College Exam: Day 3 Answers to NCAA Tournament Trivia Questions
1. Bobby Cremins lost five NCAA playoff games with Georgia Tech against double-digit seeded teams (1986/#11 LSU, 1987/#10 LSU, 1988/#13 Richmond, 1989/#11 Texas, 1993/#13 Southern).
2. Alcorn State is the only historically black college and university to win multiple NCAA Tournament games. The Braves posted the first three HBCU victories in the early 1980s.
3. Dick Vitale (Seton Hall '62) guided Detroit to a 93-76 decision over Middle Tennessee State in the 1977 Mideast Regional before the Titans bowed to Michigan (86-81).
4. Notre Dame, boasting 12 Top 10 finishes in final AP polls, had a 31-35 record in 31 NCAA playoff appearances through 2011. The Fighting Irish made its lone Final Four appearance in 1978, when it lost in the national semifinals.
5. Georgia, seeded No. 4 in the East Regional in its tournament debut, defeated St. John's (14th appearance) and North Carolina (17th appearance) on the Bulldogs' way to the 1983 Final Four.
6. The Big East Conference had three members at the 1985 Final Four (Georgetown, St. John's and Villanova) after they all defeated an ACC team in regional finals. Georgetown's Reggie Williams had the highest point total in any of the three Final Four games that year with 20 points in a 77-59 victory over St. John's in the national semifinals.
7. Henry "Hank" Iba's Oklahoma A&M Aggies won back-to-back national championships (1945 and 1946), were national runner-up once (1949), finished fourth once (1951), and were regional runners-up on four occasions (1953, 1954, 1958 and 1965) in eight playoff appearances from 1945 through 1965. His son, Moe Iba, was coach for fellow Big Eight Conference member Nebraska when the Huskers participated in the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 1986.
8. Bradley, the defending national runner-up, won two games in the 1955 playoffs after entering the tournament with a 7-19 record (69-65 over Oklahoma City and 81-79 over SMU). Despite the pair of playoff victories, the Braves finished with their worst overall record (9-20) in a 53-year span until they went 8-20 in the 1990-91 campaign. Their only playoff victory since 1955 was 83-65 over Texas-El Paso in 1986. In 1950, Bradley was runner-up to CCNY in both the NCAA Tournament and NIT.
9. Miami (Ohio) is 6-19 under eight coaches--Bill Rohr (0-3), Dick Shrider (1-3), Tates Locke (1-2), Darrell Hedric (1-4), Jerry Peirson (0-2), Joby Wright (0-1), Herb Sendek (1-1) and Charlie Coles (2-3). Randy Ayers, a four-year starter, was Miami of Ohio's leading scorer in the 1978 NCAA playoffs when the Redskins upset defending champion Marquette before losing to eventual champion Kentucky. Ayers directed Ohio State to the NCAA Tournament each of his first three seasons as coach of the Buckeyes.
10. Gonzaga is the only school to advance to a regional semifinal in three consecutive campaigns despite having a double-digit seed each year (1999 through 2001). The Zags defeated teams from the ACC (Virginia), Big East (St. John's), Big Ten (Minnesota), C-USA (Louisville), Pacific-10 (Stanford) and SEC (Florida) during the NCAA playoffs in that span.