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Coaches' Corner
NCAA Tournament: From A To Z

Here is a perceptive A-to-Z Guide dealing with the only coach, player, conference or school linked to a distinguished achievement before, during or after participating in the NCAA Tournament. The following points to ponder and insightful statistics constitute a letter-perfect historical menu of tourney tidbits and trends:

A: is for ACC, Adair, Alcindor, Allen, Amling, Anderson and Arizona.

  • The ACC is the one conference to not only have all of its current members participate in the national tournament at least once in the last decade but also have all of them win at least one tournament game. The ACC is also the only league to have all of its current members compile winning tourney records and each of them appear in at least 10 NCAA playoff games.

  • Jerry Adair is the only individual to play in the NCAA Tournament before setting several major league fielding records for a second baseman (highest fielding average and fewest errors in a season and consecutive errorless games). He was the second-leading scorer for Oklahoma State's 1958 NCAA playoff team that reached the Midwest Regional final.

  • UCLA's Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is the only individual selected the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player three times (1967 through 1969). Alcindor is the only player to couple three unanimous first team All-American seasons with three NCAA titles. He is also the only player to hit better than 70 percent of his field-goal attempts in two different NCAA title games (1968 and 1969).

  • Center Bob Allen is the only player to lead an NCAA championship game in scoring while playing for his father. Phog Allen was coach of the Kansas squad that lost the 1940 final against Indiana (60-42) despite his son's game-high total of 13 points.

  • Warren Amling, a two-time consensus All-America lineman, is the only member of the College Football Hall of Fame to participate in back-to-back Final Fours (starting guard for Ohio State in 1945 and 1946).

  • Guard Kenny Anderson is the only freshman on a Final Four team (Georgia Tech '90) to score more than 20 points in as many as four tournament games.

  • Arizona '97 became the only team to defeat three #1 seeds in a single tourney (top-ranked Kansas/Southeast Regional, North Carolina/East and Kentucky/West). Arizona is also the only team needing at least four games to win the NCAA championship to have all of its playoff games decided by single-digit margins and the only squad to capture the title after finishing as low as fifth in its conference standings.

    B: is for Bailey, Baker, Barnes, Barry, Bartow, Bender, Bouldin, Bradley (the player) and Bradley (the school).

  • UCLA's Toby Bailey is the only freshman to score more than 25 points in an NCAA Tournament final. He had 26 in an 89-78 victory over Arkansas in 1995.

  • Terry Baker is the only football Heisman Trophy winner to play in the basketball Final Four. Baker, a quarterback on Oregon State's football squad that defeated Villanova (6-0) in the 1962 Liberty Bowl on his school-record 99-yard run from scrimmage, was the second-leading scorer for the Beavers' basketball team that finished fourth in the national tourney that same academic school year.

  • Rick Barnes is the only active coach to twice take a school to the NCAA playoffs in his maiden voyage with them after they posted a losing mark the previous campaign (Providence and Texas).

  • Sam Barry, Southern California's all-time winningest basketball coach with 260 victories in 17 seasons from 1930 through 1941 and from 1946 through 1950, is the only NCAA baseball championship coach to direct a basketball team from the same school to the Final Four. Barry was in charge when the Trojans participated in the 1940 Final Four. In 1948, he was coach when USC's baseball squad won the second College World Series at Kalamazoo, Mich.

  • Gene Bartow is the only coach to take three different schools to a regional final in a 10-year span (Memphis '73, UCLA '76 and UAB '82). Bartow is also the only individual to oppose two different schools in the playoffs he had previously coached to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament (lost against Memphis State in 1985 and UCLA in 1990).

  • Washington coach Bob Bender is the only player in NCAA Tournament history to play for two different teams in the championship game--Indiana '76 and Duke '78.

  • Cincinnati guard Carl Bouldin is the only athlete to lead his championship team in scoring at the Final Four and play major league baseball in the same year. He helped Cincinnati win the 1961 NCAA title with a total of 37 points in two games at Kansas City before pitching in two games later that year for the Washington Senators.

  • Bill Bradley (Princeton '65) is the only player to score a total of more than 80 points in two Final Four games. He made 16 of 16 free throws against St. Joseph's in the first round of the 1963 East Regional and 13 of 13 foul shots against Providence in the 1965 East Regional final to become the only player to twice convert more than 12 free throws without a miss in a playoff game.

  • Bradley is the only school to win at least one playoff game in a year (1955) it entered the tournament with a losing record. The Braves were the only team to enter the playoffs with a record of more than 10 games under the .500 mark (7-19). Bradley became the only school to go from the Final Four one year to 20 defeats the next season.

    C: is for Carr, CCNY, Chamberlain, Chapman, Chambers, Cincinnati, Cleveland State, Collins (Chris), Collins (Jimmy) and Crum.

  • Notre Dame guard Austin Carr is the only player to score more than 60 points in a single playoff game and the only player to score more than 43 points at least twice. Carr, who tallied 61 points in 1970 against Ohio University (Southeast Regional first round), accounted for half of the eight games in NCAA Tournament history of more than 46 points.

