Land of Plenty: Kentucky is 1st Champ With Five Different Scoring Leaders
Kentucky's well-balanced attack, featuring six players averaging from 9.9 to 14.2 points per game, enabled the Wildcats to become the first NCAA Tournament champion to have five different players lead the team in scoring during the playoffs en route to capturing the crown. Underclassmen Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague deserve at least one more plaudit before most or all of the quintesential quintent comprised of three freshmen and two sophomores declare early for the NBA draft.
Prior to UK's young guns, North Carolina '82 is the only one of the following nine NCAA Tournament champions spreading the wealth to have as many as three freshmen and sophomores among four different players leading the team in scoring during the playoffs en route to earning a title:
- UCLA '70 (Henry Bibby, Curtis Rowe, John Vallely, Sidney Wicks)
- UCLA '75 (Dave Meyers, Marques Johnson, Pete Trgovich, Richard Washington)
- Kentucky '78 (Truman Claytor, Jack Givens, Kyle Macy, Mike Phillips)
- North Carolina '82 (Matt Doherty, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, James Worthy)
- Louisville '86 (Herbert Crook, Pervis Ellison, Billy Thompson, Milt Wagner)
- Indiana '87 (Steve Alford, Ricky Calloway, Dean Garrett, Keith Smart)
- UCLA '95 (Toby Bailey, Tyus Edney, J.R. Henderson, Ed O'Bannon)
- Florida '07 (Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Al Horford, Lee Humphrey)
- Kansas '08 (Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers, Sasha Kaun, Brandon Rush)