Oldest coach to win a championship:
In 2011 the 68-year old coach, Jim Calhoun led the University of Connecticut Huskies to a championship when they beat the Butler Bulldogs 53-41.
Youngest coach to win a championship:
In 1940, Emmet B. “Branch” McCracken won the big dance at the age of 31. His Indiana Hoosiers beat the Kansas Jayhawks 60-42.
Several Presidents have been hoop fans but none bigger than Bill Clinton, who was in attendance as his Arkansas Razorbacks beat Michigan in 1994 and again when they beat Duke to win the championship.
Prime time TV:
The first NCAA game that was broadcast on prime time TV on Monday night was in 1973.
Only eight:
The first NCAA tournament had only eight teams in 1939, with Oregon winning. In 1951 they expanded to 16 teams, 32 teams in 1975, and 64 teams in 1985. In 2011 they expanded from 64 teams to 68.
Largest margin of victory:
In 1963, Loyola Maramount beat the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles by 64 points, 111-47, a record that still stands.
Bill Walton had perhaps the biggest March Madness performance on the biggest stage during that same game, when he scored 44 points on 21 of 22 shooting in the title game to lead his UCLA Bruins over the Memphis State Tigers in that game.
When ya gotta go…
In the 1990 title game against the UNLV Running Rebels, Duke’s Bobby Hurley was on the free throw line when nature called, so he quickly ran off the court to the bathroom in the locker room!
Pioneers:
John Thompson became the first African American coach to win an NCAA tournament in 1984 when his Georgetown Hoyas beat the Houston Cougars 85-74.
Perfection:
Seven times in history a team has won the national championship with a perfect record: the 1956 U of San Francisco Dons, 1957 North Carolina Tar Heels, 1964, 1967, 1972, and 1973 UCLA Bruins (wow!), and the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
Double the Championships:
In 2004 the University of Connecticut Huskies men’s hoops team beat Georgia Tech 82-73 to win the national championship. The next day, UConn’s women’s basketball team beat the Tennessee Volunteers 70-61 to win their crown, making UConn the only team ever to win two Division 1 basketball titles in one year.Titles as player and coach:
Only three men have ever won a title as a player and then also as a coach, Bib Knight with Ohio State and then Indiana three times, Dean Smith at Kansas and then North Carolina twice, and Joe B Hall, both at Kentucky.
March Madness:
The term ‘March Madness’ was coined in Illinois in 1908 by H.V. Porter, who used it to describe the state high school tournament. The NCAA started using the term in 1939. The “Big Dance” is another common name for the tournament.
Glen Rice of the Michigan Wolverines scored the most points in tournament history in 1989 with 184 in 6 games, including 27 three pointers!
Most points in a game:
Austin Carr of Notre Dame put up a record 61 points in 1970 in a first round win over Ohio. The next game he had 52 points, 4th all time. David Robinson scored 50 points in 1987 for Navy but still Carr’s record stands.
School with the most titles:
UCLA has the most titles by far, winning 11. An astounding 10 of those titles came between 1964 and 1975 when they had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. North Carolina is second with 8 titles, and Indiana and Kentucky have 5.
Number 1's aren’t a sure thing:
All four number 1 seeds have made the Final Four only once, in 2008 when Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and Memphis made it.
Don’t bet on the longest shots:
A number 16 seed has never beaten a number 1 seed! Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, number 16 seeds are 0-112 against number 1’s!
Three times a number 11 seed made the Final Four; George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011, and LSU in 1986.
The lowest seed ever to win it all:
Villanova won the championship as an 8 seed in 1985.
Scandal:
In 1950, the City College of New York became the only team ever to win the NCAA tournament and the NIT in the same year. However, the following year several of the players were arrested for taking bribes from gamblers and shaving points. The point shaving scandal grew to 30 players at 7 colleges, 4 of them in New York City.
NIT glory:
The NIT, National Invitational Tournament, used to be the NCAA tourney’s prestigious big brother, and started one year earlier.
Perfect Bracket?
The odds of filling out a perfect bracket are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1. That’s nine quintillion to one!
More bracketology:
The average fan takes 75 minutes filling out their brackets, and men spend an average of 30 minutes more on selections than women.
Fans fill out an average of 4.5 brackets, with 14% completing six or more.
1 in 7 fans have called in sick to work to watch the NCAA tournament!
Actually, that sounds like a great idea! (Cough! Cough!) Sorry – I think I’m coming down with something so I think I’ll call in sick…and my alma mater, UConn, just happens to be playing!
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