  • CCNY is the only school to win the NCAA playoffs and NIT in the same year (1950). It is also the only former major college to compile a winning playoff record in the NCAA Division I Tournament.

  • Wilt Chamberlain is the only seven-foot center to lead a Final Four in scoring (55 points in two games for 1957 runner-up Kansas) and win a conference high jump title in the same year (Big Eight outdoor meet at a height of 6'5").

  • Dayton forward Roosevelt Chapman is the only non-guard to be the undisputed leading scorer of an NCAA Tournament and not participate in the Final Four (105 points in four games in 1984).

  • Forward Jerry Chambers (Utah '66) is the only Final Four Most Outstanding Player to play for a national fourth-place team.

  • Cincinnati is the only school to capture an NCAA championship after earning a berth in the tourney by winning a conference title playoff game (Bearcats tied with Bradley atop the 1962 Missouri Valley standings before gaining the NCAA bid by beating the Braves, 61-46, at Evansville, Ind.).

  • Cleveland State is the only school seeded in the bottom of a bracket (13 through 16) to reach a Sweet 16. The Vikings, making their only NCAA Tournament appearance, were seeded No. 14 when they won two games in the 1986 East Regional.

  • Guard Chris Collins (Duke '94) is the only championship game player to be the son of a former NCAA consensus All-American and Olympian. His father, NBA analyst Doug Collins, became a first-team All-American for Illinois State the year after playing for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team.

  • Jimmy Collins is the only individual to coach in the NCAA Tournament (Illinois-Chicago in 1998) after leading his college in scoring in more than 10 NCAA playoff games (all 11 with New Mexico State from 1968 through 1970).

  • Louisville's Denny Crum was the only coach to oppose his alma mater more than twice at the Final Four. He lost to UCLA in the national semifinals in 1972 and 1975 before defeating the Bruins in the 1980 final. Crum is also the only coach to twice win conference and NCAA tournaments in the same year (1980 and 1986).

    D: is for Dallmar, Dartmouth, Davis, Dean, DeBusschere, Dick, Drake and Duke.

  • Howie Dallmar is the only Final Four Most Outstanding Player (6-5 guard with 1942 champion Stanford) to complete his collegiate playing career attending another university (NCAA consensus first-team All-American with Penn in 1945).

  • Dartmouth is the only school to twice reach the NCAA Tournament championship game (runner-up in 1942 and 1944) despite finishing the 20th Century with an overall losing record (1,125-1,147, .495).

  • Tom Davis is the only coach to compile NCAA playoff records at least three games above .500 for two different schools (minimum of five victories for each school). He was 5-2 for Boston College before going 13-9 at Iowa.

  • Everett Dean, who compiled a 3-0 tournament record with 1942 champion Stanford, is the only unbeaten coach in NCAA playoff history. He is also the only NCAA basketball championship coach to win a College World Series baseball game for the same school (1953).

  • Dave DeBusschere is the only player to post the highest-scoring game in a single tournament the same year he played major league baseball. DeBusschere scored a tourney-high 38 points for Detroit in a 90-81 defeat against Western Kentucky in the first round of the 1962 Mideast Regional. He pitched that summer for the Chicago White Sox.

  • John Dick is the only leading scorer in an NCAA Tournament final (15 points for champion Oregon in 1939 against Ohio State) to subsequently serve as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. Dick commanded the aircraft carrier Saratoga for two years and served as chief of staff for all carrier forces in the Western Pacific.

  • Drake is the only school to appear in at least three NCAA Tournaments and reach a regional final each time--1969 through 1971.

  • Duke is the only school to reach the NCAA Tournament final in back-to-back seasons after losing by double-digit margins in its conference tournament (defeated by 11 points against Georgia Tech in the 1990 ACC Tournament semifinals before getting trounced in the 1991 ACC Tournament final by 22 points against North Carolina).

    E: is for Elliott and Erving.

  • Of the more than 60 different players to score at least 2,500 points and/or rank among the top 25 in career scoring average, Arizona's Sean Elliott is the only one to have a winning NCAA playoff record in his career plus post higher scoring, rebounding and field-goal shooting career playoff averages than he compiled in the regular season.

  • Julius Erving is the only player to score more than 30,000 points in his pro career after never appearing in the NCAA playoffs. Erving, who scored 30,026 points in the ABA and NBA after leaving Massachusetts with one season of eligibility remaining, didn't participate in the NCAA playoffs despite helping the Minutemen to a composite 41-11 record in 1970 and 1971.

    F: is for Finch, Fisher and Frieder.

  • Former Memphis State mentor Larry Finch is the only individual to coach his alma mater to more than four NCAA Tournament victories (six from 1988 through 1995) after leading the school in scoring in an NCAA playoff championship game (29 points in an 87-66 loss to UCLA in 1973).

  • Steve Fisher is the only individual to be named head coach at the start of a tourney and then go on to direct the school to the NCAA title (Michigan in 1989 after replacing Bill Frieder).

    G: is for Gardner, Georgetown, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Gonzaga, Goodrich, Green and Groza.

  • Jack Gardner is the only coach to direct two different schools to the Final Four at least twice apiece--Kansas State (4th in 1948 and 2nd in 1951) and Utah (4th in 1961 and 4th in 1966).

