Your favorite player's number isn't the only one you'll need to know if you want to impress at Final Four viewing parties this weekend. About 100,000 fans are expected to flood into Atlanta from Saturday to Monday to cheer on college basketball's biggest stars. The Louisville Cardinals will face the Wichita State Shockers, and the Michigan Wolverines will come up against the Syracuse Orange.

The NCAA said it has trucked in an additional 18,218 additional seats to add to the 74,000-capacity Georgia Dome, from which face-painted spectators can peer down at the spankin' new $100,000 court.

Sure, you can scrape by reciting stats and recounting stunning moments from championship games past. But any sports fan worth his or her salt knows those. Here are the numbers you need to know what's really going on behind the scenes during the year's most anticipated weekend of college hoops:

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2,700 — Feet scalpers are required to stay from the complex that includes the Georgia Dome in order to ply their trade under Peach State law. State regulations require that unofficial ticket-hawkers steer well clear of the Georgia World Congress Center, which includes the stadium.

29 — Inches the championship court is elevated above the stadium floor. The final team standing literally gets to take the field — it's given the option of taking the court home. If the national champion declines, the NCAA sells the court after the tournament.

32,942 — Amount in dollars on StubHub for a single ticket to view the semifinals and the championship from a posh suite. The average price tag for a semifinals seat in 2013 was an all-time high of $1,190, according to secondary-market aggregator TiqIQ.com.

315 — Lowest price in dollars for a single semifinals ticket on TicketLiquidator.com, for a seat way up in the Dome's stratosphere. Or luckless fans can try and strike a deal with those friendly scalpers lingering a few blocks from the stadium.

1,125 — Credentialed members of the pencil-pushing, camera-toting media who will be jostling for laptop real estate over the weekend. One of the most popular annual sporting events in the United States, the Big Dance's finale also draws in a sizable contingent of foreign media.

155,000 — Weight in pounds of the monster video board looming over the court, blowing the athletes to superhuman size. And so fans don't miss a single moment, 660 television monitors also dot walls throughout the stadium.

30 — Length in seconds of a campaign finance ad the Fair Elections for New York Campaign is planning to run during the Syracuse-Michigan matchup Saturday. (Also, approximate length of bathroom break fans will take during said ad.)

1904 — Year the school that would become Wichita State adopted the team nickname "Shockers," for the harvesting, or "shocking," of wheat that went on in fields not far from the school. The men's basketball team, then playing for what was known as Fairmount College, first took the court in 1906.

32,952 — Feet of soft drink supply lines that snake to drink dispensers through the stadium to provide sugary soda pop nectar to throats hoarse from rooting on the team. The 21-year-old Dome is better known for hosting football games, but it has been home to three previous Final Four matchups.

11,088 — Distance in feet that fans have to drive from the Dome to get a chili dog at Hotlanta's nearest Varsity drive-in restaurant. The chain's been dishing up slaw dogs and orange shakes for Atlanta customers since 1928.

1 — Ubiquitous hand gesture (the high-five) that Louisville claims was invented by its 1978-79 men's basketball team. That team, also known as the Doctors of Dunk, featured players Wiley Brown and Derek Smith, who allegedly came up with the celebratory slap. (Other sources claim Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers invented the high-five during the 1977 baseball season.)

3.9 — Dollar amount, in millions, that Louisville coach Rick Pitino pulls down as his base salary. That makes him the biggest earner before performance bonuses of this year's Final Four coaches. It also explains those snazzy white suits.

1 — Television and six-pack of light beer required to enjoy the game in the comfort of one's own home.

Related:

• Final Four coaches react to the Mike Rice video
• Michigan blows out Florida, headed to first Final Four in 20 years
• UConn rolls Kentucky, advances to sixth straight Final Four

Lance Armstrong's admission to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to roll to cycling stardom puts him in some pretty bad company. After years of denying the accusations, Armstrong came clean in the Oprah interview, NBC News has confirmed.  He now joins such disgraced names as Richard Nixon and John Edwards, who were exposed as liars to the American public.

Is there any way he can ever restore his once pristine reputation? Probably not. Winning back the public trust at this point would rival the Tour de France in its difficulty.

But, if Armstrong does want to try, here are six suggestions from experts on how he can try to accomplish the impossible.

1. Recede from view

After this latest round of controversy, the best thing for Armstrong to do might be to disappear for a while.  Allow the public to forget about the worst accusations, said longtime crisis publicist Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com.

“What you don’t want to do is go on an apology tour,” Bragman said. “You do one interview and you do it well, and that’s all you need to do in this day and age.”

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Nailing that one interview is crucial, however, and in Armstrong’s case it’s not yet clear how it went. While Winfrey offered a teaser of her two-and-a-half hour interview Tuesday on CBS, she declined to comment on whether or not Armstrong was contrite and what exactly he revealed.

