With the NCAA tournament upon us, it's no doubt some of the teams in the field of 68 are foreign to you. Unless, of course, you're a rabid college basketball fan.
Either way, we went through the full roster of teams and picked out one interesting, enlightening and/or fun fact about each and every one. Some might help you with your bracket. Some might be good fodder for trivia. Some might just make you chuckle. Some you razor-sharp aficionados probably already know. Regardless, enjoy this quick spin through the 2015 field.
MIDWEST REGION
1. Kentucky: The Wildcats are looking to become the first team since Indiana in 1976 to complete an undefeated season, and they’re doing it with defense, holding opponents to a Division I-best 35.5 percent from the field.
2. Kansas: The Jayhawks are in the field for the 26th consecutive season, making them the active NCAA leaders in the category, and have competed in 30 straight tournaments for which they were eligible (the 1988-89 team went 19-12 but was on probation), with just five of those appearances coming as a 5-seed or lower.
3. Notre Dame: The Irish have not advanced past the Sweet 16 since 1979 — when the tournament had only 40 teams.
4. Maryland: For all the Terps’ past success — including a national championship in 2002 — Maryland’s 26 regular-season wins this season set a school record.
5. West Virginia: Fewer teams in college hoops get more physical than West Virginia, which leads Division I in steals (10.9), offensive rebounds (16.8) and personal fouls per game (23.3) this season.
6. Butler: Chris Holtmann has revived the Butler program since being named interim coach in October, when Bulldogs coach Brandon Miller went on medical leave, and has the 2010 and 2011 runners-up back in the tournament after a year out of the field. Holtmann was officially named head coach in January.
7. Wichita State: Fifty years ago this season, Wichita State reached its first-ever Final Four, losing to UCLA in the national semifinal and Princeton in a third-place game that saw Bill Bradley set a then-NCAA record with 58 points.
8. Cincinnati: The Bearcats are back in the big dance for the fifth consecutive season but have been playing under associate head coach Larry Davis since mid-December, when the school announced that head coach Mick Cronin would miss the rest of the season after suffering a brain aneurysm.
9. Purdue: Purdue is 0-3 all-time in head-to-head meetings with Cincinnati, its first opponent, with the most recent game between the two, a 79-59 Boilermakers loss, coming in November 2004 in Indianapolis. On the other hand, Purdue hasn't lost an opening game in its last 14 tourney trips dating back to 1993.
10. Indiana: Hide your picnic baskets! The Hoosiers’ leading scorer, Yogi Ferrell, is actually named Kevin but earned his nickname — inspired by a certain cartoon bear — thanks in part to his impressive appetite as a kid.
11. Texas: Be careful around the rim against the Longhorns, who lead the nation in blocks at 7.9 per contest.
12. Buffalo: The Bulls earned the first NCAA tournament bid in school history by winning the MAC conference tournament and are coached by Bobby Hurley, a two-time NCAA champion at Duke in the early ‘90s.
13. Valparaiso: Valpo has not won an NCAA tournament game since 1998, when the 13th-seeded Crusaders beat No. 4 seed Ole Miss in the first round on Bryce Drew’s 3-pointer at the buzzer, then beat 12th-seeded Florida State to advance to the regional semifinal.
14. Northeastern: The Huskies reached the NCAA tournament five times under Jim Calhoun — yes, that Jim Calhoun — in the 1980s and are back in the dance for the first time since 1991, a 24-year drought that included four seasons led by Dallas Mavericks point guard J.J. Barea in the early 2000s.
15. New Mexico State: This season marks the fifth time in six years the WAC champion Aggies have qualified for the tournament, but New Mexico State — which reached the 1970 Final Four — hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 1993.
16a. Hampton: By winning the MEAC tournament, the Pirates (16-17) became the 21st team to ever make the tournament with a losing record — making 2015 the fourth straight tournament to include a sub-.500 team.
16b. Manhattan: Located in the Bronx, not the borough for which it is named, Manhattan is in the tournament for the second straight year after a tumultuous offseason that saw head coach Steve Masiello leave for the same job at South Florida, only to return after it came to light that Masiello had not earned his degree at Kentucky — the team he’ll play if the Jaspers get past Hampton in the First Four.
EAST REGION
Big East champ Villanova didn't need a No. 1 seed to win the NCAA Tournament back in 1985.
1. Villanova: Thirty years ago this season, the Wildcats won the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed. They are still the lowest-seeded team to ever win an NCAA championship.
2. Virginia: The Cavaliers lead Division I in scoring defense, allowing just 50.7 points per game on the season, and held three different opponents — Rutgers, Harvard and Georgia Tech — under 30 points this year.
3. Oklahoma: Sooners head coach Lon Kruger is the only coach to lead five different programs to the NCAA tournament during his career, but he has reached the Final Four only once — at Florida in 1994.
