E r n i eD i G r e g o r i oaveraged 25.6points pergame in fiveN C A A t o u r n a-ment contestsfor Providencein 1973.

The year 1982 was a good one for James Wo r t h y. He wasnamed a consensus first team all-American, the NCAA t o u r n a-ment MVP and helped lead North Carolina to the NCAA t i t l e .

N a v y ’s DavidRobinson had an

N C A As e a s o nrecord 207 blocked

shots in 1986.

P r i n c e t o n ’s Bill Bradley scored the most points ever by anindividual in a Final Four game with 58 against Wi c h i t aState in 1965. Bradley sank 14 free throws to rank him in atie for fourth for most free throws made in a Final Fourg a m e .

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The Players

In leading UNLV to the 1990 NCAA title, Larry Johnson led alltournament players in rebounds and blocked shots.

Lew A l c i n d o r( K a r e e mA b d u l - J a b b a r )is the onlyplayer to earnthree NCAAt o u r n a m e n tM V P a w a r d s .Alcindor wonthe honorswhile leadingU C L A t on a t i o n a lc h a m p i-onships in1967, 1968and 1969.Always looking to pass, Duke’s Bobby Hurley holds the

N C A A career record for assists.

Jerry Lucas ofOhio State led

the nation infield-goal per-centage three

t i m e s ,r e b o u n d i n g

twice and wasnamed playerof the year in

1961 and1 9 6 2 .

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Darrell Griffithwas No. 1after hescored 23points to leadL o u i s v i l l eover UCLA i nthe 1980N C A A c h a m-p i o n s h i pg a m e .

Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas was named to the Final Four all-time team along with Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) ofUCLA, Larry Bird of Indiana State, Earvin “Magic” Johnson ofMichigan State and Michael Jordan of North Carolina.

Had the three-point field goalexisted during

Pete Maravich’scareer from 1968-

70, the LSU starwould have added

who knows howmany more points

to his NCAAcareer record total

of 3,667.

Only one father and son combination qualified for N C A AMen’s Basketball’s Finest and that’s the Bibbys. FatherHenry Bibby led UCLA as a point guard to three NCAA t i t l e swhile son, Mike (pictured above), took Arizona to the cham-pionship as a freshman point guard in 1997.

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Danny Manning led sixth-seeded Kansas over Oklahoma in the1988 NCAA title game as he scored 31 points, grabbed 18rebounds, blocked two shots, had five steals and was namedthe tournament’s MVP.

D u k e ’s MikeGminski is oneof only 13 play-ers to earn threefirst-team acade-mic all-Americah o n o r s .

One of the newest members of the Naismith MemorialBasketball Hall of Fame, Larry Bird led Indiana State to theN C A A championship game in 1979. It has been the onlytournament appearance for Indiana State.

C h r i s t i a nL a e t t n e r

appeared in23 NCAA t o u r-

n a m e n tgames forDuke from

1989-92 andscored 407

points. Bothmarks are

t o u r n a m e n tc a r e e r

r e c o r d s .

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Bill Walton wasalmost perfectwhen he ledU C L A p a s tMemphis in the1973 NCAA t i t l egame. Wa l t o nmade 21 of 22shots from thefield for a FinalFour record 95.5shooting per-centage and ac h a m p i o n s h i pgame record 44p o i n t s .

Tony Delk scored 24 points to lead Kentucky past Syracuse inthe 1996 NCAA championship game.

Among the numer-ous honors earned

by North CarolinaS t a t e ’s David

Thompson are theN C A At o u r n a m e n t

M V P, severalp l a y e r - o f - t h e - y e a r

awards, three first-team all-America

selections and mem-bership in the

Naismith MemorialBasketball Hall of

F a m e .

Bill Russell led San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA c h a m-pionships in 1955 and 1956.

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H o u s t o n ’s Akeem Olajuwon (later changed to Hakeem) was thelast player from a nonchampionship team to be named theN C A A tournament MVP when he earned the honor in 1983.

A master atthe line,I n d i a n a ’sSteve A l f o r dled thenation inf r e e - t h r o wp e r c e n t a g ein 1984.

Isiah Thomas had a game-high 23 points to lead Indianapast North Carolina in the 1981 championship game.

Walt Hazzardwas named the

N C A A t o u r n a-ment MVP i n

1964 whenU C L A won itsfirst national

c h a m p i o n s h i p .

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To be like Mike,you would haveto earn severalp l a y e r - o f - t h e -year awards,first team all-America honors,be named to theFinal Four all-time team andhit the winningbasket in theN C A A c h a m p i-onship game. Incase you didn’tk n o w, “Mike” isMichael Jordanof NorthC a r o l i n a .

Ed O’Bannon has lasting memories of the 1995 season as theN C A A tournament MVP led UCLA to its first championship in 20y e a r s .

Of all the greatcenters to play

for Georgetown,Patrick Ewing

tops thes c h o o l ’s list asthe Hoyas’ a l l -

time leadingrebounder and

shot blocker.

Grant Hill played in 20 NCAA tournament games for Dukefrom 1991 to 1994 and totaled a tournament career record39 steals.

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Bryant “Big Country” Reeves led Oklahoma State to the 1995Final Four, the Cowboys’ first appearance there since 1951.

John Wa l l a c ewas a doublethreat in his fouryears atSyracuse as hecollected 1,065rebounds and2 , 119 points.