  • Georgetown is the only school to defeat two eventual Final Four teams by double-digit margins in the same conference tournament. The Hoyas whipped Providence by 18 points and Syracuse by 10 to win the 1987 Big East Tournament before they were eliminated by Providence in the Southeast Regional final of the NCAA playoffs. Georgetown is also the only school to participate in the NCAA Tournament more than 20 times despite going more than 30 years without an appearance (1944 through 1974).

  • Georgia, seeded No. 4 in the 1983 East Regional in its playoff debut, is the only first-time entrant to be seeded better than fifth since the field expanded to at least 48 teams in 1980. The Bulldogs reached the Final Four that year.

  • Georgia Tech '90 is the only Final Four team to have three players all average more than 20 points per game in the same season. The trio, known as Lethal Weapon 3, included Dennis Scott (27.7), Brian Oliver (21.3) and Kenny Anderson (20.6).

  • Gonzaga is the only school to advance to regional semifinals in three consecutive campaigns despite having a double-digit seed each year (1999 through 2001).

  • UCLA's Gail Goodrich is the only guard to score more than 35 points in an NCAA final, erupting for 42 points on 12 of 22 field-goal shooting and 18 of 20 free-throw shooting in a 91-80 triumph over Michigan in 1965. Goodrich, 6-1, is also the shortest undergraduate to average more than 20 points per game for an NCAA titlist (21.5 ppg as a junior in 1964).

  • Utah State's Cornell Green is the only athlete to compile one of the top five scoring averages in an NCAA Tournament before playing for an NFL champion. Green, a five-time Pro Bowl defensive back during his 13-year career with the Dallas Cowboys from 1962 through 1973, tied for fourth in scoring average in the 1962 NCAA Tournament (24.3 points per game in three games). But the Aggies were eliminated by John Wooden's first Final Four team at UCLA despite Green's game-high 26 points (73-62 in West Regional semifinals). Green played in Super Bowls V (16-13 last-second defeat against the Baltimore Colts) and VI (24-3 rout of the Miami Dolphins).

  • Kentucky center Alex Groza, the Final Four Most Outstanding Player in 1948 and 1949, is the only player to appear at a minimum of two Final Fours and be the game-high scorer in every Final Four contest in which he played.

    H: is for Hamilton, Harp, Haskins, Hayes, Hazzard, Hickey, Hill, Hodges, Holland, Houston, Hull and Hurley.

  • Steve Hamilton, the leading scorer and rebounder for Morehead State's 1957 NCAA Tournament team, is the only athlete to play in a World Series (New York Yankees in 1963 and 1964) and an NBA Finals (Minneapolis Lakers rookie in 1959 when they were swept by the Boston Celtics) after participating in the NCAA playoffs.

  • Dick Harp is the only individual to play in an NCAA Tournament championship game (with Kansas in 1940 when the Jayhawks lost to Indiana) and later coach his alma mater to a final (KU lost to North Carolina in triple overtime in 1957).

  • Clem Haskins, a graduate of Western Kentucky, is the only individual to coach a team to the Final Four (Minnesota '97) after becoming an NCAA consensus first-team All-America and NBA first-round draft choice (Chicago Bulls in 1967).

  • Houston forward Elvin Hayes is the only player to lead the playoffs in scoring and rebounding in back-to-back years (1967 and 1968). He became the only player in tournament history to collect more than 40 points and 25 rebounds in the same game when he had 49 points and 27 rebounds in a 94-76 decision over Loyola of Chicago in the first round of the 1968 Midwest Regional.

  • Walt Hazzard is the only Most Outstanding Player (UCLA '64) to later coach his alma mater in the tournament (1-1 playoff record with the Bruins in 1987).

  • Howard "Red" Hickey is the only individual to appear in the Final Four before playing and coaching in the NFL at least five seasons apiece. Hickey, a first-team All-Southwest Conference forward for Arkansas' 1941 Final Four team, was a good enough tackle in football to make the Razorbacks' all-decade team. Hickey, a lineman for six seasons in the NFL with two different franchises from 1941 through 1948, coached the San Francisco 49ers for five years from 1959 through 1963, compiling a 27-27-1 record.

  • Bobby Joe Hill, a 5-10 guard for Texas Western '66, is the shortest player to lead an NCAA champion in scoring average (15 points per game). Hill's 20.2-point average in five tournament games in 1966 doubled the regular-season mark in his career.

  • Bill Hodges of Indiana State '79 is the only individual to win more than 30 games in earning a trip to the national semifinals in his first season as a head coach.

  • Terry Holland is the only Final Four coach to previously lead the nation in a statistical category as a major-college player. Holland's 63.1 percent field-goal shooting as a senior at Davidson paced the country in 1963-64. He directed Virginia to the Final Four in 1981 and 1984.

  • Houston '67 is the only school to reach the Final Four (third place) and College World Series championship game (runner-up to Arizona State) in the same year.

  • Bill Hull is the only individual to play in the Final Four (Wake Forest '62) the same year he intercepted a pass in overtime of an AFL championship game (23-yard return by defensive end helped set up game-winning field goal for the Dallas Texans in a 20-17 decision over the Houston Oilers).

