Answers (Day 5)

1. Julius Erving, who scored 30,026 points in the ABA and NBA after leaving Massachusetts with one season of eligibility remaining, didn't participate in the NCAA playoffs despite helping the Minutemen to a composite 41-11 record in 1970 and 1971. They were eliminated in the first round of the NIT each year, including a 90-49 loss against North Carolina in Dr. J's final college game. Erving was selected NBA Most Valuable Player after the 1980-81 season with the Philadelphia 76ers.

2. John Thompson Jr. averaged 3.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game as a rookie backup to All-Pro center Bill Russell on the 1965 NBA champion Boston Celtics after helping Providence win the NIT two years earlier. Thompson coached Georgetown to the 1984 NCAA title.

3. Bob Bender played briefly for Indiana's 1976 titlist as a freshman before transferring to Duke, where he was a backup guard for a team that lost to Kentucky in the 1978 final. Bender went on to coach Illinois State and Washington in the NCAA Tournament.

4. Loyola (Md.), 2-25 in the 1992-93 season, improved by 13 1/2 games the next year when first-year Greyhounds coach Skip Prosser guided them to a 17-13 record. Prosser succeeded former boss Pete Gillen the next season at Xavier before eventually guiding Wake Forest to an outright ACC regular-season title in 2003.

5. In 2006, Missouri Valley Conference members Bradley and Wichita State defeated Kansas, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and Tennessee in the first two rounds.

6. City College of New York was 4-2 by finishing fourth in 1947 and winning the championship in 1950. CCNY won both titles in 1950, when the NIT had more prestige than the NCAA playoffs. The first black players in the starting lineup for an NCAA title team were Floyd Lane, Joe Galiber and Ed Warner.

7. North Carolina State defeated four opponents (Pepperdine, UNLV, Virginia and Houston) by a total of six points on its way to the 1983 national title. The Wolfpack also beat Utah (75-56) and Georgia (67-60) that year under coach Jim Valvano, who compiled an 11-14 record at Bucknell in 1972-73 in his first season as a major-college head coach. Valvano's predecessor, Norman Sloan, won the 1974 NCAA crown after registering losing marks in his initial seasons at The Citadel (11-14 in '57) and N.C. State (7-19 in '67).

8. Steve Fisher, who currently coaches San Diego State, won his first 12 "close" NCAA Tournament games with Michigan until bowing to Texas, 80-76, in the opening round in 1996. The roster Fisher inherited at the start of the 1989 playoffs included four players who were among the top 16 selections in the first round of an NBA draft - Terry Mills (16th pick in 1990), Glen Rice (4th in 1989), Rumeal Robinson (10th in 1990) and Loy Vaught (13th in 1990).

9. Pennsylvania has had eight schools reach the national semifinals--Duquesne, La Salle, Penn, Penn State, Pittsburgh, St. Joseph's, Temple and Villanova. The two national titlists were La Salle (1954) and Villanova (1985).

10. Joe Williams - Jacksonville (national runner-up in 1970) and Furman (first-round loser in 1971).