POINT OF FACT
? What was the most dramatic NCAA championship game ever played?
•In 1957 North Carolina beat Kansas 54-53 in a triple-overtime game. Kansas, led by Wilt Chamberlain, had been heavily favored in the finals after easily beating San Francisco 80-56 the previous night. North Carolina, on the other hand, had to play three overtimes against Michigan State in the semifinals before winning 74-70. In the championship game the score was 46-46 at the end of regulation play and 48-48 after the first overtime. The second overtime was scoreless. North Carolina went ahead 52-48 in the third overtime but Kansas tied the score and, with 31 seconds to go, went ahead by one point. With six seconds left, however, Joe Quigg of North Carolina sank two foul shots to win the game.
? Has any team, besides North Carolina, won by only one point in a championship game?
•Yes. Indiana beat Kansas 69-68 in 1953, and California beat West Virginia 71-70 in 1959.
? Ohio State had a perfect record (24-0) when it went into the 1961 NCAA tournament. Has any other team entered the NCAA tournament with no regular-season defeats?
•Yes. Columbia was 21-0 but lost in the first round in 1951. San Francisco was 25-0 in 1956 and won four more games to take the title. North Carolina was 27-0 when it entered the 1957 tournament.
? Has any team won the NCAA championship in successive years?
•Yes. Oklahoma A&M won in 1945 and 1946, Kentucky in 1948 and 1949 (Kentucky also won in 1951 and 1958, the only team to take more than two championships) and San Francisco in 1955 and 1956. Indiana is the only other team to have won twice—1940 and 1953.
? Billy McGill of Utah was high scorer in last year's tournament, with 117 points in four games. Who holds the tournament record for points scored?
•Hal Lear of Temple scored 160 points in five games in the 1956 tournament. Temple lost in the semifinals to Iowa but won the consolation game to finish third in the tournament. Jerry West of West Virginia also scored 160 points in five games in 1959. Clyde Lovellette of Kansas holds the record for four games—141 points in 1952. Oscar Robertson of Cincinnati scored the most points in one game (56), against Arkansas in the 1958 western regional consolation game.
? Jerry Lucas was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament in 1960 and 1961. Has any other player been MVP two years in a row?
•Yes. Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M was picked in 1945 and 1946, and Alex Groza of Kentucky in 1948 and 1949. Kurland and Groza were also tournament high scorers both years.
? When Lucas won the MVP award last year he became the sixth player to do so from a team that did not win the championship. Who were the others?
•B. H. Born was MVP in 1953, when Kansas was runner-up in the tournament. Hal Lear won in 1956, Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas in 1957, Elgin Baylor of Seattle in 1958 and Jerry West of West Virginia in 1959. Kansas, Seattle and West Virginia all came in second.
? What was the biggest margin of victory for a team in a championship game?
•Ohio State beat California by 20 points (75-55) in 1960, Indiana defeated Kansas by 18 points (60-42) in 1940, and Kansas beat St. John's by 17 points (80-63) in 1952. La Salle scored the most points in a title game when it beat Bradley 92-76 in 1954.
ILLUSTRATION