Finals Week: The Answer KeyThanks to the 168(!) people who played along with our second non-annual Mid-Majority Finals Week. That's so many people, they'd have to hold this class in one of those auditoriums where the professor doesn't know you from Samuel Haanpaa, where you have to spend five minutes of your six-minutes during the Tuesday afternoon office-hours window explaining who you are. This is nothing like that, promise. I care about each and every one of your continuing educations. The Mid-Majority T.A.'s will be grading everyone's answers overnight using fuzzy logic, giving folks the benefit of the doubt in all borderline cases (that's why this wasn't multiple choice). And the top three will be notified sometime on Sunday, just fire back your mailing address and we'll send you your prize. And there had previously been a deliberate policy of not posting a picture of what you've been fighting over, so you wouldn't get cute overload and start an adorable riot. There will be other chances to win a stuffed Bally, don't worry.
After the jump, the answer key. 1. Of the Original Seven members of the Missouri Valley Conference, which one is not a current Division I school? 2. That dude from Grinnell set the NCAA assists record, but the D-I mark of 22 is still held by two men, one of whom is an NBA head coach. Who is he, and which SWAC school did he attend? 3. Towson (nee State) was once in the Big South, and in its second-to-last season there (1994-95) the Tigers beat two big-time teams that are currently in the Big East. Name one of them. 4. In which year did the olde-tyme tradition of the BracketBusters begin? 5. There was a big advance in basketball technology the year the stitches came out. What year was it? 6. Former SoCon member West Virginia won eight NCAA games as a member of that league, but which current member has won five? 7. The Biblical God made the world in six days, but it took much longer for James Naismith to invent basketball. How long did it take him? 8. Duquesne won the first-ever A-10 tournament champion, but three teams that are gone now to the Big East split the regular season division championships. Can you name two? 9. What is the second-oldest venue in Division I basketball, and who plays there? 10. Creighton used to have a real live blue jay as its mascot. What was his name? 11. What is the largest media market (as per Nielsen) in the Missouri Valley Conference? 12. Only one state has enough Division I directionals to fill out the four directions on the compass. Which is it? 13. How many Division I programs are there in the state of Texas? 14. It was about time that the Mid-Continent Conference changed its name -- it once contained two member schools from states that touch the non-Gulf portions of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you name one? 15. How many U.S. states have only one Division I basketball school, and which are they? 16. I am a double-directional school that had two winning seasons at the NCAA's top level in the mid-Nineties before dropping off the D-I map. Who am I? 17. Twenty-five Division I schools are hyphenates (or Cal States) that proudly include their city of origin in their names. Name ten. 18. "The Valley" isn't just a conference, it's also a part of a couple of D-I school names. Which two are they? 19. Other than "North" Carolina, how many schools with some type of directional indicator in their names have won the national title? 20. Name one of the only two states in the lower 48 without a mid-major school. 21. How many Division I schools are playing basketball this year? 22. There weren't always ten players on the court. In which year did the first five-on-five college basketball game occur? 23. VMI's Reggie Williams led the nation in scoring last season. What was his average? 24. You could do a whole math section on VMI. The Keydets scored 156 points in a game earlier this year. Who was it against? 25. The Big East has 16 teams and the Atlantic 14 has, well, 14. Which conference has 13 members? 26. Fifteen Division I teams ended the 2006-07 season on winning streaks, but didn't play in conference tournaments for various reasons. Can you name three? 27. 107 teams won at least 20 games in 2006-07. That's more than can fit in the NIT and NCAA combined. How many 20-win teams didn't make the NCAA Tournament last season: a. more than 25 or b. less than 25? 28. In 2006, 22-9 Missouri State became the school with the best RPI rating not to make the NCAA Tournament. What was their number? 29. Butler's Darnell Archey recently set a D-I record for consecutive free throws. How many did he sink before he finally missed one on Feb. 14, 2003? 30. What percentage of the RPI formula is your own team's winning percentage? 31. The 2001-02 Elite Eight Kent State team won 21 games in a row before losing 89-61 to Indiana in the regional championship. What was the last team to beat the Golden Flashes before that? 32. Centenary is off to a nice start, but they've never made it to the NCAA's. They did win a conference championship in 1980, but the league didn't have an auto-bid yet. Which conference? 33. Before George Mason 2006, Navy 1986 made the CAA's last deep run in the NCAA Tournament. You know David Robinson was the star of that Elite Eight team, but who was the head coach? 34. The SWAC hasn't won a game at the NCAA Tournament since 1993, when Southern upset Georgia Tech, but all but two of the 10 league teams have served as SWAC champ-resentatives. Can you name either one of the missing? 35. Of the eight teams in the inaugural NCAA Tournament, two were from what are now known as mid-major conferences. Can you name the schools? 36. In 1979, Penn's run to the Final Four was slightly overshadowed by that whole Bird-Magic thing. But the Quakers' impressive four-game quest began at a 8-9 "play-in" game on the 48-team bracket. Who'd they beat in that contest? 37. What was the last year the NCAA held a national third-place game? 38. What current OVC team was the last to represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament and win, and what year was it? 39. In a 13-over-4 upset of Ole Miss, the famous play that set up Bryce Drew's "Shot" was named after the NBA team Valparaiso borrowed it from. Which team? |
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