Random Facts from Wake Forest's Sweet 16 Media Notes

- The last time Wake Forest and St. Joseph's met was December 27, 1982. Wake won 88-65.

At that time the British were at war in the Falkland Islands, Americans were introduced to Mr. T in Rocky III (and had their love affair with Frank Stallone rekindled by his memorable performance in the film), Chris Paul hadn't been born yet, Dick Vitale was still bald and Joanie was in the midst of loving Chachi.

- The two teams met in the 1962 NCAA Tournament Regional Semi-Final, in game that pitted Dr. Jack Ramsey's Hawks versus a Wake Forest team that had Billy Packer at guard. Wake won, en route to their first and only Final Four.

Does anybody know what kind of doctor Dr. Jack Ramsey is? Normally I refuse to address people with doctorates in English or something like that as "Doctor". I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, but you don't see me asking to be referred to as Bachelor Chase.
The rule should be, a person should only be allowed to be called "Doctor" if they respond in the affirmative to the question "is there a doctor here" when somebody is having chest pains on an airplane. I bet Dr. Taylor, he of the doctoral degree in 18th century Slavic poetry, doesn't pretentiously request to be called doctor in THAT situation. Simply put, if you can help somebody who's sick, you can be called a doctor. If you can translate an early version of Beowulf, you're just a guy who probably doesn't have much to talk about at parties.
I digress. Back to Dr. Jack. When it comes to him, I guess there's something regal about the man and Dr. Jack Ramsey rolls nicely off the tongue to boot.

- The last time Wake Forest lost to an Atlantic-10 school was in 1999. The team? Xavier. The coach? Skip Prosser.

The last time Wake Forest lost to St. Joseph's was in 1968. The coach? You guessed it... Frank Stallone.

- The East region has all four of its top seeds in the Sweet 16, which hasn't happened since 2001.

Some other things that haven't happened since 2001: The Yankees winning a World Series, Duke winning an NCAA Basketball title, Michael Jordan coming out of retirement and Bill Clinton being able to use the pick-up line "Hillary might be the first lady, but you won't be the last."

- The last time a #4 seed beat a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament was in 1999 when Ohio State beat Auburn.

The next year, Sports Illustrated actually picked Auburn as their preseason choice to win the national championship. That team, behind ridiculously overrated Chris Porter (think Fennis Dembo, without the talent) snuck into the tournament as a #7 seed and lost in the 2nd round. Amazingly, this is not SI's worst prediction of recent memory. For in 2001 the pundits at the nation's top sports magazine tabbed Oregon State as the preseason choice to win college football's national title. The Beavers failed to qualify for a bowl game.

- The only #4 seed to win the national championship was Arizona in 1997. That Wildcat team beat a 12th seeded team by four points to make the Sweet 16. Once there, Arizona, with no senior starters, defeated once-beaten and top-seeded Kansas in the regional semifinal. That game featured a battle of highly-touted point guards – Arizona freshman Mike Bibby and Kansas senior Jacque Vaughn.

#4 Wake Forest beat #12 Manhattan by four points to reach the Sweet 16. Wake, with no senior starters, will play once-beaten and top-seeded St. Joseph's in the regional semifinal. The game features a battle of highly-touted point guards - Wake Forest freshman Chris Paul and St. Joseph senior Jameer Nelson. I once saw a Twilight Zone that was exactly like this, except it involved a creepy guy with a wispy mustache and a top hat and it had more to do with leprechauns than college basketball. But there were parallels. I swear.

- Wake Forest is one of six Division I schools with no scholarship seniors on the roster.

On the flip side, Cincinnati is just one of two Division I schools with four scholarship felons on ITS roster.

- The Wake Forest record for games started in a single season is 36, by Rafael Vidaurreta.

That's like a Hollywood Squares producer bragging that the record for most appearances in the center square is held by Jim J. Bullock.