  • Duke guard Bobby Hurley was thwarted in 1993 in his bid to become the first player to start four consecutive NCAA finals, but he is the only player to be credited with more than 125 assists in the tournament. He had 145 in 20 playoff games. Hurley is also the only player with at least 40 three-point field goals (42).

    I: is for Iba, Idaho State, Illinois, Illinois State and Indiana State.

  • The late Hank Iba is the only coach with six or more NCAA playoff appearances to reach the regional finals every time. Oklahoma State won two national titles, was national runner-up once, finished fourth once, and was regional runners-up on four occasions in eight playoff appearances under Iba from 1945-65.

  • Idaho State is the only school to make as many as eight consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from the year it participated in the event for the first time (1953 through 1960 under three different coaches).

  • Illinois is the only school to defeat a team by as many as 27 points in the season that the opponent won the national title. The Illini over-whelmed visiting UCLA (110-83) in their season opener before the defending champion Bruins lost just one more game the remainder of the season to finish with a 28-2 record and the 1965 title. Also, Illinois became the only school to defeat an eventual champion twice in one season by at least 12 points when the Illini swept Michigan in 1989 Big Ten competition.

  • Illinois State is the only university to win at least two games in four different postseason national tournaments--NAIA, NCAA Division II, NIT and NCAA Division I.

  • Indiana State '79 is the only school to reach the Final Four in its one and only NCAA Tournament appearance in the 20th Century.

    J: is for Johnson, Johnsons, Jordan, Jucker and Julian.

  • Magic Johnson is the only individual to be named Final Four Most Outstanding Player (Michigan State '79) and NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (Los Angeles Lakers '80) in back-to-back seasons.

  • The only father-son combination to be underclassmen on the rosters of two teams from the same school to win NCAA Tournaments is Marques Johnson and his son, Kris Johnson, at UCLA (1975 and 1995).

  • Michael Jordan is the only player to compile an NBA playoff scoring average more than 15 points per game higher than his NCAA Tournament average--16.5 with North Carolina from 1982 through 1984 before averaging 33.5 in his playoff appearances with the Chicago Bulls.

  • Ed Jucker, who directed Cincinnati to the 1961 and 1962 championships, is the only coach to win NCAA titles in his first two seasons as head coach at a school.

  • Alvin "Doggie" Julian is the only coach of a championship team to subsequently coach another university and compile a winning NCAA playoff record at his last major college job. Julian captured a national title in 1947 in the middle of his three seasons as coach at Holy Cross before compiling a 4-3 playoff record in three tournament appearances with Dartmouth from 1956-59.

    K: is for Kansas, Kelley, Kentucky, Kimble, Knight and Kurland.

  • Kansas is the only school to reach the Final Four under five different coaches--Phog Allen (1940, 1952 and 1953), Dick Harp (1957), Ted Owens (1971 and 1974), Larry Brown (1986 and 1988) and Roy Williams (1991 and 1993). Kansas '88 is also the only school to win an NCAA championship despite losing four consecutive conference contests (in the Big Eight).

  • Guard Dean Kelley (Kansas '52 and '53) is the only player to have season scoring averages of fewer than 10 points per game in back-to-back years when he was named to the All-NCAA Tournament team. He and fellow guard Allen Kelley are the only set of brothers to play together in two NCAA playoff title games.

  • Kentucky is the only school to have a minimum of five coaches direct teams to the NCAA Tournament and each of them compile winning playoff records for that institution--Adolph Rupp (30-18 mark from 1942-72), Joe B. Hall (20-9 from 1973-85), Eddie Sutton (5-3 from 1986-88), Rick Pitino (22-5 from 1992-97) and Tubby Smith (9-1 in 1998 and 1999).

  • Loyola Marymount's Bo Kimble is the only player to score at least 40 points in a playoff game the same year the opponent captured the NCAA Tournament title (42 against UNLV in 1990 West Regional final).

  • Of the three coaches to win basketball championships at every major level (the NCAA, NIT and Summer Olympics), Bob Knight is the only one to capture the "Triple Crown" in a span of less than 10 years.

  • Bob Kurland is the only player to score more than half of a championship team's points in a single tournament (total of 72 points accounted for 51.8 percent of Oklahoma State's output in three games in 1946).

    L: is for Laettner, Lamar, Louisville, Lovellette, Loyola (Ill.) and LSU.

  • Christian Laettner is the only player to score more than 400 points in his playoff career. He had 407 points in helping Duke compile a 21-2 record from 1989 through 1992. Laettner is also the only player with at least 10 championship game free-throw attempts to convert all of them (12 of 12 against Kansas in 1991 when he became the only center to be named Final Four Most Outstanding Player since the three-point basket era started in 1987).

  • Lamar is the only school to win four first-round games with teams seeded eighth or worse (1979-80-81-83).

