80 years of March Madness
The NCAA Men’s basketball tournament started 80 years ago. Throughout the years there have been changes to the tournament, some good, some maybe not so good. But it has become one of the most anticipated events going in sports today.
The first couple of rounds are some of the most unproductive days in the workforce each year. Filling out your NCAA bracket is almost a national event and the Final Four weekend is as exciting a weekend as you could hope for if you are a basketball fan.
You would think that after 80 years of a tournament, you would have had almost anything that could happen in all of those years be accomplished. But believe it or not, there are some things that don’t seem that odd that have never happened in the tournament.
I must say that I didn’t research all this stuff because some of the categories I would never think about much, so I am taking these from an article I ran across somewhere in the past couple of weeks.
The researcher, Mike Lopresti, is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He has covered college basketball for 43 years, including 38 Final Fours.
He is so old he covered Bob Knight when he had dark hair and basketball shorts were actually short.
Here are a few things that have never happened in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament...yet.
• A No. 1 seed loses its first game against a No. 16 seed. The record is 132-0 in favor of the No. 1 seeds. In 1987 however, Oklahoma and Georgetown escaped East Tennessee State and Princeton by one point each.
• Duke and North Carolina have never played each other in the NCAA. This year is the 40th anniversary of the first time they were both in the tournament.
In the four decades since, the participants in the most storied rivalry in the game have managed to avoid one another.
• A team seeded No. 9 or lower has never made it to the National Championship game. No. 8 Villanova in 1985 was the lowest and beat Georgetown for the Championship.
• No schools from Maine or Alaska have ever made it to the tournament. They are the only stars on the flag to be March-less. California and Texas, on the other hand, have each had 23 schools make it.
• Nebraska is the only school in the top six leagues -ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 and SEC - that has never won a single tournament contest in 79 years.
• No team has made it into the tournament with a .500 record and then wins a game. The .500 teams are 0-9.
An odd stat here is that nine teams that came into the tournament with a losing record have won a game.
• No person has started the National Championship game and been on the winning team and come back as a coach to win a National Championship. Dean Smith and Bob Knight were reserve players on teams but neither one scored a point.
• Alabama, USC, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Miami have never appeared in the finals. Wrong –shaped ball but these teams have combined for 37 football National Championships.
I am sure his year will be no different in most of the situations, but I know I have only had the opportunity to attend one Final Four and that was a great four days of basketball. Maybe someday I can do it again.