UrsaMajor;842666554 said:
If you go back far enough, all the teams came from the region they were assigned to (e.g., all West teams came from the Rockies west). They changed that when they realized there weren't enough good teams in some regions.
Right, and this meant that UCLA's run to the Final Four was not as tough as it would be now (even with the expanded team format).
In 1964, UCLA's first year, these were the brackets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Tournament#West_region
you can sort thru the brackets year by year by clicking on he arrow forward in the upper right.
It wasn't until 1975 that UCLA had to play 3 games PRIOR to the the Final Four. Some - no MOST - of their paths to their Championships were EASY. Wow, I had never done that look.