BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — From 1956 to 1976, we saw seven college basketball teams run the table. They won every game on their way to an NCAA championship.

Indiana, as we all know, did it in 1976. It was a big deal, of course, but not really uncommon for the time. I mean, after all, seven teams did it in 20 years. It was not rare.

But it's become rare, because no one has duplicated Indiana's run since then. It's been 50 years since we've had an unbeaten national champion. So, yes, it's still something to be very proud of.

And it's also something to celebrate. We'll do that on Monday in Bloomington.

At halftime of the Hoosiers' game with Oregon, the 1976 national champions will be honored. And it's just the first celebration. I found out Saturday that they are also going to be honored on April 6 in Indianapolis, the night of the national championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

It's a team certainly worthy being in the spotlight. We lost coach Bob Knight two years ago, and guard Wayne Radford back in 2021. But much of the rest of the crew will be in Bloomington on Monday night, including Quinn Buckner, Scott May, Kent Benson, Bobby Wilkerson, Jim Crews, Scott Eells, James Roberson and Tom Abernethy. Mitchell Radford — Wayne's son — will be there to represent his father.

They are all doing a pre-game press conference as well. We will provide full coverage of that Monday night. I am really looking forward to seeing all of these guys again. 

It's pretty special for me because that was the greatest basketball winter of my life. I was a senior in high school then, at Lake Central in Northwest Indiana, and had already been accepted to Indiana as a journalism student. I was very much a huge Indiana basketball fan, and had been since Bob Knight arrived.

That winter, I followed Indiana's undefeated run as best I could. Living in basically the Chicago suburbs, we got Chicago TV stations — and Central time zones — not things like Channel 4 in Indianapolis. Seeing the Hoosiers on TV was a bit rare.

But I also had another undefeated run going. I was a manager on Lake Central's basketball team, and worked with many of my best friends on that team. Lake Central had an undefeated regular season as well, going a perfect 20-0.

It too was not all that uncommon at the time in ''The Region'' — East Chicago Roosevelt had done it in 1970, East Chicago Washington in 1971.

Lake Central went undefeated in 1976 in the regular season, and that didn't happen again in Lake County until 2001 (Munster, Bishop Noll). So it was pretty special. It's the only Lake Central team in school history to this day to have an unbeaten regular season.

The fact that Indiana and Lake Central were doing this simultaneously for me all winter long was just very cool. I was already writing stories by then for a local newspaper, so it was fun to tell the story of that LC team.

From the Indiana side of things, I spent four years in Bloomington, arriving in the fall of 1976 and leaving in the spring of 1980. So, yes, I missed the 1981 title too by a few months, and enjoyed that from afar. Part of what's been fun with covering Indiana again these past eight years has been getting reacquainted with some of our favorite NCAA champions over the years.

It will be nice to see many of them because, as we know, most of them disappeared for 20 years after Coach Knight was fired. He refused to return to Assembly Hall, and many of his former players followed his lead. They didn't come back until 2020, when Knight returned for one day on Feb. 8, 2020, to rousing ovations, and tear-filled eyes.

I haven't seen a lot of those guys since then, and they're all in their 70s now. So Monday night will be fun, and I'm looking forward to that.

I will always remember the winter of 1976 vividly. I thoroughly enjoyed all 52 consecutive wins. (And I will not bore you with the details of Lake Central's upset loss in the sectionals to Highland.)

Being undefeated was very cool.

And most every year since then. I've usually written a story about the last undefeated team standing. We've still got two unbeatens on Feb. 9 during this 2025-26 season, No. 1 ranked Arizona from the Big 12, who's 23-0, and Miami of Ohio, who is 24-0 and plays in the Mid-American Conference.

It's highly doubtful that Miami could win a national title, but Arizona is a serious threat. They beat five ranked teams — Florida, UCLA, Connecticut, Auburn and Alabama — in the first month of the season and haven't slowed down since.

Indiana fans always root against those unbeaten teams, of course, because we like to brag on our '76 team, even 50 years later. Arizona still has a lot of work to do, starting on Monday night. Just about when our guys are being honored at Assembly Hall, Arizona will be tipping off at No. 11 Kansas. They also still have five other games against ranked foes.

They play No. 11 Kansas on Monday, No. 13 Texas Tech on Feb. 14, No. 16 BYU on Feb. 18, at No. 8 Houston on Feb. 21, home against Kansas on Feb. 28, and home to No. 7 Iowa State on March 2.

That's a tough stretch, and we'll pay attention, hoping for a loss. In the meantime, let's enjoy Monday with our guys.

Indiana, unbeaten national champions, 50 years and running.