Answers (Day 15)

1. Bill Russell was the leading scorer and rebounder for San Francisco's back-to-back NCAA champions in 1955 and 1956. Russell was a member of 11 NBA titlists with the Boston Celtics from 1957 through 1969, including the last two as player-coach. He won the high jump in the 1956 West Coast Relays with a jump of 6-9 1/4, the 11th-best mark recorded in the world that year.

2. Donald Williams, the Final Four Most Outstanding Player in 1993 as a sophomore, averaged a miserly 2.2 points per game for North Carolina the previous season. He had more three-point baskets in two Final Four games (hit 10 of 14 attempts from beyond the arc) than he managed his entire freshman season (9 of 31).

3. Indiana guard Jim Thomas' standout defensive performance enabled him to earn a spot on the 1981 All-Tournament team although he scored just two points in each Final Four game. Teammate Isiah Thomas was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player that year.

4. 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). Hazzard had a two-game total of 30 points at the 1964 Final Four, finishing behind the scoring aggregates compiled by teammates Gail Goodrich (41), Kenny Washington (39) and Keith Erickson (36).

5. Kansas State finished runner-up in the Big Seven Conference to eventual 1952 national champion Kansas, a team the 19-5 Wildcats defeated at home in Manhattan by 17 points. K-State, ranked 3rd by AP and 6th by UPI under coach Jack Gardner after finishing as national runner-up to Kentucky the previous year, also lost against the Jayhawks on a neutral court in overtime. In 1962, the 22-3 Wildcats, ranked 5th by UPI and 6th by AP under coach Tex Winter the year after being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by eventual national champion Cincinnati, finished runner-up in the Big Eight Conference to Colorado.

6. Adolph Rupp sustained eight regional final setbacks with Kentucky from 1952-72 by an average margin of 10 points. He also lost a national quarterfinal game in 1945 when the first round of the eight-team event was identified as the regional semifinals. Six of Rupp's first seven "field of eight" defeats were against Big Ten teams, including Ohio State four times.

7. Dave Cowens, the Boston Celtics center who shared the NBA Rookie of the Year award with Portland guard Geoff Petrie in the 1970-71 season and was named NBA Most Valuable Player two years later, managed just 11 points and four rebounds as a sophomore for Florida State in 1968 when the Seminoles lost in the first round of the Mideast Regional against East Tennessee State (79-69). Petrie was 5 of 19 from the floor for Princeton in a 72-63 setback against St. John's in the first round of the 1969 East Regional.

8. Dolph Schayes, named to 12 consecutive All-NBA teams from 1950 through 1961 with the Syracuse Nationals, averaged 8.8 points per game for NYU in five NCAA Tournament outings in 1945 and 1946. He was a 16-year-old freshman for the Violets in 1945 when they finished national runner-up to Oklahoma A&M.

9. UCLA's Gail Goodrich, 6-1, is the only guard to score more than 35 points in an NCAA final. In the 1965 championship game, he erupted for 42 points on 12 of 22 field-goal shooting and 18 of 20 free-throw shooting in a 91-80 triumph over Michigan after scoring a game-high 28 points in a 108-89 victory over Wichita State in the semifinals. He was the leading scorer with a 21.5-point average for the Bruins as a junior the previous year when they captured their first national title under coach John Wooden.

10. UCLA center Bill Walton was 21 of 22 from the floor to finish with 44 points in an 87-66 victory against Memphis State in the 1973 final. He scored just four points in his tourney debut in 1972 against Weber State and six points in a national third-place game against Kansas two years later.