"So just tell them you need more time," she responded. "They won't really mind, will they?"
You heard the lady, I need more time to figure out who won. But here is the complete answer key, posted in advance of winner notification so as to allow for any and all last-minute protests. Back atcha tomorrow.
As expected, there were some truly awesome responses to the essay question about Tournament memories, so I'll be posting a handful of those too - with names and addresses hidden to protect the innocent; enterprising Googlers will have a more difficult time finding out your true hoopgeek identity. Thank me later.
HISTORY
1. The North Atlantic Conference and the Seaboard Conference merged in 1996 to become what circuit?
America East
2. Who was the national leader in points per game for the 2003-04 season, and what college did he play for?
Keydren "Kiki" Clark - St. Peter's
3. In what year was the Atlantic Sun Conference founded?
1978
4. Before Quinnipiac adopted the nickname "Bobcats," what were their teams known as?
Braves
5. What conference was Gonzaga originally a charter member of?
Big Sky
6. What school gave UCLA legend John Wooden his first college coaching job?
Indiana State
7. What is the oldest venue in Division I basketball, and who plays there?
Rose Hill Gym (opened in 1925); Fordham
8. What was the original name of Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso), the school that won the 1966 national championship?
Texas School of Mines and Metallurgy (anything close will count)
9. In what year did prospective student-athletes start signing national letters of intent (NLI)?
1964
10. In the mid-Thirties, a simple rule change revolutionized college basketball. Something that had occurred after every single made basket was abolished, speeding up the game immeasurably. What was that time-consuming practice?
Jump ball at center court
GEOGRAPHY
11. What state is Jacksonville State University, home of the Gamecocks, located in?
Alabama
12. There are actually two Chapel Hills in North Carolina. The tiny one in Madison County - way out near the Tennessee border - is just 20 short miles from a University of North Carolina that doesn't have a single national championship to its credit. Name the school and the conference it plays in.
UNC-Asheville; Big South Conference
13. I am the highway that keeps Big Sky rivals Montana and Montana State well-separated. What's my name, fool?
I-90 (200 miles between Missoula and Bozeman)
14. How many Division I basketball schools are there in the state of North Dakota?
Zero
15. How many (non-provisional) Division I basketball schools are there whose names contain "University of California"?
Five (UCLA and California of the Pac-10; UC-Irvine, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Riverside of the Big West)... UC-Davis becomes a full-fledged D1 in 2007
16. What state hosted the last Final Four that was not held in some type of domed stadium?
New Jersey (1996, Brendan Byrne/Continental Airlines Arena)
17. Name the schools that comprise Buffalo's Big Four.
Canisius, Niagara, Buffalo and St. Bonaventure
18. The "Pit" isn't just the nickname of a couple of big-school arenas, it's also the acronym for a spring tournament designed to allow college seniors to impress NBA scouts. Where is it held (city and state, please)?
Portsmouth, Virginia (Portsmouth Invitational Tournament)
19. What do Natchitoches, Louisiana and Evanston, Illinois have in common?
Universities with "Northwestern" in the name: Northwestern [IL] and Northwestern State [LA]. (extra credit given if similar purple/white color schemes noted)
20. I am a conference. Those idiots on ESPN call me a small conference, but I'm actually freakishly huge. In fact, if you were to jump in a car at my easternmost school and drive across me to my westernmost school, you'd find that I'm over 2,000 miles end-to-end. Who am I?
The Sun Belt, which stretches from Miami, Florida (home of Florida International) to Denver, Colorado (where Denver University is located)
MATHEMATICS
21. How many teams are there in the Big Ten?
Eleven (that, my friends, was a "gimmee")
22. Before the point guard position was "revolutionized" by 6-1 guys who just brought the ball up and shot it, we used a certain ratio to determine the quality of their play. What are those two statistics?
Assists to turnovers
23. How many Division I schools (not counting those currently in the process of moving up from D2) are playing basketball this year?
326 (but anything from there to 330 is okay so to stem off any case-by-case quibblin')
24. In the Ratings Percentage Index formula that is so crucial in determining which teams make the Tournament on an at-large basis, how much weight is given to a team's opponents' average winning percentage?
50%
25. As of the beginning of the season, Dana Altman had won 195 games and lost 109 games as Creighton's coach. What's his winning percentage? What team did the Bluejays beat to get him his 200th?
