31.   Leonard opened his year last week, winning two matches at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Australia before losing to the eventual champion, Steve Stricker.

32.   Last year the Kings took the eventual champions Los Angeles Lakers to the five-game limit in the opening round before going down.

33.   Minus Webber, the Wolverines made it to the Mideast Regional Final in Dallas the following year before losing to eventual champion Arkansas.

34.   None, however, could do more than briefly tie the eventual champions, who became the fifth team to lead the Shark Shootout wire-to-wire.

35.   Nonetheless, Davenport has lost to the eventual champion the last three years in tough matches, pushing Graf in the quarterfinals last year.

36.   Nebraska replaced Penn State, perhaps forever, at the top of the two polls used to determine slots in the bowl alliance and the eventual unofficial national champion.

37.   On his resum is a four-game stretch last year in which he led the eventual Super Bowl champion Ravens to exactly zero touchdowns.

38.   Penn State advanced to their first Final Four last year, losing to eventual national champion Connecticut.

39.   Picking the eventual Super Bowl champion is easier than a Falcon hailing a hooker in Miami.

40.   Rice went on to lose in the regional finals to California State-Fullerton, the eventual national champion.