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Tampa subregional
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 2003
Quaker power!
The last Ivy League team to reach the Final Four was Penn in 1979. The No. 9-seeded Quakers pulled one of the first major upsets of the seeded era in the second round, beating No. 1-seeded North Carolina 72-71.
The lowest seed to win the NCAA Tournament is Villanova, No. 8 in 1985.
UCLA's 10 titles in 12 years under coach John Wooden is considered the greatest achievement in NCAA Tournament history. How dominant was UCLA? The Bruins won 38 consecutive tournament games from 1964 until losing to North Carolina State in a 1974 semifinal 80-77 in double overtime. (UCLA did not qualify for the 1966 tournament, and the Bruins won again in 1975.) The next-best is 13 consecutive victories by Duke from 1991 to 1993.
Entering this season, Kentucky has the most NCAA Tournament victories with 91 followed by UCLA (85), North Carolina (81), Duke (75) and Kansas (65).
The Wildcats have the most victories, but they can't touch Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 5-0 in tournament games against Kentucky. Only Indiana, 5-0 against LSU, has as many victories without a defeat against one team.
Canisius' 1955 NCAA Tournament team was graced with future leaders. Robert Adams, the Golden Griffins' third-leading scorer (9.2 points per game) retired as a major general after serving 31 years in the Army. Hank Nowak, who averaged 19.4 points in eight NCAA games from 1955 to 1957, represented the Buffalo, N.Y., area in the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms (1975-93).
Six teams have had their standing in the Final Four vacated for using ineligible players: Saint Joseph's (1961, third); Villanova (1971, second); Western Kentucky (1971, third); UCLA (1980, second); Memphis State (1985, third) and Massachusetts (1996, third).
Who won the first NCAA Tournament and in what year? For bonus points, where was the title game played?
Answer below.
Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) coach Hank Iba was known as the father of defense, and for 25 consecutive seasons, 1936-60, Iba's teams did not finish lower than third nationally in points allowed. Not surprisingly, A&M was the first team to win consecutive NCAA titles, in 1945-46, beating NYU (in New York) and North Carolina.
Oregon in 1939, in Evanston, Ill.