I'm sorry but this is just ignorant. U fail to mention UK or UNC or even Kansas who all have succeeded with many coaches. Duke is Duke and currently the best team in the country and has been the best program since the 86 season. To think we will "nose dive" like IU who ran off there coach so they had 0 help with the turnover and UCLA who modern times caught up with and didn't have an infrastructure set up to succedd past the wooden era. We are a top 4 program of ALL TIME to suggest we can't sustain it shows a complete lack of faith and is really ridiculous. Even if the initial turnover we are "down" by our standards we are a top tier program who any coach will want the job outside of a few cases like Caliperi but we will draw a big name I promise if it comes down to going outside.
People have re-written history with regards to UCLA (that tends to happen on the internet)
John Wooden retired after winning his 10th NCAA title in 1975. Urban Legend has it that UCLA was vanquished to the abyss afterward.
here is what actually happened.
1975-76- 28-4 record, NCAA Final Four. (yep, a season after Wooden leaves Gene Bartow steps in and takes them right back to the Promised Land.
1976-77- 24-5 record, NCAA Sweet sixteen
Bartow only coached two seasons and had a 52-9 record and then Gary Cunningham became their coach.
1977-78, 25-3 record (14-0 in Pac 10) NCAA Sweet 16
1978-79, 25-5 record, NCAA Elite 8
Gary Cunninghams two year stint produced a 50-8 record. Then came Larry Brown.
1979-80, 22-10 record, NCAA Final Four, (lost in National Final to Louisville)
1980-81, 20-7 record, NCAA round of 32
Six seasons after Wooden, three different coaches, excellent overall records and two immediate Final Fours in the first four years post-Wooden.
In the 1980's, Larry Farmer had them three years, had a respectable 61-23 record, didn't make much noise in the post-season though.
Walt Hazzard (easily their worst post-Wooden coach) was 77-47 in four seasons. UCLA did win an NIT Championship in one of his years.
I think everybody remembers the rest. Jim Harrick, excellent records and won the 1995 National Championship.
Steve Lavin, nothing great but the guy went to 6 of 7 NCAA Tournaments and averaged a sweet 16. In fact of those six tournies only once did he fail to win two games in the NCAA'S.
Ben Howland? yea he had two losing years there but also had several years of great records and how about THREE Straight Final Fours?
Hell Steve Alford has made the sweet 16 in each of his first two seasons with them.
Of course they weren't going to keep winning the damn NCAA Championship after Wooden. But you know what? neither was Wooden had he stayed on. The format was changing, more teams were being invited, UCLA could no longer avoid Eastern teams until the NCAA Final. (see what happened when they finally had to play one in NC State in 1974?) but when I look at their post-Wooden years I see lots of wins, Final Fours under FOUR coaches and another NCAA title. It's a myth that UCLA died post-Wooden, tons of schools would kill to have their record from 1976-2015.
