Almost basketball-free Final Four quiz

A highly entertaining men's NCAA basketball tournament will come to an end tomorrow night when Villanova plays North Carolina for the national championship. Carolina's looked like the class of the tournament from the opening tip, but I've really enjoyed Villanova's scrappy play. Carolina's a 2.5-point favorite, and that feels about right. They're not really running away from opponents from the start of games and they haven't been beating you from the three-point line. This feels like a game that should come down to an interesting finish.

I doubt that "analysis" makes up for the fact I missed my self-imposed Friday deadline for this week, but it's the best I've got. This is a Final Four quiz, but with a twist - it's not about basketball. All of the answers will be school from this year's Final Four: the University of North Carolina, Villanova University, Syracuse University and the University of Oklahoma, though I wonder if losing by 44 in a national semifinal should really count as an appearance:


1. Which school in this year's Final Four was founded first?

North Carolina, in 1795. It's one of three schools that holds claim to the title of America's oldest public university.

2. Which is the only school in the Final Four with a U.S. President among its alumni?

North Carolina again: James Knox Polk

3. Which two Final Four schools represent Vice-Presidential couple Joe and Jill Biden?

Syracuse (Joe graduated from SU's law school) and Villanova (where Jill mastered in English)

4. Match the schools to their highly-successful but lesser-known sports programs:
A. 6-time men's crew national champions
B. 9-time and defending men's gymnastics national champions
C. 9-time women's cross-country national champions
D. 21-time women's soccer national champions

A-Syracuse, B-Oklahoma, C-Villanova, D-North Carolina

5. Which two of the Final Four schools offer Cherokee language courses?

North Carolina and Oklahoma

6. Which Final Four school's campus has a statue of Gregor Mendel and an abstract sculpture nickhamed "The Oreo"?

Villanova (it's actually titled "Awakening")

7. Which Final Four school has a memorial to 35 students who died in the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988?

Syracuse

8. Which has a remote campus in a former monastery in Arezzo, Italy?

Oklahoma

9. Match the school to one of its celebrity alumni:
A. Maria Bello
B. Lewis Black
C. Megyn Kelly
D. Olivia Munn

A-Villanova, B-North Carolina, C-Syracuse, D-Oklahoma

10. (Good luck with this one)
Match the school to a course title offered there this semester:
A. Contemporary Turkish Cinema
B. Facebook and Jesus
C. Hitler and Hollywood
D. Italian Oral Skills

A-Oklahoma, B-Villanova, C-North Carolina, D-Syracuse

I'll close with my favorite quote from North Carolina's course catalog:
“Professor Glish is an analytical chemist. He cherishes that title because most people do not know what analytical chemistry is so he can do all kinds of different research and call it analytical chemistry.”

-$-