.641; Ohio State
26. What is the length of a regulation NCAA court in feet and inches?
94 feet even (or 1,128 inches)
27. How many basketballs fit within the circumference of a standard rim?
Two (ball: 9" diameter; rim: 18" diameter... Digger Phelps won't shut up about this)
28. Hi. My name is Jared Holt, and I play for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. I'm 7-2 and 340 pounds, but I'm redshirting this year 'cause Coach Arrow wants me to add more bulk so the Islanders can scare the s#$@ out of even more teams next year. The people who invented the Body Mass Index say I'm "obese," but that's okay because I could easily dunk on their sorry asses. What's my BMI?
32.3
64 SM 14R 32D TRVL TO
67 G 5D 3 5D 1 22 ++C
29. The above is an example of Dean Oliver's fantastic Possession Scoring System. In this hypothetical example that didn't really happen, two mid-major darlings are having at it in a testy conference battle. What teams are they?
Gonzaga and St. Mary's (West Coast Conference)
30. Give a brief description of what happened during this sequence.
Gonzaga up 65-64. St. Mary's forward Daniel Kickert grabs a rebound and passes to guard Jonathan Sanders. Sanders gets called for traveling and turns it over. Next possession: Gonzaga guard Derek Raivio dribbles downcourt, then passes to forward Adam Morrison. Morrison passes back to Raivio. Raivio dribbles and passes in to Ronny Turiaf, who kicks out to Erroll Knight. Knight hits a two-point jumper from the right of the key, Turiaf gets an assist on the play. Gonzaga leads 67-64. (You are still very much correct if you just used player 's or were slightly less detailed)
BRACKETOLOGY
31. One of the most fantastic Tournament games of this century had to have been Gonzaga's double-overtime 96-95 near-miss against Arizona in the 2003 second round. What were their respective seeds?
Arizona was a 1-seed, Gonzaga was a 9-seed
32. Loyola Marymount's Hank Gathers collapsed and died just days before the first round of the 1990 Tournament, and if you weren't crying back then when you saw Bo Kimble taking free throws left-handed in his memory then there was something seriously wrong with you. LMU dropped 149 points on a stunned Big Ten school in the second round that year. Who was it?
Michigan (149-111)
33. Jimmy Valvano wouldn't have charged onto the court looking for someone to hug after the 1983 title game if N.C. State hadn't survived their first-round trial-by-fire. And it certainly looked as if they were going to lose - in overtime, they were down by six points with 24 seconds left, with the other team shooting free throws. Who was that team?
Pepperdine (N.C. State won 69-67 in double overtime)
34. Meow... I mean, "roar!" I am a mighty feline mascot for a university that has pulled the 14-seed over 3-seed first round upset not once, but twice during the past decade. What school do I cheer for?
Weber State (Wildcats; 1995 over Michigan State and 1999 over North Carolina)
35. The 1986 Tournament saw an improbable run by a MAC team that their coach described simply as "off-Broadway guys." Who were they, and name one of the two teams they beat on the way to the Sweet 16.
Cleveland State; as a 14-seed, they beat 3-seed Indiana and 6-seed St. Joseph's
36. In the 1969 national semifinals, a small school nearly ended the UCLA dynasty with full-court pressure and a hot-shooting guard named Willie McCarter. What school was it, and what was the final score of that game?
Drake; 85-82
37. In 1989, Siena qualified for the Tournament as a 14-seed but almost had to stay home becuse of a campus measles epidemic. Fans wore T-shirts that read, "Siena Saints 98.6, Measles 0," and cheered their team to a first round upset. Who'd they beat?
Stanford (80-78)
38. During that same 1989 Tournament, Princeton nearly became the first 16-seed to beat a 1-seed, losing 50-49. Who was that 1-seed, and who was the player who fouled Kit Mueller on the final Princeton shot? (and yes, it was a foul!!!)
Georgetown; Alonzo "Summer Groove" Mourning
39. The 1985 Tournament (which Villanova, of course, won) was also the first one that featured 64 teams. Some said that the diluted field would result in crappy basketball, but a lot of those people had to close the hatches on their pie-holes once they saw 1-seed Michigan pushed to the limit by a scrappy eastern school nobody had ever heard of. What school?
Fairleigh-Dickinson University (59-55; Michigan lost to 8-seed Villanova in the second round by an identical score)
