Interesting Basketball Facts - I

Kansas State hasn't beaten rival Kansas in Manhattan since 1983, a run of 24 consecutive defeats. [4/26/07]

Golden State's victory over Dallas in the first round of the NBA playoffs was the Warriors' first playoff series win since 1991. Who was their coach then? Don Nelson, who's the coach again this year. The Warriors last made the playoffs in 1994. [5/4/07]

The largest deficit ever overcome in an NBA game was 34 points. The Jazz trailed the Nuggets 70-36 on November 27, 1996, before rallying for a 107-103 victory. [5/12/07]

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in an NBA game on March 2, 1962 as his Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169-147 in Hershey PA. In NCAA play, Frank Selvy scored 100 points for Furman to beat Newberry, 149-95, on February 13, 1954. The senior tallied his last two points on a 40-foot heave with the clock running down. (No 3-point shot then.) He finished the season with a 41.7 point average to lead the nation in scoring for the second time. He was the #1 selection in the 1954 NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets. Selvy played nine seasons in the NBA, averaging 10.8 points. [5/19/07]

Frank Selvy

With their defeat in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, the Utah Jazz have lost 19 consecutive games in San Antonio. In fact, the Jazz have never won in the Spurs' new arena (AT&T Center). [6/1/07]

The first men's college basketball game was played on January 18, 1896 between Iowa and Chicago. The final score was 15-12.

As of the end of the 2006-7 season, Washington State has a record of 1 win, 50 losses playing at UCLA since the first game in Los Angeles in 1950. The only Cougar victory was 55-48 in 2004.

James Naismith wrote the original 13 rules of basketball in 1892.

• The rules do not specify the number of players on each side. (The first game had 9 on 9 in Naismith's P.E. class.)
• There were no free throws.
• Two consecutive fouls by a player disqualified him until the next basket was made.
• Three consecutive fouls by a team gave a goal to the opponents.

The list of the five colleges with the highest winning percentage in the decade of the 1990s includes one team you would never guess.

1. Kansas (82.7%)
2. Kentucky (81.7%)
3. Arizona (79.3%)
4. College of Charleston (78.3%)
5. Duke (77.7%).

The oldest venue for college basketball in the U.S. is Fordham's Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx, NY. With 3,470 seats, it was one of the largest on-campus facilities when it opened in 1925.

Think slam dunks that shatter the backboard are a recent phenomenon? Think again.

• In 1946, 6'7" Chuck Connors of the Boston Celtics dunked so hard in pregame warmups that the wooden backboard shattered and toppled forward on him.
• The game, which was the Celtics' home opener against the Chicago Stags in the brand new National Basketball Association, was delayed an hour before a replacement board was delivered.
• Connors was also a professional baseball player but is more famous as "The Rifleman" in the long-running TV series.