List of March Madness Basketball Facts

March Madness is a jam-packed three-week basketball tournament that features the best young players in the country. Basketball has a lot of statistics, and with over 80 years of history, March Madness has racked up countless records. The tournament has changed over the years, expanding in size and seeing different schools rise to dominance.

March Madness Basketball Facts

• The first-ever NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament occurred in 1939. The Oregon Ducks won the tournament, defeating Ohio State in the championship.
• The 1939 tournament had just 8 teams. By 1951 the size doubled to 16 teams, and then doubled again to 32 in 1975. The tournament reached 64 teams in 1985.
• Duke’s coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has the most career wins in March Madness tournaments with 97.
• Only one time in March Madness history has a 16 seeded team beat a 1 seeded team. This occurred in 2018 when the University of Maryland-Baltimore County stunned the Virginia Cavaliers.
• The name “March Madness” was coined in 1939 when the tournament first occurred. Henry V. Porter, an Illinois high school employee, was the first to use the phrase.
• The largest comeback in March Madness history occurred in 2001 when the Duke Blue Devils erased a 22-point deficit against Maryland.
• UCLA has the most March Madness championships with 11 titles. The last UCLA championship occurred in 1995.
• Kentucky has appeared in the most March Madness tournaments, 60. They are also tied for the most wins in March Madness games with UNC at 129.
• The eight teams who competed in the first-ever March Madness tournament were Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah State, Villanova, Brown, Wake Forest, and Ohio State.
• It is almost impossible to fill out a perfect bracket by correctly estimating the result of all 63 games in the tournament. The odds of completing the bracket perfectly are approximately 1 in 9.2 quintillion.