Answers (Day 7)
1. Lefty Driesell is the only coach to grace the NCAA playoffs in five decades. He achieved the feat with four different universities (Davidson three times in the 1960s), Maryland (eight times in the 1970s and 1980s), James Madison (once in the 1990s) and Georgia State (once in 2001).
2. Pete Elliott, the executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was a second-team pick on the Helms All-American team in 1947-48 when he scored a team-high 15 points in Michigan's first NCAA Tournament victory, a 66-49 decision over Columbia in the Eastern Regional third-place game. Elliott earned All-American honors as a quarterback for the Wolverines' 1948 national champion. He later became head football coach at Nebraska (1956), California (1957-59) and Illinois (1960-66), leading Cal and the Illini to Rose Bowl berths.
3. Rollie Massimino won his last 10 NCAA Tournament games with Villanova decided by fewer than five points, including a 66-64 upset of top-ranked Georgetown in the 1985 championship game. He compiled a 7-19 record in his first season with the Wildcats in 1973-74. Villanova (1990 and 1991) is the only school to receive at-large bids in back-to-back years with as many as 14 defeats entering the tournament.
4. In less than 20 years, North Carolina State won three ACC championships but didn't participate in the national playoffs because the Wolfpack was on NCAA probation (1955, 1959 and 1973).
5. Johnny O'Brien, a 5-8 unanimous first team All-American for Seattle in 1953, scored 42 points in an 88-77 first-round victory over Idaho State that year. The Chieftains dropped out of Division I following the 1979-80 season before returning to the DI level at the start of the 21st Century. O'Brien and his twin brother, Eddie, played several seasons together with the Pittsburgh Pirates. As major league rookies in 1953, Johnny was a second baseman who hit .247 while Eddie was a shortstop who hit .238.
6. Loyola of Chicago used its starting lineup the entire 1963 final as the Ramblers upset Cincinnati (60-58 in overtime). They had trounced Tennessee Tech by 69 points (111-42) in their first tournament game.
7. Bill Musselman is the only coach to go as many as 25 years between NCAA Tournament appearances. His Minnesota team lost to eventual national runner-up Florida State, 70-56, in the 1972 Mideast Regional. In 1997, his South Alabama squad bowed to champion-to-be Arizona, 65-57, in the Southeast Regional.
8. LSU all-time greats Pete Maravich (first-team All-American in 1968, 1969 and 1970), Chris Jackson (1989 and 1990) and Shaquille O'Neal (1991 and 1992) never participated in the Final Four. Maravich never played in the NCAA Tournament, and Jackson and O'Neal combined for a 2-4 playoff record. The Tigers, seeded fourth in the 1985 Southeast Regional with a roster including first-round picks John Williams and Jerry Reynolds and six other players who became NBA draft choices, were trounced by David Robinson-led Navy (78-55) in the opening round.
9. Guard Dean Kelley averaged 6.5 points per game in helping Kansas win the 1952 national championship and 9.7 points per game the next season when the Jayhawks were national runner-up. Kansas centers Clyde Lovellette and B.H. Born were named Final Four Most Outstanding Player those two years, respectively. Kelley's brother, Allen, played sparingly for the '52 champion before becoming the team's second-leading scorer the next season. North Carolina's Dean Smith, a backup guard on those two Jayhawk squads, compiled more victories than any coach in NCAA Tournament history.
10. Tim Stoddard, a starting forward for North Carolina State's 1974 titlist, pitched in the 1979 World Series for the Baltimore Orioles.