Oh, He Played In The NCAA Tournament?

Julius Peppers

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Peppers played two seasons of basketball at North Carolina. As a sophomore in 2000, he was the sixth man on a team that reached the Final Four before losing to Florida. Peppers became a starter the next season and had 24 points and 10 rebounds in a second-round loss to Penn State. He then focused on football and became a nine-time Pro Bowl defensive end.

Brad Johnson

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Florida State is known for its two-sport stars with Deion Sanders and Charlie Ward, but how about some love for Brad Johnson? Long before he was Tampa Bay's quarterback when the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII, Johnson played two seasons of basketball for the Seminoles. As a freshman, he led the team in free-throw shooting at 89 percent. Johnson appeared in two NCAA tournament games, both first-round losses. Against Iowa in 1988, Johnson scored 12 points and made all three of his three-point attempts.

Antonio Gates

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Gates went to Michigan State with the intent of playing football and basketball. But Nick Saban wanted him to stick with just football. Gates transferred a couple of times and ended up at Kent State, where he led the basketball team to the Elite Eight in 2002. Gates was the team's leading scorer and rebounder for the season. He had consecutive games of 22 points and eight rebounds in the third round against Pittsburgh and fourth round against Indiana. Too short at 6-4 to play forward in the NBA, Gates signed with the Chargers as undrafted free agent and has gone to the Pro Bowl eight times.

Kevin Nash

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During his pro wrestling career, Nash was known, among other stage names, as Big Sexy, Diesel, Big Daddy Cool and Vinnie Vegas. As a college basketball player at Tennessee, Nash was known for his supporting role behind future NBA players Dale Ellis and Reggie Johnson. Nash played four NCAA tournament games in two years, including a 1980 second-round loss in which he had six points and three rebounds against Maryland, which featured Albert King and Buck Williams.

Kenny Lofton

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Lofton was a four-year basketball player at Arizona where his teammates included future NBA players Sean Elliott, Tom Tolbert, Jud Buechler and some guy named Steve Kerr. The Wildcats went to the tournament every year and reached the Final Four in 1988 when Lofton was a junior. His best individual game in the tournament was a first-round loss in 1987 to UTEP as he outscored Tim Hardaway 12-2. Lofton became a six-time MLB All-Star, stole 622 bases and had a .299 batting average in 17 seasons.

Jimmy Graham

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Graham played four years of basketball at Miami, earned his degree and then played one season of football as a grad student with the Hurricanes. Miami made the NCAA tournament once, when Graham was a junior in 2008. As Miami's top reserve, Graham appeared in two tournament games. In a first-round win against St. Mary's, Graham had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Despite Graham's just one season of football, the Saints drafted the tight end in the third round, and he has been selected to the Pro Bowl four times.

Martellus Bennett

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Bennett was good enough in basketball to consider going into the NBA draft directly from high school in 2005, when such a move was still allowed, but reconsidered after learning he would not be a first-round pick. At Texas A&M, Bennett played less than two seasons of basketball. His lone NCAA tournament appearance came in 2006. In a 58-57 loss to LSU and Glen (Big Baby) Davis in the second round, Bennett had two points, five rebounds and a steal in nine minutes. In the NFL, Bennett played tight end with the Cowboys, Bears and Giants before helping the Patriots win Super Bowl LI against Atlanta.

Dave Winfield

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Winfield is a baseball Hall of Famer, but he was also drafted in basketball, by the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA and Utah Stars in the ABA. The Minnesota Vikings drafted him too, even though he didn't play college football. Winfield played two years of college basketball at Minnesota. As a junior in 1972, he helped the Gophers win their first Big Ten title in 35 years. In the NCAA tournament, Winfield played all 40 minutes, registering eight points and eight rebounds, in an opening-round loss to eventual runner-up Florida State.

Ryan Minor

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Orioles fans all know Minor as the answer to this trivia question: Who replaced Cal Ripken in the lineup at third base to end his MLB record of 2,632 consecutive games played? As a college hoopster at Oklahoma, Minor was the Big 8 player of the year as a junior in 1995. He played in two NCAA tournaments and was Oklahoma's leading scorer in each game, both opening-round losses.

Tony Gonzalez

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Gonzalez played three seasons of basketball and football at Cal before declaring for the NFL draft. The Golden Bears made the tournament twice with Gonzalez. In the Bears' second-round win against Villanova (and Tim Thomas) in 1997, Gonzalez led the team with 23 points. At the time of his NFL retirement in 2013, Gonzalez was the all-time leader in catches and receiving yards among tight ends.

Donovan McNabb

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McNabb played just five games with the basketball team as a freshman walk-on in 1995-96. But two were during the NCAA tournament as Syracuse reached the championship game before losing to Kentucky. McNabb scored two points in the first-round blowout against Montana State and went scoreless in eight minutes of the Orange's 83-81 win over Georgia in the third round. McNabb played 13 games the next season but Syracuse went to the NIT. As an NFL quarterback, McNabb was selected to the Pro Bowl six times.

Tim Stoddard

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Stoddard is the only athlete to win the NCAA basketball championship and a World Series, and that is arguably just the second-best trivia question about him. Hardcore fans of the movie "Rookie of the Year" will always remember Stoddard in the role of Dodgers pitcher Tregoraw. You know the one that Henry Rowengartner taunts for having a big butt? Back at North Carolina State, Stoddard was a starting forward, along with David Thompson, on the team that ended UCLA's streak of seven NCAA titles in 1974. As a reliever, Stoddard helped the Orioles reach the World Series twice, losing to the Pirates in 1979 and beating the Phillies in 1983. One more bit of Stoddard trivia: He and Kenny Lofton went to the same high school, Washington High in East Chicago, Indiana.

Antwaan Randle El

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Randle El was Big Ten football MVP as a senior at Indiana and became the first player in NCAA history to throw for 40 touchdowns and run for 40 touchdowns. He also played baseball and one season of basketball for the Hoosiers. In the 1999 NCAA tournament, he scored two points in each of Indiana's games, a win against George Washington and a loss to St. John's, which was led by the player formerly known as Ron Artest. Randle El played nine NFL seasons, and he threw a touchdown pass on an option play for Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XL against Seattle.

Larry Lucchino

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During Lucchino's run as Red Sox CEO, the team won three World Series, and he was the one who first labeled the Yankees as the Evil Empire. Before that, he was also CEO for the Orioles and Padres. As a college basketball player at Princeton, Lucchino didn't appear in any tournament games in 1965 when Bill Bradley carried the Tigers to the Final Four. But in 1967, Lucchino played three tournament games and scored 14 points.

Terrell Owens

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Owens didn't get much action as a basketball player at Tennessee-Chattanooga, with an average of 1.5 points in 38 games during the course of three seasons. But one of those game was in the first round of the 1995 tournament against a UConn team with future NBA stars Ray Allen and Kevin Ollie. The Huskies won 100-71, and T.O. missed his only shot attempt, but that's enough to earn a spot here. Owens became a six-time Pro Bowler, and his 15,934 receiving yards rank second behind Jerry Rice on the all-time list.

Julius Thomas

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Portland State has made the NCAA tournament just twice, in Thomas' sophomore and junior seasons. In 2008 against No. 1 seed and eventual national champ Kansas, Thomas had four points coming off the bench. Thomas averaged 6.8 points in his four seasons, then decided to walk-on the football team. He made enough of an impression in his one season of football that the Broncos drafted him in the fourth round, and he made the Pro Bowl in 2013 and 2014.