4. Louisville: The Cardinals currently have the NCAA’s longest current streak of 30-win seasons with three but will need to win the NCAA championship to make it four.
5. Northern Iowa: The 10th-ranked team in the country, UNI is back in the dance for the first time since 2010, when the Panthers, led by Ali Farokhmanesh, stunned No. 1 seed Kansas to advance to the Sweet 16.
6. Providence: The Providence roster does not feature any players from the state of Rhode Island — which had only five Division I players during the 2013-14 season.
7. Michigan State: In 20 years as the Spartans’ head coach, Tom Izzo has missed the NCAA tournament only twice — in his first two seasons as the head coach in East Lansing.
8. North Carolina State: Kentucky isn’t the only tourney team with twins on the roster — NC State features freshman twins Caleb and Cody Martin.
9. LSU: Despite being just 6-foot-8, Tigers sophomore Jordan Mickey has blocked 107 shots this season, making him the Division I leader at 3.57 per game.
10. Georgia: Bulldogs star Marcus Thornton — no relation to the Phoenix Suns guard — was named Georgia Mr. Basketball in 2010 and is one of seven UGA players to hail from the Peach State.
11a. Boise State: After leading the Mountain West in scoring each of the past two seasons, the Broncos — who are 0-6 all time in NCAA tournament play — finished second in the conference this year, averaging 70.8 points per contest.
11b. Dayton: As an 11-seed in last year’s tournament, the Flyers upset Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford before losing to Florida in the Elite Eight — the school’s deepest tourney run since reaching the same round as a 10-seed in 1984. They’ll get to play on their home floor in the First Four for the right to play Providence.
12. Wyoming: Led by Larry Nance, Jr. — son of former NBA All-Star Larry Nance — Wyoming is a former national champion (1943) playing in its first NCAA tournament since 2002.
13. UC-Irvine: The Anteaters are in the tournament for the first time and have a not-so-secret weapon in the middle of the 2-3 zone in Mamadou Ndiaye, the nation’s tallest player at 7-foot-6.
14. Albany: The Great Danes program has been in Division I since only 1999 and is probably best known for its 2006 tournament loss to UConn — a game in which 16-seed Albany led the top-seeded Huskies by 12 midway through the second half.
15. Belmont: The Bruins upset Ohio Valley favorite Murray State in the finals of the conference tournament and are led in scoring by junior guard Craig Bradshaw (18.1 points per game), but it’s sophomore swingman Evan Bradds who leads Division I in field goal shooting, at 69.3 percent for the season.
16. Lafayette: The Patriot League champs are seeking their first postseason victory since a win over Virginia in the 1972 NIT, and if they’re going to steal an upset, they’re going to do it from 3-point range, where the Leopards are second in Division I (and first in the tournament field) at 41.3 percent from deep.
SOUTH REGION
Duke's last trip to the NCAA tournament didn't go so well.
1. Duke: The Blue Devils have lost in the first round twice since winning Mike Krzyzewski’s fourth national championship in 2010, falling to 15-seed Lehigh in 2012 and 14-seed Mercer last season.
2. Gonzaga: Head coach Mark Few has led the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament in each of his 17 seasons on the job -- Gonzaga’s is tied for the fourth-longest active streak in college basketball — but they’ve never reached the Final Four.
3. Iowa State: Cyclones sophomore guard Monte Morris leads the nation with a 4.9-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and has just 35 turnovers in 33 games this season.
4. Georgetown: The Hoyas roster includes a 6-9 freshman in a No. 33 “Mourning” jersey. It’s not Alonzo, but it is his son, Trey, who has appeared in six games for Georgetown this season.
5. Utah: Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak, the second most confusing Coach K name in the field, struggled during his abrupt tenure as an NBA head coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, but did previously lead the University of Montana to the NCAA tournament during both of his seasons on the job in Missoula.
6. SMU: Head coach Larry Brown is the only coach to have both an NCAA and NBA championship to his name and has the Mustangs back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993.
7. Iowa: The Hawkeyes are one of three teams from Iowa in the NCAA field — a feat last accomplished in 2005 — and are coached by Fran McCaffery, who has led four different programs to the NCAA tournament, including Lehigh, UNC-Greensboro and Siena.
8. San Diego State: The Aztecs are the only program in the history of the Mountain West Conference to reach the Sweet 16 twice -- including last year’s run, which ended with a 70-64 loss to No. 1 seed Arizona.
9. St. John’s: Red Storm coach Steve Lavin has won only two conference tournament games in his entire coaching career and hasn’t reached the Sweet 16 since 2002, when he was the coach at UCLA.
10. Davidson: The Wildcats’ leading scorer, senior guard Tyler Kalinoski, has sports in his blood: His dad played football at Purdue, his uncle pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, one of his grandfathers played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks, the other ran track at Ohio State, and his aunt won four national championships as a soccer player at North Carolina.
