NCAA bracket facts and fun tournament tidbits

Even if you don’t have a “true to your school” team to follow, anyone can get caught up in March Madness. Here are some randomly interesting and fun NCAA March Madness facts.

The Big 10 has crowned 23 National Champs in men’s basketball. The first champion was Oregon in 1939 (ok, we get it but they are a member of The Big 10 NOW). The last Big 10 National Champ was in 2002 when The Terrapins brought the gold ball home to Maryland. (*Maryland joined The Big 10 in 2014)

Bob Knight, Dean Smith, and Joe B. Hall are the only individuals who have won an NCAA championship as both a player and a head coach. Knight won as a player at Ohio State in 1960 and as the coach of Indiana in 1976, 1981, and 1987.

Think YOU can predict a “perfect bracket”? Odds say otherwise! The NCAA says the odds of predicting all 63 NCAA Tournament games correctly are approximately 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or 1 in 9.2 quintillion. THATS a lot of numbers, and bad odds to be sure.

The closest anyone has come to a perfect March Madness bracket, according to the NCAA, was in 2019 when an Ohio man predicted the first 49 games correctly, a record that still stands. Gregg Nigl, a neurologist from Columbus, Ohio, set the record, but his streak ended when #3 Purdue defeated #2 Tennessee in the Sweet 16, a game that was the 50th game of the tournament.

You can cheer for a #16 seed…but, it’s bad odds AGAIN! A 16 seed had never defeated a No. 1 seed until 2018, when UMBC made history and shocked Virginia 74-54. Five years later, it happened again as FDU took out Purdue 63-58. The bad news for 16 seeds is they are just 2-154 all-time against #1 seeds.

Are you a West Virginia men’s basketball fan? We feel for you. West Virginia has the most wins (regular season and tournaments) by a program to never win a national title. And this year will not be their year either, as they missed getting a bid to the big dance.

The Auburn Tigers are the #1 overall seed, according to the selection committee, but it’s another #1 seed in the Florida Gators who are the betting favorites to win it all in March Madness according to betting lines in Las Vegas.

Badger fans REJOICE! Wisconsin is a #3 seed (so, you are saying they have a chance?) and a #8 seed is the lowest seed to win a national championship. In 1985 Villanova, coached by Rollie Massimino, upset Patrick Ewing and the #1 seed Georgetown Hoyas 66-64 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. By the way the badgers WERE national champs a few years back (OK, OK MANY years back). In 1941, Coach Bud Foster led the Badgers to their only national championship in history. With the help of tournament MVP John Kotz and All-American Gene Englund, the Badgers beat Washington State 39–34 in the final game of the NCAA Tournament. It was their first ever invitation to the NCAA Tournament, after winning the Big Ten Championship that year.

So, no matter what team’s banner you wave during MARCH MADNESS remember no team in the tournament is a lock, no team is an easy out, and your chances of a perfect bracket are practically zero. (so, you are saying I have a chance?)

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