Ratcliff Explodes for 30 pts as 1972 Long Beach State Pulls Away

In our latest Value Add Basketball Game simulation between the great teams in history ...

The team and coach with the greatest ever first four years at the D1 level – Long Beach State and Jerry Tarkanian – showed what a contender they are for the title among our new teams when 1^st team All-American Ed Ratleff put up a massive 30 pt, 5 steal game to advance to the Elite 8. This incredible program start had the bad luck of playing in the West during the greatest dynasty in the history of any US sport by UCLA - and in this actual season this was the second straight season Long Beach State was eliminated by Bill Walton and UCLA - the No. 1 ranked team in the history of our Value Add Basketball Game.

The team went 99-17 and finished 19^th, 16^th, 5^th and 3^rd these first four years of existence and this 1972 season was the middle of three Elite 8 appearances before Tarkanian went to UNLV to build some of the most dominant team ever there.

While Ratleff was the 1^st team All-American and went 6^th in the draft he was not alone, and four teammates - Glenn McDonald, Chuck Terry, Eric McWilliams and Leonard Gray also went onto the NBA.

UC San Diego  looked in position for a 2nd straight upset with a 47-46 lead with 12:35 (21 possessions to play) but superstar Ratcliff scored 30 points to advance Jerry Tarkanian's 1972 Long Beach State to our Elite 8 of new teams. UC San Diego upset another legendary player in the first round, upsetting Kent State and another legendary sports figure in Antonio Gates, who went on to be one of the greatest five tightends in the NFL instead of continuing his career in the NBA. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/antonio-gates-1.html

Long Beach State will next get either the only team to ever win both the NIT and NCAA title in the same year - the 1950 City College of New York (CCNY) team or the 1986 Cleveland State Sweet 16 team.

Cincy 1962 Holds Off UNLV 73-71 to face Kentucky 2 hours to the South in Final 4

Pos	UNLV 1991 (Dunk 51-54)	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Height	Actual Season
1-PG	Greg Anthony	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	2	nba,6'1	11.6 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 8.9 Ast
2-SG	Stacey Augmon	13	1	5	0	0	3	4	2	2	nba,6'6	16.5 Pts, 7.3 Reb, 3.6 Ast
3-SF	Anderson Hunt	10	2	2	0	0	4	0	0	1	6'1	17.2 Pts, 1.6 Reb, 2.9 Ast
4-PF	Elmore Spencer	4	0	1	2	2	2	0	1	3	nba,7'1	6.4 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 1.2 Ast
5-C	Larry Johnson	24	0	9	6	6	9	1	0	3	nba,6'6	22.7 Pts, 10.9 Reb, 3.0 Ast
1-PG	Evric Gray	7	0	3	1	5	1	0	1	2	nba,6'7	6.8 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 1.4 Ast
2-SG	Travis Bice	7	1	1	2	2	3	0	0	2	6'5	4.7 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 0.7 Ast
3-SF	George Ackles	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'9	8.2 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 0.8 Ast
4-PF	Bobby Joyce	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'7	2.3 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 0.3 Ast
		0
	Turnovers 16	71	4	24	11	15	28	5	4	17
Pos	Cincinnati 1962 (51-63)	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Height	Summary
1-PG	Tony Yates	5	0	2	1	1	2	2	0	1	6'1	8.2 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 4.3 Ast
2-SG	Tom Thacker	20	1	7	3	4	2	6	0	1	nba,6'2	11.0 Pts, 8.6 Reb, 3.4 Ast
3-SF	Ron Bonham	13	1	5	0	0	6	1	0	2	nba,6'5	14.3 Pts, 5.0 Reb, 1.1 Ast
4-PF	George Wilson	3	0	1	1	4	7	1	0	2	nba,6'8	9.2 Pts, 8.0 Reb, 1.1 Ast
5-C	Paul Hogue	18	0	8	2	2	13	0	6	5	nba,6'9	16.8 Pts, 12.4 Reb, 0.6 Ast
1-PG	Tom Sizer	4	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	3	6'2	2.7 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 1.2 Ast
2-SG	Larry Shingleton	6	1	1	1	2	2	0	0	1	5'10	3.9 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.8 Ast
3-SF	Fred Dierking	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'6	4.1 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 0.6 Ast
4-PF	Dale Heidotting	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'8	3.1 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.4 Ast
		0
	Turnovers 14	73	3	28	8	13	36	11	6	17

While Anthony Davis lead Kentucky 2012 to an easy Elite 8 win, their Final 5 opponent two hours to the north had to go to the wire to make the game. That game pitted two great centers with the threat that if either fouled out guarding each other it would give the other team a great chance. (see Value Add Basketball Game)

UNLV's 1991 center Larry Johnson, whose powerful game resulted in 22.7 point per game and a game-high 24 points in this game, did finally draw a 5th foul on Cincinnati 1962 Center Paul Hogue (16.8 pts and 12.4 average and 18,13 in this game) but it was not until less than a minute to play. Johnson hit both free throws to finish 6-6 from the line to cut it to 72-69, but Tom Thacker hit the first of two free throws to wrap up the win, and Stacey Augmon's bucket at the buzzer still left Cincinnati with the 73-71 win.

While this Final 4 Game will feature two teams just two hours from each other (the Cincinnati airport is actually in the state of Kentucky), while the other Final 4 game will be between teams in the same arena, as UCLA teams from1964 and 1975 face off.