Four Important Fun Facts About March Madness

The NCAA basketball tournament is a competition between the top Division I teams known as March Madness. Because the sport is played in a single-elimination tournament, it is customary for individuals to wager on who they believe will reach the Final Four and win the title.

While watching the event and exploring March Madness odds, here are some intriguing facts to discuss.

1. The Name

In 1982, when sportscaster Brent Musburger popularized the term “March Madness” to describe the tournament, it became synonymous with the NCAA. The Illinois High School Boys Basketball Championship, which had used the tagline since 1939, filed a lawsuit in 1996 over it.

The court proceeding resulted in a somewhat peculiar ruling: each side received its own “dual use trademark” rights.

2. Tournament Records

In 1939, the inaugural NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament was held. The Oregon Ducks won the tournament by defeating Ohio State in the championship game.

In 1939, only eight teams took part. In 1951, there were 16 teams, twice as there were in 1949. In 1975, there were more than twice as many, 32. In 1985, 64 teams participated in the event.

It is difficult to create a bracket that accurately predicts the winners of all 63 games in the tournament. Approximately 1 in 9.2 quintillion persons can accurately fill out the bracket.

North Carolina has been the #1 seed in a region more often than any other school since seeding began in 1979. Kansas and Duke have 14 No. 1 seeds, whereas Kentucky has only 12. Additionally, the University of North Carolina has participated in more “Final Fours” than any other university.

There have been 81 competitions. Five schools have attended more than fifty percent of them. Kentucky (58), North Carolina (50), Kansas (48), UCLA (47), and Duke (47) have played the most games (43). Additionally, these five institutions have won at least 100 tournament contests. North Carolina and Kentucky have won the most games, respectively, 128 and 124.

3. Individual Records

Larry Brown, the current play-caller for SMU, is the only coach to have won both NCAA and NBA titles. 1988 (NCAA) with the Kansas Jayhawks and 2004 with the Detroit Pistons (NBA).

The youngest coach to ever lead a team to a national championship was Indiana’s. In 1940, Emmett “Branch” McCracken was a recent college graduate when he guided the Indiana Hoosiers to a championship. He was the youngest to lead a team to the national title at 31. In 1953, he guided his squad to another championship.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has won 97 March Madness games. The most by any.

Glen Rice has scored more points at the University of Michigan than anyone else. In 1989, he scored 184 points in a single competition, setting a record. Duke power forward Christian Laettner holds the record for most points scored in a tournament. In 23 games, he has totaled 407 points. The most significant was his shot in the final second of the 1992 championship game to defeat Kentucky and win the title.

Only three individuals have won titles as both players and coaches: Joe B. Hall with Kentucky, the explosive Bob Knight with Ohio State and Indiana, and the great Dean Smith, who played for Kansas and later coached North Carolina.

4. Team Records

Only once in March Madness history has a 16 seed defeated a 1. In 2018, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County defeated the University of Virginia Cavaliers.

In 2001, the Duke Blue Devils overcame a 22-point deficit to defeat Maryland. This was the greatest comeback in the history of March Madness.

Maryland-Baltimore County was the first 16 seed to defeat a one seed in the opening round in 2018. This was Virginia’s team. The top seeds have defeated the #16 seeds 135 times and lost once.

Only the University of Connecticut has ever had national champion men’s and women’s teams in the same year. They’ve already done it twice! In 2004 and 2014, the Huskies were the top team in their tables.

The UCLA Bruins have won eleven NCAA Championships, while the Kentucky Wildcats have only won eight. John Wooden, a great coach, guided UCLA to ten victories between 1964 and 1975. The last championship won by UCLA was in 1995.

Kentucky has participated in sixty March Madness contests. They have as many March Madness victories as North Carolina (129).

Teams from Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah State, Villanova, Brown, Wake Forest, and Ohio State all participated in the inaugural March Madness tournament.