Greg Lee, the purpose guard for Coach John Picket’s unbeaten U.C.L.A. groups that captured the 1972 and 1973 N.C.A.A. basketball match championships, died on Wednesday in San Diego. He was 70.
His loss of life, at a hospital, was introduced by the U.C.L.A. athletics division, which stated the trigger was an an infection associated to an immune dysfunction.
At 6 toes 4 inches, a great dimension for a guard of his period, Lee grew to become a starter in his sophomore season.
He joined heart Invoice Walton and ahead Jamaal Wilkes, U.C.L.A.’s stars, on the Bruins crew that defeated Florida State for the 1972 match championship.
Concentrating on a playmaking position since U.C.L.A. had a sharpshooting frontcourt, he handed out 14 assists in 34 minutes on the courtroom whereas Walton related on 21 of twenty-two pictures, scoring 44 factors, within the Bruins’ victory over Memphis State within the 1973 title sport for his or her seventh consecutive nationwide championship. Each these groups went 30-0.
By U.C.L.A’s requirements, the 1973-74 season, when Lee was a senior, proved one thing of a disappointment. The Bruins’ successful streak ended at 88 video games after they had been edged by Notre Dame, 71-70. They had been defeated in double additional time within the N.C.A.A. match semifinals by North Carolina State, which went on to seize the title, and so they completed with a file of 26-4 — spectacular for nearly any crew, however not U.C.L.A.
Lee averaged solely 5.8 factors a sport for his three varsity seasons, however he averaged almost three assists a sport as a senior. His U.C.LA. groups had an total file of 86-4.
He was named a three-time tutorial All-American.
Lee was chosen by the Atlanta Hawks within the seventh spherical of the 1974 N.B.A. draft and by the San Diego Conquistadors of the American Basketball Affiliation in its draft. He performed briefly within the A.B.A. and, after turning into a free agent, reunited with Walton on the N.B.A.’s Portland Path Blazers, who obtained him in a commerce with the Hawks. He received into only some video games with the Blazers.
Lee later performed professional basketball in Germany for a number of seasons. But when his basketball profession was over when he returned to the USA, his athletic profession was not.
He hadn’t performed volleyball at U.C.L.A., however he joined the skilled seaside volleyball circuit in Southern California and went on to get pleasure from success in each singles and, teamed with Jim Menges, a former volleyball participant for the Bruins, doubles. Of their 30 matches between 1973 and 1982, Lee and Menges received 25 doubles titles and completed in second place 3 times and in third place as soon as.
Gregory Scott Lee was born on Dec. 12, 1951, within the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles, the youngest of three brothers. He starred in basketball at Reseda Excessive College, the place he was coached by his father, Marvin, who had performed for U.C.L.A. within the Nineteen Forties beneath Wilbur Johns, the Bruins’ coach earlier than Picket. He was named the Los Angeles metropolis participant of the yr throughout his junior and senior seasons at Reseda, when he averaged near 30 factors a sport.
He later earned instructing credentials from U.C.L.A. and taught arithmetic and coached basketball and tennis at Clairemont Excessive College in San Diego, whose 1979 class impressed Cameron Crowe’s 1981 guide “Quick Instances at Ridgemont Excessive” and its 1982 film adaptation.
He’s survived by his spouse, Lisa; his son, Ethan; his daughter, Jessamyn Feves; his brother, Jon; and two grandchildren.
Lee was grateful to Picket for his steerage.
“He did the identical issues along with his stars as he did along with his scrubs,” he was quoted as saying in “Tips on how to Be Like Coach Picket: Life Classes From Basketball’s Biggest Chief,” by Pat Williams with David Wimbish (2006). “He all the time targeted on the small print. He was a instructor who occurred to be a basketball coach.”