College Basketball
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
- Former Princeton Tiger and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley holds the single-game Final Four record, scoring 58 points in 1965 in the now-defunct Final Four consolation game.
- “Pistol” Pete Maravich holds the NCAA career scoring record with 3,667 points. Incredibly, he set the record in only three seasons.Maravich was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987.
- North Carolina head coach Dean Smith retired in 1997 as the winningest coach in college basketball history. He amassed 879 wins in his 36-year career and coached future NBA star Michael Jordan.
- The University of Oregon won the first NCAA basketball tournament in 1939 but hasn't won it since. UCLA has won the tournament a record 11 times.
- Seven teams have gone undefeated and went on to win the national title: San Francisco (1956), North Carolina (1957), UCLA (1964, 67, 72, 73), and Indiana (1976).
- UCLA holds claim to the longest winning streak in Division I college basketball history. The Bruins won an amazing 88 games in a row from 1971 to 1974! For the women, the University of Connecticut's Huskies had a 70-game streak that ended in March 2003.
- Eight players that have been national college player of the year went on to win the regular season Most Valuable Player award in the NBA: Bill Russell (San Francisco), Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA), Bill Walton (UCLA), Larry Bird (Indiana St.), Michael Jordan (North Carolina), David Robinson (Navy), and Shaquille O'Neal (LSU).
- Louisiana Tech won the first NCAA women's basketball tournament in 1982. Tennessee has won the national title six times since then.
- The 1979 Final Four championship game is the highest-rated college basketball game in TV history. Approximately 18 million households were watching. The game featured the first of many meetings between future NBA stars Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
- The NCAA first introduced the three-point shot to college basketball in 1987, and the move changed the game for good. The three-pointer has become a major weapon in the sport and has altered the way teams attack and defend.
- The 2004 NCAA championship went to the University of Connecticut—for both the men and women! This was the first time a school won both titles.
 Antawn Jamison AP Photos |
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