  • Louisville is the only school to lead UCLA at halftime in the 20 Final Four games for the Bruins' 10 titlists under coach John Wooden. The Cardinals led UCLA at intermission, 37-33, in the 1975 semifinals before bowing to the Bruins in overtime, 75-74. Two-time NCAA champion Louisville (1980 and 1986) is also the only school to win a small college national tournament before capturing a Division I championship. The Cardinals won the 1948 NAIA Tournament by defeating John Wooden-coached Indiana State in the final. The '86 crown enabled Louisville to become the only titlist the year after setting or tying an existing school record for most defeats (19-18 mark in 1984-85).

  • Clyde Lovellette is the only player to lead the nation in scoring average while playing for a team reaching the NCAA Tournament championship game. Lovellette paced the country with a 28.4-point average in 1952 when he led Kansas to the national title. He is also the only player to crack the 30-point plateau in the national semifinals and final in the same season (33 points against both Santa Clara in the semifinals and St. John's in the final).

  • Loyola of Chicago is the only school to deploy just five players in a championship game. The Ramblers used their starting lineup the entire 1963 final when they upset Cincinnati (60-58 in overtime). They are the only team to ever overcome a halftime deficit of as many as eight points (29-21) to win a title game.

  • LSU, the No. 11 seed in the 1986 Southeast Regional, is the only double-digit seeded team to reach the Final Four. The next year, the Tigers became the only school to advance to back-to-back regional finals as a double-digit seed.

    M: is for Manning, Marquette, Massimino, Maxwell, McCracken, McGuire, Mele, Meyer, Mullins and Musselman.

  • Danny Manning is the only player to score more than 62 percent of his team's points in an NCAA Tournament game. He supplied 62.7 percent of Kansas' offense by scoring 42 points in the Jayhawks' 67-63 victory against Southwest Missouri State in the second round of the 1987 Southeast Regional. He is also the only one of more than 60 major-college players to score at least 2,500 points or average a minimum of 28.5 points in their career and play for an NCAA championship team.

  • Marquette is the only school to capture an NCAA championship (1977) after losing as many as five home games during the regular season.

  • Cleveland State coach Rollie Massimino is the only individual to be more than 10 games below .500 in his initial campaign as a major-college head coach and subsequently guide a team (Villanova '85) to a national championship. He is also the only active coach to win his last 10 NCAA Tournament games decided by fewer than five points, winning all of the close contests with Villanova.

  • Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell of UNC Charlotte is the only player to average more than 20 points and 10 rebounds for an NIT semifinalist one year and an NCAA semifinalist the next season.

  • Of the nearly 50 coaches reaching the national semifinals at least twice, Branch McCracken is the only one to compile an undefeated Final Four record. He won championships in 1940 and 1953 while in charge at Indiana by going 4-0 in Final Four games. McCracken is also the only NCAA consensus first-team All-American (1930) to later coach his alma mater to an NCAA championship.

  • Al McGuire is the only individual to twice direct a school to the Final Four (Marquette '74 and '77) after participating as a player in two NBA Finals (1952 and 1953 with the New York Knicks).

  • Sam Mele is the only individual to lead the American League in doubles as a player and manage an A.L. team to a pennant (Minnesota Twins in 1965) after leading a school in scoring in an NCAA Tournament (total of 18 points for NYU in two losses in 1943).

  • Ray Meyer, who compiled a 14-16 record in 13 tournament appearances with DePaul, is the only coach to go more than 40 years from his first appearance in the playoffs to his last (1943 to 1984).

  • Of the more than 80 individuals to both play and coach in the NCAA Tournament, former UNC Charlotte coach Jeff Mullins leads that group in both scoring and rebounding totals. He garnered 200 points and 63 rebounds in eight playoff games to help Duke reach the Final Four in 1963 and 1964.

  • Bill Musselman (Minnesota '72 and South Alabama '97) is the only coach to go as many as 25 years between NCAA Tournament appearances.

    N: is for Newell, North Carolina and North Carolina State.

  • Pete Newell is the only U.S. Olympic basketball coach to win the NCAA and NIT titles with different schools. Newell was the 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball coach after capturing national titles with San Francisco (NIT in 1949) and California (NCAA in 1959).

  • North Carolina is the only school to participate in the NCAA Tournament every year since conferences were first permitted to have more than one representative in 1975. North Carolina also became the only school to play back-to-back triple-overtime games in the playoffs when both of the Tar Heels' 1957 Final Four contests lasted that long en route to their first NCAA title.

  • North Carolina State is the only school to have as many as four playoff games decided by one or two points on its way to a championship (1983).

    O: is for O'Brien, Ohio State, Oklahoma, O'Koren and Olajuwon.

  • Johnny O'Brien, a 5-8 unanimous first team All-American for Seattle, is the only player to score more than 40 points in his first playoff game. He had 42 in an 88-77 victory over Idaho State in 1953.

  • Ohio State is the only school to reach the Final Four three consecutive years on two separate occasions (1944 through 1946 and 1960 through 1962). Ohio State '60, the only team to lead the nation in scoring offense and win the NCAA championship in the same season, is also the only champion to win all of its tournament games by more than 15 points.

  • Oklahoma is the only school to compete for the national championship in both football and basketball in the same academic school year (1988). The football Sooners lost to Miami (Fla.) in the Orange Bowl, finishing third in the final wire-service polls. The basketball Sooners bowed to Kansas in the NCAA final.

