Answers (Day 19)
1. Georgia Tech's perimeter marksmen Dennis Scott (27.7), Brian Oliver (21.3) and Kenny Anderson (20.6) were known in Hoopdom as Lethal Weapon 3 in 1990 when they became the first ACC trio to all average more than 20 points per game in the same season. The Yellow Jackets won the ACC Tournament that year although none of the threesome shot better than 50% from the floor over the three games - Oliver (25 of 50), Scott (24 of 55) and Anderson (16 of 47).
2. Michigan, led by guard Cazzie Russell and center Bill Buntin, lost by the same score (91-80) in the 1964 national semifinals and 1965 final. Russell (24.8-point average) and Buntin (23.2) combined for 50 points in the 1964 defeat against Duke. Russell (25.7) and Buntin (20.1) teamed for 42 points in the 1965 setback against UCLA. Russell had 31 vs. Duke and 28 vs. UCLA.
3. Sixteen different UCLA players were named to the All-Tournament team for the Bruins' 10 champions under coach John Wooden. Of their eight first-team All-Americans from 1964 through 1975, the only one to fail to be named to an All-Tournament team was guard Henry Bibby although he had higher scoring and rebounding averages and better field-goal and free-throw shooting percentages in his playoff career than during the regular season. Bibby's scoring averages in his three varsity seasons were 15.6 points per game (Soph.), 11.8 ppg (Jr.) and 15.7 (Sr.). He coached USC in 2001 when the Trojans lost the East Regional final against Duke.
4. Sam Barry, Southern California's all-time winningest basketball coach with 260 victories in 17 seasons from 1930 through 1941 and from 1946 through 1950, was in charge when the Trojans participated in the 1940 Final Four. In 1948, he was coach when USC's baseball squad won the second College World Series at Kalamazoo, Mich. The next year at Wichita, Kan., before the CWS moved permanently to Omaha in 1950, Barry guided the Trojans' baseball team to a national third-place finish.
5. Forward Norm Mager, averaging three points per game entering the 1950 Final Four, scored a total of 23 points in victories against North Carolina State and Bradley to help CCNY capture the NCAA title.
6. All-American center Bob Kurland was the only player for the Oklahoma A&M Aggies, now known as the Oklahoma State Cowboys, to score in double figures in any of three playoff games in 1946. Kurland became the only player to score more than half of a championship team's points in a single NCAA Tournament (total of 72 points accounted for 51.8 percent of the Aggies' output in three playoff games).
7. Prior to winning the NCAA championship at Kansas City in 1988, Kansas lost three consecutive title games there in 1940 (60-42 against Indiana), 1953 (69-68 against Indiana) and 1957 (54-53 in triple overtime against North Carolina).
8. The only team to fail to have at least one player score in double figures in the championship game was Georgetown, a 46-34 loser against Wyoming in 1943.
9. Gene Bartow, who guided Memphis State to the 1973 NCAA Division I Tournament title game where the Tigers lost against UCLA, began his coaching career at Central Missouri State, a Division II school that also lists Division I championship coaches Phog Allen of Kansas and Joe B. Hall of Kentucky among its former head coaches. Allen posted an 84-31 record in seven seasons at Central Missouri from 1913-'19, Bartow was 47-21 in three seasons from 1962-'64 and Hall was 19-6 in one season (1964-65). Central Missouri, winner of the first two NAIA Tournaments in 1937 and 1938, captured the Division II crown in 1984 under Lynn Nance, the coach at Saint Mary's (Calif.) in 1989 when the Gaels made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years. Former Central Missouri coach Jim Wooldridge guided Southwest Texas State to its initial NCAA playoff appearance in 1994.
10. Adrian Dantley, who scored 23,177 points in a 15-year NBA career, was 4-4 in the NCAA playoffs with Notre Dame from 1974 through 1976, including two defeats in 1975, the last year for regional third-place contests.