UCLA Basketball: This Bruins Moment Gets Shoutout In New ESPN What-If Rankings

As well it should.

Your UCLA Bruins have a starry and decorated past (and an exciting long-term present). Accordingly, they often find themselves on a variety of lists commemorating great college moments, thanks to their litany of postseason highlights.

Now, they're back on a fresh tally, this time a list from Myron Medcalf of ESPN detailing the 25 biggest "what-if" moments of the past 25 NCAA seasons.

The moment in question? The 2006 team's epic 17-point, second-half Sweet 16 comeback over Adam Morrison's Gonzaga Bulldogs.

"UCLA's comeback -- coined 'Heartbreak City' -- robbed the Bulldogs of a trip to the Elite Eight that might have elevated [Gonzaga head coach] Mark Few's profile and prompted him to consider other coaching opportunities earlier in his career," Medcalf writes.

Few has since gone on to coach Gonzaga in national championship games in 2017 and 2021.

Eventual NBA pro Luc Richard Mbah a Moute put the finishing touches on the second-seeded Bruins' 11 straight points that helped the team close out Gonzaga, 73-71. 

UCLA eventually advanced all the way to the NCAA championship game that spring, where it would go on to fall 73–57 to a loaded Florida Gators squad that boasted two future All-NBA big men in Al Horford and Joakim Noah, as well as future NBA pros Corey Brewer, Chris Richard and Taurean Green. Those Gators, coached by current Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, would go on to repeat in 2007.