  • Mike O'Koren is the only freshman to score more than 30 points in a national semifinal or championship game. The forward scored 31 for North Carolina in an 84-83 victory over UNLV in the 1977 national semifinals.

  • Hakeem Olajuwon, who collected 41 points and 40 rebounds for national runner-up Houston in two Final Four games in 1983, is the only one of the 21 Final Four Most Outstanding Players from 1972 through 1992 not to play for the championship team.

    P: is for Patterson, Pauly, Pennsylvania, Pettit, Price and Prosser.

  • Center Steve Patterson (UCLA '71) is the only player to have a single-digit point total in a national semifinal game (six vs. Kansas) and then increase his output by more than 20 points in the championship game (career- and game-high 29 vs. Villanova).

  • Steve Pauly, the second-leading rebounder and third-leading scorer for Oregon State in the 1962-63 season, is the only Final Four player to become AAU national champion in the decathlon the same year.

  • Pennsylvania is the only state with more than six different schools reaching the Final Four. Pennsylvania has had eight schools reach the national semifinals--Duquesne, La Salle, Penn, Penn State, Pitt, St. Joseph's, Temple and Villanova.

  • Of the more than 40 different players scoring in excess of 225 points in the playoffs and/or averaging over 25 points per tournament game (minimum of six games), LSU's Bob Pettit is the only one to score more than 22 points in every postseason contest (six games in 1953 and 1954). He is the only player from that select group to have a single-digit differential between his high game (36 points) and his low game (27).

  • Clarence "Nibs" Price is the only coach to guide teams from the same school to the Rose Bowl and Final Four. His California basketball team finished in fourth place in the 1946 NCAA Tournament. On January 1, 1929, Price had coached the Cal football squad in its 8-7 defeat to Georgia Tech in the Rose Bowl game that is famous for Roy Riegels' wrong-way run for the Bears.

  • Skip Prosser is the only active coach to engineer a turnaround that included an NCAA playoff appearance in his first full year at a new job although the school compiled a record of more than 20 games below .500 the previous season. The Greyhounds, 2-25 in 1992-93, improved by 13 1/2 games the next year when Prosser assumed control and compiled a 17-13 mark in his only season with them before succeeding Pete Gillen at Xavier.

    Q: is for Quinn and quit.

  • Quinn Buckner, the captain of Indiana's 1976 unbeaten squad, was the only one of the Hoosiers' starting quintet to finish his NBA career with a winning playoff record and play for a championship team (Boston Celtics in 1984).

  • Larry Brown became the only coach to leave an NCAA champion before the next season for another coaching job. After winning the 1988 title, Brown quit the Jayhawks before the start of the next NCAA probation-marred campaign to return to the NBA.

    R: is for Ramsay, Rice, Richardson, Rocha, Rose (the player), Rose (the coach) and Russell.

  • Jack Ramsay is the only coach to win an NBA championship (Portland Trail Blazers '77) after directing a college squad to the Final Four (St. Joseph's '61).

  • Michigan forward Glen Rice, the 1989 Final Four Most Outstanding Player, is the only player to score more than 25 points in two games at a single Final Four in the last 19 years.

  • Nolan Richardson is the only coach to win national championships in junior college (1980 with Western Texas), the NIT (1981 with Tulsa) and the NCAA (1994 with Arkansas).

  • Ephraim "Red" Rocha is the only individual to play and coach in both the NCAA and NBA playoffs. Rocha played for Oregon State in the 1947 NCAA Tournament before appearing in 39 NBA playoff games (including '56 champion Syracuse Nationals). He coached the Detroit Pistons in the 1959 NBA playoffs and the University of Hawaii in the 1972 NCAA Tournament.

  • Guard Jalen Rose is the only freshman to finish with the highest season scoring average for a team reaching the NCAA Tournament championship game. He averaged 17.6 points per game two years ago for national runner-up Michigan.

  • Lee Rose is the only individual to coach teams in the NAIA Tournament, NCAA Division III Tournament, NCAA Division II Tournament, National Invitation Tournament and NCAA Division I Tournament.

  • San Francisco center Bill Russell is the only player to grab more than 41 rebounds at a Final Four (50 in 1956) and more than 21 in a championship game (27 against Iowa in 1956 final).

    S: is for St. John's, Sheffield, Shelton, Singley, Sisler, Sloan, Smart, Smith (Dean), Smith (Tubby), Stoddard and Sutton.(what about Harrick and/or Lefty tying Sutton!)

  • St. John's is the only school to defeat a team three times in a season that the opponent captured an NCAA title. The Redmen won their three games against Villanova in 1985 by a total of 22 points. St. John's is also the only school to reach the Final Four after losing a regular-season game by more than 40 points (81-40 at Kentucky in 1951-52).

  • Fred Sheffield, the starting center for Utah's 1944 national championship team, is the only Final Four player to finish among the top two high jumpers in four NCAA national track meets. Sheffield, the first athlete to place in the NCAA high jump four consecutive years, was first in 1943 with a best jump of 6-8, second in 1944, tied for first in 1945 and tied for second in 1946.

