More March Madness - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Duke and North Carolina. The Blue Devils won finals over Kansas in 1991, Michigan in 1992, and Arizona in 2001 [Update: and over Butler in 2010], while the Tar Heels won finals over Michigan in 1993, Illinois in 2005, and Michigan State in 2009. Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, and Kentucky have each won twice.
• A2) Duke. The Blue Devils lost finals to Louisville in 1986, UNLV in 1990, Arkansas in 1994, and Connecticut in 1999. Kansas, Michigan, and Syracuse have all finished second twice. Duke has reached the finals seven times [Update: eight times through 2010], well ahead of Kansas (4), Florida (3), Kentucky (3), Michigan (3), North Carolina (3), and Syracuse (3).
• A3) Duke. Not surprisingly, the Blue Devils lead this category as well, with 10 appearances [Update: 11 through 2010].
• A4) North Carolina. And the Tar Heels are second with 9. Kansas is third at 7.
• A5) Nevada-Las Vegas. The UNLV Running Rebels ran the Duke Blue Devils off the court in 1990, amassing a record 103 points in a record thirty-point victory.
• A6) Maryland. With a 64-52 victory over Indiana in 2002, the Terrapins undercut Villanova's 66-point effort in 1985 in the last tournament played without a shot clock. [Update: Duke undercut Maryland with a 61-59 win over Butler in 2010.]
• A7) Oklahoma. The Sooners fell to the Kansas Jayhawks 83-79 in 1988, one year before Seton Hall and nine years before Kentucky matched their mark in OT losses.
• A8) Michigan. The Wolverines could only muster 51 points in losing to Duke in 1992, one fewer point than Indiana in 2002.
• A9) Villanova. The Wildcats were a lowly #8-seed when they upset the Georgetown Hoyas for the 1985 title.
• A10) Kansas. The Jayhawks benefitted from a couple of upsets to get by three lower-seeded teams, #11 Xavier, #14 Murray State, and #7 Vanderbilt, before upsetting #4 Kansas State, #2 Duke, and #1 Oklahoma to capture the 1988 title.
• A11) Michigan. The #6-seed Wolverines handled #11 Temple in the first round and #14 East Tennessee State in the second before upsetting #2 Oklahoma State, #1 Ohio State, and #4 Cincinnati to reach the 1992 final.
• A12) Louisiana State University and George Mason. LSU was a #11-seed when they upset #6 Purdue, #3 Memphis State, #2 Georgia Tech, and #1 Kentucky to advance out of the Southeast region in 1986. The Patriots upended #6 Michigan State, #3 North Carolina, #7 Wichita State, and #1 Connecticut to claim the East Regional in 2006.

More March Madness - Random Trivia Questions

The modern era of the Final Four was born when the NCAA enlarged the Men's Division I Basketball Tournament field to 64 teams in 1985. In the twenty-five Final Fours that have taken place since then, what schools hold the following records?

More March Madness Questions

• Q1) What two teams have won the most times [since 1985, for all twelve questions]?
• Q2) What team has been runner-up the most times?
• Q3) What team has reached the Final Four the most times?
• Q4) What team has reached the Final Four the second most times?
• Q5) What team had the highest winning score in a final?
• Q6) What team had the lowest winning score in a final?
• Q7) What team had the highest losing score in a final that didn't go to overtime?
• Q8) What team had the lowest losing score in a final?
• Q9) What was the lowest-seeded team to win the Final Four?
• Q10) What was the second lowest-seeded team to win the Final Four?
• Q11) What was the lowest-seeded team to reach the final but lose?
• Q12) What were the two lowest-seeded teams to reach the Final Four (semifinals)?

March Madness - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Coppin State. This year's madness began on Tuesday with Mount St. Mary's play-in win over Coppin State, which rode a hot streak into the event despite 20 losses and finished with the wrong kind of blackjack.
• A2) Kansas. In 1988, the Jayhawks captured a championship despite losing 11 of their 38 games.
• A3) Elvin Hayes. The Pro Basketball Hall of Famer pulled in 222 boards for Houston in 13 games for an average of 17.1 rebounds per game, including a record 97 in 1968.
• A4) Christian Laettner. The Duke forward netted 407 points over a record 23 games from 1989 to 1992. He also holds the career marks for free throws made and attempted (142 for 167).
• A5) Glen Rice. During Michigan's 1989 title run, the school's all-time leading scorer accounted for 184 of his team's 540 points.
• A6) Austin Carr. The Notre Dame guard netted 61 points in an opening round blowout of Ohio in 1970 and finished his tournament career with a record 41.3 average. Princeton Rhodes Scholar Bill Bradley holds the Final Four record, dropping 58 points on Wichita State in 1965 during the discontinued consolation game.
• A7) Ohio. In both 1961 and 1962 Cincinnati held off cross-state rival Ohio State for the crown.
• A8) Indiana State. Larry Bird and the Sycamores lost a historic final to Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans in 1979. UNLV was undefeated until Duke avenged their previous year's loss in the 1991 semifinals. No other recent team has entered the tournament undefeated.
• A9) "One Shining Moment". David Barrett's tune was originally supposed to follow the 1987 Super Bowl but was cut due to time constraints. A nimble switch from "The ball is kicked" to "The ball is tipped" and a tradition was born a few months later. I don't understand why Barrett left "feel the wind in your face" in the lyrics though.
• A10) False. In 2008, eight days after this quiz was initially posted, all four #1 seeds reached the Final Four. Previously, the closest year was 1993 with three #1 seeds and a #2 seed. On the women's side, all the top seeds reached the semifinals in 1989.
• A11) False. Allison Feaster led Harvard to a 71-67 upset of Stanford in the opening round in 1998 when two Cardinal starters were out with injuries.
• A12) Georgia. Both teams lost their semifinal games to the eventual tournament champion. In 2004, Connecticut became the first university to win both tournaments in the same season.

March Madness - Random Trivia Questions

By the time you read this, the first two rounds will be mostly over, but the games will continue on into April Absurdity, ending on Monday the 7th. Unexpected upsets, Cinderella stories, and the win or go home format will keep basketball fans (and non-fans who are entered in Final Four pools) on the edges of their seat the whole way (well, except for the painful wait while teams travel twice). How much do you know about the NCAA Division I basketball championship tournament?

March Madness Questions

• Q1) What team reached the tournament with the most regular season losses?
• Q2) What team won the tournament with the most regular season losses?
• Q3) Who is the all-time leading career rebounder in the NCAA Final Four Tournament?
• Q4) Who is the all-time leading career scorer in the NCAA Final Four Tournament?
• Q5) Who scored the most points in a tournament?
• Q6) Who scored the most points in a tournament game?
• Q7) What was the only state to be the home of both participants in the finals?
• Q8) What was the last undefeated team to lose their perfect season in the finals?
• Q9) What is the Final Four theme song, which CBS accompanies tournament highlights with after the championship game?
• Q10) True or false: the Final Four has never consisted of the four #1 seeds.
• Q11) True or false: a #16 seed has never beaten a #1 seed in either the men's or women's Final Four tournament.
• Q12) What was the first college to have both its men's and women's basketball teams reach the Final Four in the same season?