Sean Elliott decided to attend the University of Arizona inhis hometown Tucson and ended up leading the Wildcats totheir first Final Four appearance in 1988.

In the highest-rated televisedcollege basket-ball of all-time,

Magic Johnsons l a m m e d

Michigan Statepast Larry Bird-

led Indiana Statein the 1979

N C A A title gameas almost one-

quarter of allTVs in the U.S.were tuned in.

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Gene Bartowis one of only11 coaches totake two dif-ferent teamsto the FinalFour. BartowguidedMemphis in1973 andUCLA in 1976.

The highest winning percentage in the NCAA tournament fora coach belongs to Ed Jucker, who was 11-1 (.917) while lead-ing Cincinnati to two NCAA titles and a runner-up spot in theearly 1960s.

Tubby Smithtopped off a

period of fivestraight NCAA

tournamentappearances

with three dif-ferent teams by

winning the1998 national

championshipwith Kentucky.

Denny Crum is one of only three active coaches withmore than one NCAA championship, having led Louisvilleto the title in 1980 and 1986.

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The Coaches

Adolph Rupp coached Kentucky for 41 years, totaled 876 vic-tories and won four NCAA championships.

WhenTexasChristianmade the1998 NCAAtournamentfield, itmarked thethird differ-ent tourna-mentschool forBilly Tubbs,who alsoguidedLamar andOklahoma.

Guy Lewis took Houston to five Final Four appearancesin his 30-year career with the Cougars.

Through the1998 season,Jim Boeheim

has led theOrangemento 18 NCAAtournament

appearancesin 22 seasons

at Syracuse.

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MikeKrzyzewskicoached Duketo five straightFinal Fourappearancesfrom 1988-92and two nation-al titles in 1991and 1992.

Joe B. Hall got to cut down the nets in 1978 as one of four dif-ferent coaches to lead Kentucky to the NCAA title.

In 26 years atGeorgetown,

JohnThompson hasa .717 winningpercentage, 20NCAA tourna-ment appear-ances, three

Final Fourappearances

and an NCAAchampionship

in 1984.

Most of Phog Allen’s 46 years of coaching came beforethe first NCAA tournament in 1939, but he still managedto lead Kansas to four appearances and a championshipin 1952. Those 1952 Jayhawks featured Clyde Lovellette,the only player ever to lead the nation in scoring thesame year his team won the NCAA title.

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I n d i a n a ’s Bob Knight has the most NCAA championships of anyactive coach with titles in 1976, 1981 and 1987.

“V” is for JimValvano, who ledhis “Cinderella”North CarolinaState team to anupset victoryover Houston inthe 1983 NCAAtitle game.

Nolan Richardson had plenty to smile about after hisArkansas Razorbacks won the NCAA title in 1994.

The record formost career vic-

tories by acoach is 879 by

Dean Smith,who coached 36

years at NorthC a r o l i n a .

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Steve Fishermade the mostof his opportuni-ty when he waspromoted fromMichigan assis-tant coach tointerim headcoach justbefore the 1989N C A A t o u r n a-ment. TheWolverines wontheir next sixgames, theN C A A c h a m p i-onship and the“interim” wasdropped fromF i s h e r’s title.

Eddie Sutton is the only coach to take four schools —-Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State —- to theN C A A tournament.

K a n s a s ’R o yWilliams has282 victories— the most

ever national-ly by a coachafter his first10 seasons. Henry Iba coached Oklahoma State in 36 seasons of his 41-

year career as a head coach including back-to-back NCAAtitles in 1945 and 1946.

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– 158 –

Don Haskins helped change the face of college basket-ball as his 1966 UTEP team won the NCAA t i t l e .

Jerry Tarkanian has one of the best all-time winning percent-ages for a coach after leading Long Beach State, UNLV andFrenso State.

Ray Meyerspent hisentire 42-yearc o a c h i n gcareer atDePaul andearned nation-al coach-of-the-year hon-ors in four dif-ferent sea-s o n s .

In 1995, JimHarrick guid-

ed UCLA to itsfirst NCAA

title in 20years and its11th overall.

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In a 25-yearc a r e e r, LuteOlson hastaken trips tothe Final Fourwith bothIowa andArizona. Hefinally tookhome the tro-phy with theWildcats in1 9 9 7 .

In 1998, Rick Majerus reached the Final Four with Utah in his14th season of coaching.

Al McGuire ledMarquette to the

1977 nationalc h a m p i o n s h i pand is one of

only threecoaches to win

the NCAA title inhis last game asa collegiate headcoach. The othertwo coaches are

John Wo o d e nwith UCLA i n

1975 and LarryBrown with

Kansas in 1988.The first NCAA tournament in 1939 was won by the OregonDucks, whose coach Howard Hobson suggested innova-tions to the game of basketball in the 1940s such as a widerfoul lane and the three-point field goal. Both rules changeswere adopted years later.

John Wooden coached UCLA to 10 NCAA championships overa 12-year period.

Ralph Millercoached atotal of 38years atWi c h i t aState, Iowaand OregonState andwas electedinto theN a i s m i t hM e m o r i a lB a s k e t b a l lHall ofFame in1 9 8 8 .

Rick Pitino guided Providence and Kentucky to the FinalFour and came away the winner with the Wildcats in 1996.

Norm Sloancut down the

net after lead-ing North

Carolina Stateto its first

N C A A title in1 9 7 4 .

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