03/12/2007

New Coaches (9)
Tony Bennett, Washington State
Anthony Grant, Virginia Commonwealth
Johnny Jones, North Texas
Glen Miller, Pennsylvania
Jeff Neubauer, Eastern Kentucky
Randy Rahe, Weber State
Larry Reynolds, Long Beach State
Dave Rose, Brigham Young
Reggie Theus, New Mexico State

The 9 new coaches mark the lowest number of new coaches in the tournament since 1983 when there were also 9.  It is the fewest number of new coaches since the field went to 64 teams in 1985.

The most times a school has had a coach making his first ever tournament appearance is 7.  There are 5 schools who have done this.  They are:
  • Miami, Ohio
  • Pennsylvania
  • Seattle
  • Weber State
  • Western Kentucky

Every team in this year's tournament has at least 3 losses.  That ties the record for most losses by the team with the fewest.  It also happened in 1939, 1993, 2000, 2002 and 2003.

All 4 #1 seeds won are automatic qualifiers.  This is 7th time that has happened.  The other years were 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1997.

Kansas becomes only the second team with a double digit RPI to be seeded #1.  Their RPI is 11.  The other was Michigan State in 2000 with a 13 RPI.

Most Consecutive Years having at least one team from a state in the Tournament
California (58)
Kentucky (44)
New York (35)
North Carolina (34)
Pennsylvania (31)
Texas (30)
Ohio (26)
Oklahoma (26)
Kansas (24)
Arizona (23)
Utah (13)
South Carolina (12)
Florida (10)
Michigan (10)
 Washington (10)

String of at least 10 consecutive years with at least one team from a state snapped
Alabama (10)

Longest Droughts for this year's Tournament teams:
North Texas - 1988
Wright State - 1993
Washington State - 1994
Long Beach State - 1995
Virginia Tech - 1996

Most Consecutive At-Large Bids
Texas (9)
Michigan State (7)
Arizona (5)
 
Most Consecutive Automatic Bids
Gonzaga (4)
Florida (3)
Pennsylvania (3) 
Winthrop (3)