So, you call yourself a basketball expert?

Published: Sunday, April 6 2008 12:56 a.m. MDT

With the national championship up for grabs Monday night, it seems only appropriate to answer any Final Four questions that may linger at the end of the season. Questions like whatever happened to Indiana and Kentucky basketball?

Answer: They got overshadowed by Indiana and Kentucky football.

Anyway, to test your Final Four knowledge, take this brief quiz. If you guess 8-10 correctly, you're a college basketball expert. If you get 5-7 right, you might do fairly well on the TV game show "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" And if you get 0-4 correct, you have the common sense of a mushroom, or Kelvin Sampson, whichever is lower.

Forthwith is the first-ever Know-It-All Final Four Q&A and some accompanying facts, figures and useless information, compliments of me and the NCAA records book.

Question: What is the most-watched basketball championship game in history?

Answer: Duke vs. Michigan in 1992 was viewed in more homes (20,910,000) than any other. However, the highest-rated title game was Michigan State vs. Indiana State, a game played in Salt Lake in 1979. That's because it drew a 38 share, meaning 38 percent of all TVs that were turned on were tuned to the game.

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Seventy-four percent of all TVs turned on that day had to adjust the brightness of their sets to account for Larry Bird's legs.

Question: Who was the first sitting president to attend the

Final Four?

Answer: Bill Clinton, who was there in 1994 to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks win the national title.

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Clinton was actually going to skip the game until he heard there was going to be a Chi Omega mixer at the Westin afterward.

Question: When did CBS start broadcasting the post-season tournament?

Answer: 1982, the year North Carolina beat Georgetown.

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: It was also the year Greg Gumbel set a world record by saying "March Madness" 11 times in a single paragraph. Try this tongue-twister: Greg Gumbel goes ga-ga over Gonzaga.

Question: What team won more games than any other without making the NCAA tournament field?

Answer: UNLV, which went 26-2 in 1992 but was ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA sanctions.

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