Dunphy's not-so-good record

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Penn coach Fran Dunphy set an NCAA record on Friday, just not the kind you want to set.

Dunphy became the first coach in Division I basketball history to lose eight straight games in the NCAA Tournament, breaking the mark set by Don Corbett of North Carolina A&T, who amazingly lost seven straight opening or first round games -- in seven straight seasons -- between 1982-1988.

Next on the list is another active coach -- Winthrop's Gregg Marshall -- who is 0-6 with the Eagles.

Although Dunphy's teams have been no higher than an 11 seed and thus have always been underdogs, the number of upsets in the Tournament dictate that a coach that goes as often as Dunphy does should win eventually. He does have the worst winning percentage of any coach to coach at least eight games in the Tournament.

Using the records of the seeds that Dunphy has been since the second round of the 1994 Tournament, there is only a 9 percent chance that Dunphy would have lost all eight games in a row. Looking ahead, if Penn is a 12 or a 13 seed in its next Tournament appearance, which is about its average in the Dunphy era, the odds of losing again drop to only six percent for a 12 seed and seven for a 13.

However, the odds for winning the game still are relatively low (33 and 20.5 percent, respectively) so don't be fooled like the guy who plays the slots a million times and thinks that he has to win the next one.

Although over time, Dunphy is probably due.

As a side note, Corbett's odds of losing all seven games was 16.8 percent (he played in two play-in games, was a 12 when that was the lowest seed, was a 16 twice, and a 15 and 14 once each), while Marshall's is 32.8 percent (a play-in, two 16s, a 15 and two 14s).