Cal’s 1959 Title Win Ranked Among the Best Final Four Games Ever

With this year’s exciting NCAA basketball championship game still fresh in our memories, ESPN took on the task of ranking the best Final Four games of alltime.

Surprisingly ESPN did not feel that Florida’s riverting victory over Houston in the finals or either of this year’s exciting semifinal games were good enough to be placed among its top 50 Final Four games in history.

However, one memorable Cal game did make the top 50. That was the Bears’ 71-70 victory over West Virginia and Jerry West in the 1959 national championship game.

That game was ranked No. 36, and ESPN provided this description of that contest:

36. California 71, West Virginia 70 (1959 finals)

To win their lone national title, Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell and his Golden Bears had to take down Oscar Robertson and Cincinnati in the semifinals, then Jerry West and WVU in the title game. West scored 28 points as the Mountaineers nearly overcame a late five-point deficit, but Darrall Imhoff's tip-in gave Cal the winning points.

We can provide some other details for that game.

West Virginia held a 10-point lead in the first half, so Newell went to his bench and applied a three-quarter-court press that got the Bears back in the game.

Cal surged to a 13-point lead in the second half, but the Mountaineers rallied with West being moved to the center position.

West Virginia got within a point in the final minute when a West layup attempt was goal-tended by Imhoff, and West Virginia forced a jump ball on Cal’s ensuing possession when Imhoff was tied up. But Cal retained possession when Imhoff won the tip on the jump ball, and Imhoff then followed his own miss with an awkward bank shot that put the Bears up by three with less than 20 seconds to go.

West Virginia scored on a layup with five seconds left to reduce the margin to one again, but Cal was able to run out the clock.

Cal got to the championship game the next season too, but got blown out in the title game by an Ohio State team that featured Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Larry Siegfried and Bobby Knight. That 20-point rout did not make ESPN's top 50 Final Four games.

ESPN’s No. 1 game was Villanova’s shocking 66-64 upset of Georgetown in the 1985 finals, with No. 2 being North Carolina State’s 54-52 surprising victory over powerful Houston on Lorenzo Charles’ dunk at the buzzer in the 1983 finals.

Recent articles:

Cal lands the son of a pretty good sidekick of Michael Jordan

TV info and tee times for the 4 Cal alums playing the Masters

Speed and one spectacular play while at Arkansas, make new Cal WR Dazmin James intriguing

Here's what you need to know about Saturday's Cal Spring Showcase scrimmage