The Monk promised more, and there's still more to come, but here's a quick follow-up to my initial post, some factoids from last year's preview column, updated based on last year's results.
Curious factoids: (i) only three NCAA Tournaments since 1985 have not had an ACC team in the Final Four, each time Syracuse won its regional (1987, 1996, 2003); (ii) Duke has not failed to reach the Sweet 16 since 1997 -- that's now nine-straight years that the Dookies have survived the first weekend, if Duke survives the first weekend, remember that it has lost six times in the Sweet 16 under Coach K but only once in the Regional Finals; (iii) three #1 seeds have reached the Final Four only three times since the seeding system started in 1979 (1993, 1997, 1999), by contrast three non-#1 seeds have reached the Final Four in three of the past six years (2000, 2003, 2004) and six times since the first 3-#1 Final Four in 1993 (1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004), by far the most common occurrence is a pair of #1 seeds making the Final Four, like last year; (iv) only four No. 15 seeds have ever beaten a #2, no #1 seed has ever lost a first round game and only Arizona and South Carolina have lost first round games as a #2 and #3 seed in consecutive years; (v) the last Ivy League team to win a first-round game was Princeton in 1998 but it was a #5 seed, the last lower-seeded Ivy to win a first-round game was Princeton in 1996 -- it then lost badly in the second round; this year's Ivy winner is 15th-seeded Penn; (vi) no team has ever lost in the quarterfinals of its conference tournament and won the NCAA -- Texas was a rarity by reaching the Final Four in 2003; the most notable choker in its conference quarters this year is everyone's favorite, UConn.
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