Answers (Day 23)

1. Jackson State '97 became the first automatic qualifier to enter the NCAA playoffs with an overall losing record (14-15) despite compiling a winning conference mark (9-5 to finish in second place in the SWAC). Jackson State lost in the opening round to top-ranked Kansas, an opponent against whom NBA guard Linsey Hunter scored a then school-record 48 points four seasons earlier.

2. Niagara (24-6) defeated eventual NCAA champion La Salle twice by a total of 27 points during the regular season before finishing in third place in the 1954 NIT. Frank Layden was coach of Niagara in 1970 when the Purple Eagles defeated Dick Harter-coached Penn in the East Regional.

3. North Carolina '91, eliminated in the national semifinals, is the only team to reach the Final Four without opposing a top eight seed - #16 (Northeastern), #9 (Villanova), #12 (Eastern Michigan) and #10 (Temple) in the East Regional.

4. Davidson is the only school to twice be denied an at-large bid in a 10-year span (1996 and 2005) despite going undefeated in regular-season conference competition. The school reached a regional final the next time it went unbeaten in league play (2008).

5. Oklahoma is the only school in the 20th Century to compete for the national championship in both football and basketball in the same academic school year (1988). In football, the Sooners lost to Miami (Fla.) in the Orange Bowl, finishing third in the final wire-service polls. The basketball Sooners bowed to Kansas in the NCAA final.

6. Gary Williams is the only individual to win games while coaching schools from the three conferences with the top winning percentages in NCAA Tournament competition reflecting actual membership - ACC, Big East and Big Ten. He won games with all three schools (Boston College, Maryland and Ohio State) even when they were seeded ninth or worse.

7. Nolan Richardson is the only coach to win national championships in junior college (1980 with Western Texas), the NIT (1981 with Tulsa) and the NCAA (1994 with Arkansas).

8. John Dick is the only leading scorer in an NCAA Tournament final (15 points as a junior forward for champion Oregon in 1939 against Ohio State) to subsequently serve as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. Dick commanded the aircraft carrier Saratoga for two years and served as chief of staff for all carrier forces in the Western Pacific.

9. Guard Chris Collins (Duke '94) is the only championship game player in the 20th Century to be the son of a former NCAA consensus first-team All-American. His father, NBA analyst Doug Collins, became an All-American for Illinois State the year after playing for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team. Illinois State moved up to Division I in the 1971-72 season, making Will Robinson the first black coach at a predominantly white Division I school. Doug is the only white player for an African American head coach to become an NCAA consensus first-team All-American.

10. Gail Goodrich (27) and Kenny Washington (26), the only teammate twosome to each score more than 25 points in an NCAA final, sparked UCLA to a 98-83 victory over Duke in the 1964 NCAA Tournament championship game. It was the first of 10 NCAA titles for the Bruins under coach John Wooden.

11. Purdue's Rick Mount (36) and Billy Keller (20) is the only starting backcourt to combine for more than 50 points in a Final Four game, teaming for 56 in a 92-65 victory over North Carolina in the 1969 semifinals. They hit 39 percent of their field-goal attempts between them in their Final Four games against the Tar Heels and UCLA.

12. Lee Rose is the only individual to coach teams in the NAIA Tournament (Transylvania '65), NCAA Division III Tournament (Transylvania '75), NCAA Division II Tournament (Transylvania '69-'70-'72-'73), National Invitation Tournament (UNC Charlotte '76, Purdue '79, South Florida '81-'83-'85) and NCAA Division I Tournament (UNC Charlotte '77, Purdue '80).

13. La Salle forward Charles Singley, operating in All-American Tom Gola's shadow, is the only individual to be the team-high scorer for both winning and losing teams in NCAA championship games although his season scoring average was less than half of the team leader each year. Singley (10.7 points per game) had 23 points in a 1954 final victory against Bradley when Gola (23 ppg) chipped in with 19. Singley (11.8 ppg) tallied four more points than Gola (24.2 ppg), 20-16, the next year in a loss against San Francisco. Gola's total of points and rebounds (4,663) is the highest in NCAA history.

14. Clarence "Nibs" Price is the only coach to guide teams from the same school to the Rose Bowl and Final Four. His California basketball team finished in fourth place in the 1946 NCAA Tournament. On January 1, 1929, Price had coached the Cal football squad in its 8-7 defeat to Georgia Tech in the Rose Bowl game that is famous for Roy Riegels' wrong-way run for the Bears.

15. Dave Sisler, the son of Hall of Fame first baseman George Sisler and pitcher for four major league teams from 1956-62, was a starting forward for Princeton's first NCAA Tournament team in 1952. The younger Sisler became the executive vice president, vice chairman of the board and branch director for St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., the largest brokerage firm headquartered outside New York, with 5,300 investment brokers in more than 500 branch locations throughout 48 states and the District of Columbia.

16. Houston '67 is the only school to reach the Final Four (third place) and College World Series championship game (runner-up to Arizona State) in the same year.

17. Dick Tarrant, who compiled a 5-5 playoff record with Richmond, gained a reputation as an East Regional giant-killer when he became the only coach to win three first-round games with teams seeded 12th or worse. The Spiders pulled off first-round upsets against Auburn '84 (star players were Charles Barkley and Chuck Person), Indiana '88 (Jay Edwards, Dean Garrett and Keith Smart) and Syracuse '91 (LeRon Ellis, Dave Johnson and Billy Owens). Tarrant was 4-1 in tournament games decided by fewer than five points. The tenacity displayed by Tarrant's teams might have stemmed at least in part because he played basketball at Fordham when NFL Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi was the Rams' freshman basketball coach.

18. Lamar won four of its first-round games despite being seeded eighth or worse each time - 1979 (10th seed/defeated Detroit), 1980 (10th/Weber State), 1981 (8th/Missouri) and 1983 (11th/Alabama).

19. Drake is the only school to appear in at least three NCAA Tournaments in the 20th Century and reach a regional final each time. The Bulldogs, who won the national third-place game in 1969, lost in the Midwest Regional finals in 1970 (against New Mexico State) and 1971 (against Kansas) when their opponents each had just two defeats.

20. Eric Riley is the only player to obtain NCAA and NBA championship rings without participating in postseason competition with either of those title teams. Riley received his NCAA ring at Michigan in 1989, when, as a freshman redshirt, the 7-0 center from Cleveland contributed only in practice. He was a rookie on the inactive roster for the Houston Rockets in the 1994 NBA playoffs during their championship run.