Did you know…

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.