  • Everett Shelton is the only coach to guide teams to the championship game in both the Division I and Division II Tournaments. Shelton directed Wyoming to the title in the 1943 NCAA Division I Tournament and Sacramento State to a second-place finish in the 1962 Division II Tournament.

  • La Salle forward Charles Singley, operating in All-American Tom Gola's shadow, is the only individual to be the team-high scorer for both winning and losing teams in NCAA championship games although his season scoring average was less than half of the team leader each season. Singley (10.7 points per game) had 23 points in the 1954 final victory against Bradley when Gola (23 ppg) chipped in with 19. Gola (24.2 ppg) was outscored by Singley (11.8 ppg), 20-16, the next year in a loss against San Francisco.

  • Dave Sisler is the only son of a baseball Hall of Famer (first baseman George Sisler) to start at forward for a school (Princeton) in its first NCAA Tournament appearance (1952). The younger Sisler became an executive vice president, vice chairman of the board and branch director for St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., the largest brokerage firm headquartered outside New York, with 5,300 investment brokers in more than 500 branch locations throughout 48 states and the District of Columbia.

  • Norman Sloan is the only coach ever to post an NCAA playoff victory against a school he previously guided to the national title. Sloan was Florida's coach in 1987 when the Gators notched an 82-70 first-round victory over North Carolina State, the school he took to the 1974 crown.

  • Indiana guard Keith Smart, the 1987 Final Four Most Outstanding Player, is the only former junior college player to win the award.

  • North Carolina's Dean Smith is the only coach to direct teams to Final Fours in four different decades. He made 11 Final Four appearances (1967-68-69-72-77-81-82-91-93-95-97).

  • Tubby Smith is the only coach to twice guide three different schools to the NCAA playoffs in the same decade--Tulsa (1994 and 1995), Georgia (1996 and 1997) and Kentucky (1998 and 1999).

  • Tim Stoddard is the only individual to start for an NCAA basketball champion (forward with North Carolina State '74) and appear in a major league baseball World Series (relief pitcher for Baltimore Orioles '79).

  • Eddie Sutton is the only coach to post at least one NCAA playoff victory for four different universities (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State).

    T: is for Tarkanian, Tarrant, Taylor, Thacker, Thomas (two teammates), Thompson (the first-team All-American) and Thompson (the coach who played the game).

  • Jerry Tarkanian is the only coach compiling more than 30 NCAA Tournament victories to earn those triumphs with more than one school. He was 7-5 at Long Beach State from 1970-73 before going 30-11 at UNLV from 1975-91.

  • Richmond's Dick Tarrant became the only coach to win three first-round games with teams seeded 12th or worse.

  • Fred Taylor is the only coach of an NCAA titlist (Ohio State '60) to previously play major league baseball (first baseman for the Washington Senators in parts of three seasons from 1950 through 1952).

  • Tom Thacker, a 6-2 swingman who averaged nine rebounds per game for Cincinnati's back-to-back titlists in 1961 and 1962, is the only individual to play for an NCAA champion, NBA champion (Boston Celtics '68) and ABA champion (Indiana Pacers '70).

  • Isiah Thomas (Indiana '81) is the only guard among the eight freshmen and sophomores to lead a national titlist in scoring average. Teammate Jim Thomas, a defensive standout for the Hoosiers, is the only player who didn't score a total of more than 10 points in two Final Four games (two points in each game in 1981) to be named to one of the first 43 All-NCAA Tournament teams.

  • Junior forward David Thompson is the only undergraduate non-center to average more than 23 points per game for a national champion (26 ppg for North Carolina State '74).

  • John Thompson is the only person to play for an NBA championship team (Boston Celtics '65) before coaching an NCAA titlist (Georgetown '84).

    U: is for UCLA, UNLV and Utah.

  • UCLA is the only school to win at least three consecutive national championships. The Bruins' first of seven consecutive titles from 1967-73 featured a team that is the only champion since World War II not to have a senior on its roster. UCLA is also the only school to have two separate streaks of at least 10 consecutive playoff appearances.

  • UNLV '87, which lost to eventual champion Indiana in the national semifinals, is the only school to win a regional final game in which it trailed by more than 12 points at halftime. The Rebels were behind Iowa at intermission in the West Regional final by 16 points (58-42) before rallying to win (84-81). UNLV '90 became the only school to score more than 100 points in a national championship game and the only school to win an NCAA final by more than 21 points when the Rebels devoured Duke (103-73). UNLV '77, which finished in third place, is the only Final Four team to have as many as six players compile a double-digit season scoring average.

  • Utah '44 is the only championship team to have as many as four freshman starters. Also, Utah '66 is the only team to win an undisputed conference title and reach the Final Four one year after finishing in a league cellar (Western Athletic).

    V: is for VBK, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

  • Butch van Breda Kolff is the only coach to direct teams to the NCAA Final Four (Princeton in 1965) and the NBA Finals (Lakers in 1968 and 1969) and compile a winning NCAA playoff career record (7-5).

  • Virginia, which compiled a 6-8 ACC regular-season record in 1984, is the only school to reach the Final Four despite notching a losing mark in conference competition that season. Virginia's team that year is also the only one to advance to the national semifinals after losing its opening game in a league tournament.

