Basketball began to change in the 1950s due to Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics and Wilt Chamberlain but real change would have to wait for the 1960s. Jerry West, Connie Hawkins and Pete Maravich were all game changers. But nothing had the impact of the Game of the Century.
In 1968, UCLA was at the start of its epic championship run and riding a long winning streak. Houston was a Southwestern team when basketball was still kind of new there, or at least the rest of the nation was unaware that a different style was emerging in the Old Southwest - Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.