From Anthony Davis' unibrow to the 'Boss Button': March Madness by the numbers
Anthony Davis is one of the tourney's most electrifying players. His Kentucky Wildcats are one of the most electrifying teams.
March 15th, 2012
11:25 AM ET

From Anthony Davis' unibrow to the 'Boss Button': March Madness by the numbers

March Madness is a time for numbers. The number one, for instance, represents the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats or, perhaps, the number of eyebrows that their star freshman forward, Anthony Davis, has.

You know you're good when you not only rock a unibrow with abandon, but your mom shows up to a game with a unibrow mask. Simply put, dude's a beast. If you want some more stunning numbers from the 6-foot-10 Davis, he averaged more than 14 points, 10 rebounds and almost five blocks per game during the season.

One more number: He celebrated a birthday Sunday. His 19th.

But the tournament is much bigger than one player, and there are several teams - especially in the loaded South region - that will be looking to take John Calipari's Wildcats down a notch.

The games tip off today at 12:15 p.m. ET. Here's a look at the tournament by the numbers, with big ups to Amy Roberts at the CNN Library for putting these together:

67 – Number of games in the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

68 – Number of teams invited to be in the tournament.

1 in 4,294,967,296 – Chances of creating the perfect bracket through the first round.

1986 – The year the three-point shot was introduced to college basketball.

4,118 – Pebbles on the official March Madness game ball, the "Solution" by Wilson.

$49.95 – Price of a spandex "Superfan" suit.

$9.95 – How about a fuzzy wig to match your "Superfan" suit?

8 – Teams with a feline mascot, the best represented animal genre in the Big Dance (Kentucky Wildcats, Memphis Tigers, Davidson Wildcats, BYU Cougars, Missouri Tigers, Kansas State Wildcats, Vermont Catamounts, Ohio Bobcats - and no, we didn't count Cincinnati because a Bearcat isn't really a cat. It's of the viverridae family, as opposed to felidae. If you'd care to argue, we'd kindly ask that you go elsewhere as today is about basketball, not obscure taxonomy. Thank you.)

11 – Most times a school has won the tournament. (UCLA, which this year is watching from home - as is 11/12 of the Pac 12 after Cal had their butts handed to them by the South Florida Bulls on Wednesday night. All hope's riding on you, Colorado)

39 – Fewest points ever scored by a winning team in the NCAA Final: Wisconsin over Washington State in 1941.

1939 – Year of the first tournament

23 – Years in a row Kansas has been invited to the tournament, a record.

3 – Times Kansas has won the championship (1952, 1988, 2008).

10 – Most tournament final wins by any coach: John Wooden of UCLA.

1.2% – Likelihood a NCAA men's basketball player will make it to the NBA, according to the NCAA's 2010 numbers.

1 – Years President Barack Obama has predicted the winner of the tournament: North Carolina in 2009 (this will be his fourth tournament since becoming commander in chief).

2 – Times he has chosen Kansas to win: 2010 and 2011 (the prez is going with UNC again this year, which in a wacky election season is sure to elicit GOP cries that he is forsaking the Heartland).

$738 million – Amount of CBS and Turner ad revenue for March Madness in 2011.

86 – Percent of workers surveyed who plan to follow March Madness games (PDF) and scores from work.

1.7 million – Times on the first day of March Madness in 2011 that CBS' "Boss Button" was pushed by employees watching from their desks. That is some grade A shirking, America. I bet we're on par with the Brits during the World Cup.

27 – Percent of men who will compete in an office pool for March Madness this year.

13 – Percent of women who will join the office pool.

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Filed under: Basketball • College basketball • Sports • U.S.
soundoff (18 Responses)
  1. drthunder

    seems like that 1 in 4.3 billion number is wrong... there are 32 games in the FIRST round, which is 2^32 = 4.3 billion combinations of winners, and does not include the later rounds. I think the number should be like 2^63 (ignoring the play-in games), which is much larger.

    March 15, 2012 at 2:34 pm | Report abuse |
    • Jay

      You are right. I clicked the link and nowhere did they mention that number in the other article. That's bad reporting.

      March 15, 2012 at 4:45 pm | Report abuse |
    • kampercam

      yeah when I read that it made me laugh. 2009 I had a perfect 1st round. It was all down hill afterwards though, worst of all EWWNC won it all too 😦

      March 15, 2012 at 5:58 pm | Report abuse |
    • FelixCat

      Which is why it (correctly) reads "1 in 4,294,967,296 – Chances of creating the perfect bracket through the FIRST ROUND." (caps added for emphasis)

      Reading is FUNdamental.

      March 16, 2012 at 1:37 am | Report abuse |
    • FelixCat

      Oops should have read the next message...sorry...

      March 16, 2012 at 1:39 am | Report abuse |
  2. Eliott C. McLaughlin

    You are correct, drthunder. We fixed it. Thanks for the heads-up. We appreciate you commenting!

    March 15, 2012 at 4:11 pm | Report abuse |
  3. kampercam

    "the best represented animal genre in the Big Dance" Obviously the best is NC State Wolfpack Mr & Mrs. Wolf! I may be biased though 🙂

    March 15, 2012 at 6:02 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Johnny Orlando

    There are just some teams that shouldn't be in it. Drexel should have gotten an invite and the entire "first four" should have been in either the NIT or CBI

    March 15, 2012 at 11:13 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Billy

    "1 in 4,294,967,296 – Chances of creating the perfect bracket through the first round."

    What a misleading stat. This would be correct if we were talking about 32 games that were even matchups. Obviously, in a seeded tournament with large discrepencies in talent this, is not the case.

    March 16, 2012 at 8:47 am | Report abuse |
    • Scott

      They wouldn't have to be even matchups. You could flip a coin to pick the winners to get that 1 in 4.3 billion. And who would do that?

      March 16, 2012 at 9:13 am | Report abuse |
  6. A.P. in S.C.

    Go Dragons! Drexel

    March 16, 2012 at 8:55 am | Report abuse |
  7. Meaghan

    I don't think Kansas holds the records with 23 ournament appearances. Arizona had 25 and North Carolina has had 27 or more.

    March 16, 2012 at 2:05 pm | Report abuse |
    • joan

      23 STRAIGHT tournament appearances. Duke was not invited during the 90's, and north carolina was not invited in 2010.

      March 20, 2012 at 2:19 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Meaghan

    *I don't think Kansas holds the records with 23 consecutive tournament appearances. Arizona had 25 and North Carolina has had 27 or more.

    March 16, 2012 at 2:06 pm | Report abuse |
    • joan

      North carolina did not go in 2010, therefore, straight tournament appearances is out.

      March 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm | Report abuse |
  9. George Clooney Relseasd

    Shouldn't they be in schools ?

    March 16, 2012 at 3:52 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Shakes

    Are there not only four games in the first round?

    March 16, 2012 at 4:49 pm | Report abuse |
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