Lew Alcindor played his last game at Pauley Pavilion and led UCLA
one step closer to another national championship. Alcindor had 17
points as the Bruins defeated Santa Clara, 90-52, advancing to the
Final Four in Louisville.

Jeff Prugh captured the back-and-forth between Alcindor and
reporters after the game, trying to put his remarkable UCLA run in some
perspective.

‘"How does it feel to be playing here for the last time?" they
asked. "Kinda weird,’" he said. "It’s funny you have to wait until the
NCAAs to get good officiating here." … Someone wanted to know if his
four years of college basketball were what he had expected them to be.
"No," he said. "I thought it would be a lot more difficult — as a
player and difficult on me personally."

Prugh tracked Alcindor as he left Pauley for the last time as a college athlete.

"Wearing dark glasses, casual jacket and slacks, and a paisley
neckerchief, he took his traditional walk in front of the half-empty
bleachers where the Bruin rooters had cheered him for four seasons. …
There were kids of assorted sizes trailing him. And Lew Alcindor was
still signing autographs as he climbed the stairs and walked out the
door of the place where he threw in 56 points in his first varsity game
three winters ago."

— Keith Thursby