The NCAA Tournament has been an annual extravaganza for decades. It is one of the greatest challenges in college basketball. Only 16 teams have managed to come out of it unscathed for a full season.
Seven men’s teams and nine women’s teams have won a national championship with a perfect win-loss record since the birth of the tournaments in 1939 and 1982, respectively.
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South Carolina’s women’s team is trying to become No. 17 this year. It will take a 36-0 record into its Final Four game Friday against Iowa.
Here’s what you need to know about each of those historic teams:
Who was the first undefeated men’s national champion?
San Francisco in the 1955-56 season was the first men’s team to win a national championship while going undefeated.
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Led by Bill Russell, the Dons went 29-0 to win their second title in a row. Russell averaged 20.6 points and 21 rebounds per game that season.
Who was the first undefeated women’s national champion?
Thirty years later, during the 1985-86 season, Texas became not only the fifth national champion in Division I women’s basketball, but also the first women’s team to win the title while going…