  • Virginia Tech is the only school to erase a halftime deficit of at least 18 points to win a playoff game. The Hokies, 1980 Metro Conference runner-up to eventual NCAA champion Louisville, trailed at intermission (48-30) before rallying to edge Western Kentucky (89-85 in overtime) in the first round of the Mideast Regional.

    W: is for Wake Forest, Walker, Walton, Washington, Weber State, Weltlich, West, Wilkins, Wilkinson, Williams (the player), Williams (the coaches), Wisconsin and Wooden.

  • Wake Forest is the only team to ever trail by as many as 10 points at halftime of a tournament game (46-36) and then win the contest by more than 20. The Demon Deacons were behind at intermission (46-36) in the first round of the 1961 East Regional before rallying to defeat St. John's (97-74).

  • Kentucky forward Kenny Walker is the only player to be the game-high scorer in back-to-back NCAA contests between schools from the same conference. In the 1986 Southeast Regional, he scored 22 points in a 68-63 semifinal victory over SEC rival Alabama before scoring 20 in a 59-57 setback against LSU in the final.

  • UCLA center Bill Walton is the only player to have as many as 20 field goals in an NCAA championship game. He was 21 of 22 from the floor to finish with 44 points in an 87-66 victory against Memphis State in 1973.

  • UCLA swingman Kenny Washington is the only championship team player to have a season scoring average of less than six points per game entering a Final Four but accumulate at least 30 points in the national semifinals and final. Washington had a season scoring average of 5.2 points per game entering the 1964 Final Four before erupting for a total of 39 points in victories over Kansas State and Duke to help the Bruins capture their first national championship. He is the only player with a single-digit season scoring average to score more than 25 points in a championship game (26 against Duke to finish the year with a 6.1-point average).

  • Weber State is the only school to appear in the NCAA Tournament under two individuals who later became NBA coaches of the year--Dick Motta (1970-71 with the Chicago Bulls) and Phil Johnson (1974-75 with the Kansas City-Omaha Kings).

  • Bob Weltlich, now at South Alabama, is the only coach to earn automatic qualification for two different schools by winning conference tournaments after compiling losing records in regular-season league competition. He was coach of No. 6 seed Mississippi in the 1981 SEC Tournament (8-10) and No. 8 seed Florida International (4-12) in the 1995 TAAC Tournament.

  • West Virginia swingman Jerry West is the only player to score at least 25 points in eight consecutive tournament games (1959 and 1960). West is also the only player to rank among the top five in scoring average in both the NCAA Tournament (30.6 points per game) and NBA playoffs (29.1 ppg).

  • Dick Wilkins, a swingman from Oregon, is the only freshman to lead a single NCAA tourney in scoring average (22 ppg in 1945).

  • Herb Wilkinson is the only player to hit a game-winning basket in an NCAA final one year and become a consensus All-American for another university the next season. Wilkinson was a freshman swingman in 1944 when he hit a desperation shot from beyond the head of the key with three seconds remaining in overtime to give Utah a 42-40 victory over Dartmouth. He became an NCAA consensus second-team All-American the next season for Iowa, where he played for three years.

  • Guard Donald Williams is the only player to average fewer than four points per game as a freshman and then be named Final Four Most Outstanding Player the next season as a sophomore. After averaging an unsightly 2.2 points per game for North Carolina in the 1991-92 campaign, he finished with a 14.3-point average last year.

  • Gary Williams is the only individual to win games while coaching schools from the three conferences with the best winning percentages in NCAA Tournament history reflecting actual membership--ACC, Big East and Big Ten. He is also the only coach to win games with as many as three different schools (Boston College, Maryland and Ohio State) when they were seeded ninth or worse.

  • Joe Williams is the only person to be coach of two different universities in back-to-back years when each school made its initial playoff appearance--Jacksonville '70 and Furman '71.

  • Dave Winfield is the only athlete to collect more than 3,000 hits in the major leagues after starting for a school making its first NCAA Tournament appearance (Minnesota '72).

  • Wisconsin is the only school to finish more than two games below .500 one season (5-15 record in 1940) and win the national championship the next year.

  • John Wooden is the only coach to compile a double-digit total of Final Four victories. He notched a 21-3 Final Four record with UCLA in 12 appearances from 1962-75.

    X: is for Xavier, the only school to have the misfortune of opposing eventual national champions in the first round in back-to-back years (Kansas '88 and Michigan '89).

    Y: is for yawn, which is all most impartial fans could do when Loyola of Chicago '63 became the only team to defeat an opponent by at least 50 points in a tournament game (111-42 over Tennessee Tech in the first round of Mideast Regional) and when UCLA '68 became the only champion to win its two Final Four games by a total of more than 50 points.

    Z: is for zero, the number of defeats four of UCLA's 10 champions (1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973) incurred under Wooden, who guided the Bruins to the national crown each time they entered the NCAA playoffs with an unblemished record. Three schools other than UCLA achieved the "perfect example" feat once--San Francisco '56, North Carolina '57 and Indiana '76.

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