Numbers Behind The Game

The UConn Huskies and Kentucky Wildcats have each made a dramatic run to reach tonight's NCAA championship. Now take a look at the numbers behind the game.

• 18 -- Combined winning margin of Kentucky in its five NCAA tournament games, the lowest for a national championship game team in the history of the event.

• 15 -- The combined seeding for the two teams Monday night: Connecticut at No. 7 and Kentucky at No. 8. The previous high was 11, with No. 3 Connecticut and No. 8 Butler in 2011. “Well, I don’t think we were an eight seed and I don’t think Connecticut was a seven seed ... but that’s where they seeded us,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said.

• 26 -- Years since the national champion was unranked in the final Associated Press regular-season poll: Kansas in 1988. Kentucky was unranked in this season’s final poll, and in terms of votes received, was just ahead of Stephen F. Austin and Harvard.

• 3 -- No records are kept for this, but it might be the first championship game between two teams who were each beaten three times during the season by one opponent: Connecticut by Louisville and Kentucky by Florida.

• 17 -- Teams ranked higher in the final AP than both teams in the national championship game. Connecticut was No. 18. The Huskies would be the lowest-ranked champion in 26 years.

• 18 -- Combined defeats for Connecticut and Kentucky, tied for the most ever in a championship game. Butler and Connecticut also had 18 in 2011.

• 3 -- National champions with double-digit losses. They all happened within six years in the 1980s: NC State (10) in 1983, Villanova (10) in 1985 and Kansas (11) in 1988. Kentucky, currently 29-10, would be the first in 26 years.

• 35 -- Aaron Harrison points in Kentucky’s past three NCAA tournament games.

• 9 -- Aaron Harrison points in the final 39 seconds of the past three games, or more than 25 percent.

• 56 -- NCAA tournament games coached by Kentucky’s John Calipari.

• 5 -- NCAA tournament games coached by Connecticut’s Kevin Ollie.

• 194 -- Combined college games played by the entire Kentucky starting lineup of five freshmen.

• 142 -- College games played by Connecticut senior Shabazz Napier.

• 5 -- National championships in the past 18 years by Kentucky and Connecticut.

• 9 -- Kentucky has trailed by at least nine points in its past four NCAA tournament games, and come back to win.

• 8 -- Kentucky national championships, No. 2 on the all-time list.

• 11 -- UCLA national championships. A win Monday, and the Wildcats will be closing on the Bruins.