State 35-30, Walton wasn’t that far behind the Tigers with his individual point total of 20.
Watch the incredible performance for yourself:
The fact that Walton once scored 44 points in an NCAA tournament title game while nearly being perfect from the field completely reframes the discussion about his greatest games.
What other performance could possibly come close to that?
Well, he scored at least 20 points in five other NCAA tournament games, including two 20-point, 20-rebound games in the 1972 NCAA tournament. As we mentioned earlier, Walton had 33 points and 21 rebounds against Louisville in the national semifinal, then he had 24 and 20 against Florida State in the national championship game.
In Walton’s only NCAA tournament loss of his career, a double-overtime thriller against N.C. State, he still had 29 points and 18 rebounds while playing all 50 minutes, so he sure did his part to keep the Bruins in the game.
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Bill Walton won the following awards and honors:

NAISMITH AWARDS: Player of the Year | Coach of the Year | Defensive Player of the Year
Louisville coach Denny Crum: “Bill Walton is just amazing. He creates so many problems. The only way to beat UCLA is to keep Walton from getting the ball and there’s really no way to do it — at least with our personnel.”
UCLA coach John Wooden: “There have only been two men I have coached that could have played on the varsity in their freshman years — Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton.”
Wooden, after Walton’s 44-point performance in the national championship: “For Bill, I believe this was the only time this season I’ve seen him so emotionally ready to play. I’m very proud of this team. Perhaps, I’ve never had a better team when you consider both offense and defense. This was a team achievement and was built around Walton but we’d be foolish not to go to him.”
Florida State coach Hugh Durham: “If you run against them, you might catch Walton away from the basket but if you slow down, he’ll be there and gobble everything up.”
Memphis State coach Murray Bartow, prior to the 1973 national championship game: “Anyone who runs with UCLA is going to lose. I don’t think anyone can get in a run-and-shoot contest with them and win — not us, not the Boston Celtics, not anyone.”
Bartow, after the 1973 national championship game: “Walton… Walton… Walton … We couldn’t contain Walton. I’ve never seen a player so dominating as Walton. He is big and strong and wirey. We worked to push him out farther. We couldn’t get him out. If you let him have the ball around the basket, you’re dead. We found that out.”
unattributed (1972): “If you rate all the teams in the country you would have to rate it in the following order: the Los Angeles Lakers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the UCLA Bruins.”

 
Andy Wittry has written for Stadium, SI.com, Sporting News, the Indianapolis Star, Louisville Courier-Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is a graduate of Indiana University.
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