It wasn't one of Rick Mount's better games. It wasn't one of Purdue's either.

Yet, Tuesday marked the 46th anniversary of the Boilermakers' lone appearance in the national title game, a 92-72 loss to UCLA on March 22, 1969 at Louisville's Freedom Hall. With three starters hampered due to injuries, the Boilermakers were not at full strength, but against the powerful Bruins, it may not have mattered if they were.

"I wasn't hitting that night, and they were on of the greatest teams in college basketball history," Mount said in late-January, remembering the game. "It felt good early, but I went through a spell when the shots just wouldn't fall, and we couldn't keep up."

A lot has changed in nearly 50 years, the least of which was that the 1969 NCAA Tournament ended two weeks earlier than it does in 2016 and consisted of just 25 teams.

Mount got off to a good start in the title game, giving the Boilermakers an early 4-0 lead by hitting a couple of jumpers. But things turned sour from there. He missed 14 shots in a row and was just 3-of-18 shooting in the first half. Unfortunately for Purdue, Mount's teammates didn't fare much better as the Boilermakers connected on just 23 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. Surprisingly, they only trailed powerful UCLA by 11 at the break.

And how powerful was UCLA? Its senior center was Lew Alcindor (know today as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and its coach was John Wooden. And Alcindor made a statement in his final game with 37 points and 20 rebounds. The Bruins became the first team in NCAA history to win three-straight national titles, and Alcindor capped a career in which he won 91 of 93 games. (Freshmen were not eligible then.)

Wooden, the former Purdue All-American guard, would win the next four national titles to run the streak to seven, a sports record that can be safely said will never be broken. Mount said he recalled UCLA and Wooden to be very business-like in their approach.

"They didn't talk trash or anything like that," said Mount, who was recruited by Wooden during his high school senior year in Lebanon three years earlier. "It was the pre-ESPN era, so we didn't talk to each other much on the court. We just played."

The second half didn't go much better for Purdue. UCLA extended its lead early in the final period and the game was never in doubt. With Alcindor on the bench, the Boilermakers were able to cut the margin to a dozen (75-63) late, but UCLA used a parade to the free throw line to win by 20.

Mount warmed up in the game's final 20 minutes, hitting nine of his final 18 shots. It was a disappointing end for "The Rocket," whose buzzer-beater jumper from the right corner delivered the Boilermakers to the Final Four with a 75-73 win over Marquette just a week earlier.

"It didn't bother me that I missed shots," he said. "I had the mentality of 'I will make the next one.' "

Nearly five decades later, Mount said it would have taken a perfect game to beat UCLA, including having the Boilermakers at full strength. Purdue played the game without bulky center Chuck Bavis, who had broken his collarbone in its Sweet 16 win over Miami (Ohio), and senior stars Billy Keller and Herman Gilliam had nagging injuries. Gilliam, one of the great athletes in Boilermaker basketball history, did manage to grab 11 rebounds despite a leg injury, but the 6-foot-3 jumping jack suffered a similar offensive fate to Mount, connecting on just 2-of-14 shots from the floor.

"I am not sure we could have beaten them even at full strength, they were that good," Mount said. "Bavis had success against Alcindor in the other two times he faced him, but there was no denying them that afternoon."

While the UCLA game was a disappointment, it came just 48 hours after arguably the Boilermakers' greatest hour as basketball program. In the national semifinals, which were played on a Thursday night in those days, Purdue destroyed Coach Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels by a 92-65 margin to earn a shot at UCLA. Mount was unstoppable in that game with 36 points, and Keller, before suffering a thigh injury late in the game, added 20.

"North Carolina and Smith disrespected us, thinking they would beat us and get a rematch with UCLA," Mount said. "We made sure that didn't happen."

To this day, Mount thrives on proving people wrong. He did it this past Jan. 2, when he made his first public appearance in Mackey Arena since 1988 to an adoring capacity crowd after few thought he would ever return to the court he helped make famous. And as a player, few on the national scene thought the Boilermakers were good enough to make it to the national championship game.

"I never doubted our ability to win games and to win big," said Mount, a two-time All-American who remains the Boilermakers all-time leading scorer with 2,323 points. "Those that did back then, didn't know a lot about basketball."

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