11. UCLA: The Bruins have won more championships (11) than any other program in college basketball history, with 10 of them coming in a 12-year stretch during the 1960s and ‘70s, but UCLA has not won a title since 1995, coming up short in three straight trips to the Final Four from 2006-08.
12. Stephen F. Austin: Don’t expect selfish play from the Lumberjacks, who are averaging a Division I-best 17.8 assists per game this season.
13. Eastern Washington: Eagles guard Tyler Harvey is the nation’s leading scorer at 22.9 points per game — impressive for a guy whose only scholarship offer out of high school came from D-III Whitworth University, where current EWU coach Jim Hayford coached from 2001 to 2011.
14. UAB: Blazers coach Jerod Haase played his final college game in the city where he now coaches — as a shooting guard for No. 1 seed Kansas in 1997.
15. North Dakota State: The Summit League champ for the second consecutive season, North Dakota State knocked off No. 5 seed Oklahoma in the first round of last year’s NCAA tournament and returns guard Lawrence Alexander, who scored 28 points in that win.
16a. North Florida: The Ospreys are playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history and are the only team from the state of Florida in this year’s field of 68.
16b. Robert Morris: The Colonials beat Kentucky 59-57 in the first round of the 2013 NIT and are in the field of 68 for the first time since 2010, when they took No. 2 seed Villanova to overtime in the opening round of the tournament.
WEST REGION
Bo Ryan's Badgers don't make mistakes. Would you want to let this guy down?
1. Wisconsin: Head coach Bo Ryan’s team — playing as a 1-seed for the first time — is the least foul-prone and least turnover-prone team in Division I, committing just 12.1 personal fouls and 7.4 turnovers per game.
2. Arizona: In six seasons as Arizona’s head coach, Sean Miller has led the Wildcats to three 30-win seasons, including this year — the same number Lute Olson had in his 25-year tenure with the school.
3. Baylor: Rico Gathers — a relative of the late Hank Gathers — has 17 double-doubles this season, tops among players in the NCAA tournament.
4. North Carolina: Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, North Carolina has been in the field 27 times, has lost its first-round game only once, to 14-seed Weber State in 1999, and has won three championships, most recently in 2009.
5. Arkansas: If the Razorbacks reach the Final Four, they will become the first Arkansas team to amass 30 wins in a season since Nolan Richardson’s national champion and runner-up teams in ‘94 and ‘95, respectively.
6. Xavier: Xavier is one of only 12 schools that has been to at least four Sweet 16s in the last seven years.
7. VCU: The Rams made a stunning run to the Final Four as an 11-seed in 2011, the team’s second under coach Shaka Smart, but VCU has not advanced to the Sweet 16 since, most recently dropping an opening-round matchup with 12-seed Stephen F. Austin in overtime last March.
8. Oregon: Oregon won the first-ever NCAA tournament championship, in 1939 — when the entire field consisted of eight teams — and has not been back to the Final Four since.
9. Oklahoma State: Oklahoma State won back-to-back NCAA championships in 1945 and 1946, when the team was still known as the Oklahoma A&M Aggies.
10. Ohio State: Shannon Scott’s 16 assists in the Buckeyes’ November win over Sacred Heart are the most in a Division I game this season — not to mention a school record — and D'Angelo Russell (19.3 points per game) is the leading freshman scorer in the nation.
11a. BYU: No basketball program has played in more NCAA tournaments without reaching a Final Four than BYU — a team that scores more points per game (83.6) than anyone in the 2015 field and has a triple-threat in Kyle Collinsworth, a junior who is tied for most triple doubles in NCAA history, with six (all this season).
11b. Ole Miss: At 77.8 percent on the season, the Rebels’ free throw shooting is the best among NCAA tournament teams, with Stefan Moody leading the effort at 90.1 percent on 162 attempts.
12. Wofford: Better known as the school that hosts Carolina Panthers training camp each summer, Wofford will be in the field for the fourth time in the last six years and, according to the KenPom ratings, the Terriers are the luckiest team in Division I.
13. Harvard: The Crimson are in the NCAA field for the fourth straight year, joining Princeton (1989-92) and Penn (1970-75) as the only Ivy League schools to reach the tournament in four or more consecutive seasons — though Dartmouth also did it in the 1940s, before the league was formed.
14. Georgia State: The second-largest university in Georgia, Georgia State is in the field for the first time since 2001, when it beat Wisconsin in the first round with Lefty Driesell at the helm.
15. Texas Southern: The Tigers technically made the tournament in 2014 and 2003, but it’s been 20 years since Texas Southern participated in a non-play-in game — taking 2-seed and eventual national runner-up Arkansas to the brink in a 79-78 first-round loss in 1995.
16. Coastal Carolina: The Chanticleers nickname comes from Chaucer’s Canterbury tales and was chosen in the 1960s to give the mascot a closer tie to the Gamecocks at the University of South Carolina, with which the school was affiliated until 1993.