“You have to listen to your lawyers and your PR people,” Bragman said. “The question is can you listen to your lawyers and your publicists and still sound sincere enough in it.”

2. Send in the suits

NBC News, along with other outlets, has reported that Armstrong confessed to taking performance enhancing drugs in his interview with Winfrey. An admission of guilt opens up the potential for a flurry of new lawsuits against the cyclist – practically guaranteeing that he stays in the news. The key is to avoid magnifying those headlines with personal appearances. Let your army of suits do the work for you.

“You just deal,” Bragman said of headline-grabbing court action. “You show up when you have to and your lawyers when you don’t. And be prepared to spend a lot of money and a lot of energy to restore some measure of dignity to your life.”

3. Get back into charity work

Unlike other sporting legends whose public personas hit the skids, Armstrong might be able to boost himself on the merits of the prominent cancer charity he founded, but from which he has had to distance himself.

For years, Armstrong’s public persona was inseparable from the Livestrong Foundation. In October, he stepped down as chairman of the charity known for its yellow wrist bands. Yet, Armstrong remains closely tied to the group’s activities in the minds of many, and the sports star may be able to make the most of that.

ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments, tweeted his continuing support for Armstrong on Monday:

“I’m 1 of millions of [cancer] survivors he’s helped. #grateful”

4. Find a crisis role model

In many ways, Armstrong’s case is unique. Unlike stars whose sexual indiscretion or predilection for dog fighting brings them down, the use of performance-enhancing drugs undermines the main reason he was in the spotlight – his athletic prowess.

“You have situations like the Tiger Woods, the Kobe Bryants, the Michael Vicks, but those to me don’t match up on this scale,” said George Belch, professor of sports marketing at San Diego State University. “This one, it’s like an octopus with its tentacles everywhere.”

Strangely, Armstrong’s path back to some measure of respectability could follow former President Richard Nixon’s after the Watergate scandal: Put your head down, go where you are needed, and grind away in your work until public opinion begins to shift.

5. Play those highlight reels

Armstrong was the face of cycling for many Americans, and to the average man or woman on a bicycle, that may be all that matters, especially when many people suspect his competitors were doping too.

“We’re not a cycling country, we’re not cycling fans,” Belch said. “That gives him a little bit of leeway with the general public.”

Florida veterinarian Michael Herman, 55, said it was watching Armstrong pedal that got him on the bike in 2003. He rode in five Livestrong events in Austin, Texas, with Armstrong and other supporters of the charity. Despite all the controversy, Herman said he still watches videos of Armstrong’s past performances with dropped jaw.

“Lance has done very good things,” said Herman, whose said his feelings wouldn’t be changed by an admission of doping. “As far as I’m concerned he got me healthy. He got me interested in biking, and it’s now a passion.”

6. Give it time

While Armstrong may be impatient to move beyond his apparent admission of guilt, finding his way back into the public’s warm embrace will take time, said Peter Flax, editor-in-chief of Bicycling magazine.

“I think it really is going to be dependent on his commitment to the process,” Flax said.

This is just the beginning.

“Seeing how earnestly he continues to follow through with this will help decide whether he earns redemption in the public’s eye or not,” Flax said. “It’s not going to be a one-and-done thing where he cries on the couch with Oprah and everyone forgives him.”

Tune in to TODAY Friday for an exclusive live interview with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman. 

Related stories:
Oprah: Armstrong 'forthcoming' in interview about drug use
Even with mea culpa, Armstrong's brand value 'near zero'

Updated at 8:15 p.m. ET: KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend several times after an argument and then drove to Arrowhead Stadium, where he committed suicide, authorities said.

Standing in the parking lot of the team's practice facility, Belcher held a gun to his head and spoke to his coach and general manager, thanking them for all they had done for him. Then he pulled the trigger.  

NBC Sports: Agent remembers Jovan Belcher as 'a happy, proud father' 

Authorities did not release a possible motive for the murder-suicide, although police said that Belcher, 25, and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kasandra M. Perkins, had been arguing recently.

The two are parents to 3-month-old Zoey. Belcher's mother, who reported the shooting at the Kansas City home, had moved in with the couple to help care for the infant. 

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The team said it would play its home game against the Carolina Panthers as scheduled on Sunday at noon local time "after discussions between the league office, Head Coach Romeo Crennel and Chiefs team captains."

A spokesman for the team told The Associated Press that Crennel plans to coach on Sunday.

NBC Sports: Chiefs to play Panthers at regularly scheduled time

Belcher was a native of West Babylon, N.Y., on Long Island, where he had played football but wasn't recruited to play college ball, according to the Boston Globe. Rather, he was a star wrestler who kept trim -- 6-foot-2 and under 200 pounds. 

In 2008, Belcher told the Globe: "I do like being the underdog because you can come up and surprise people."

At the University of Maine, Belcher became the team captain and was named national defensive player of the year.

"When he got to campus, he was a phenomenally impressive young man, in how he conducted himself in and around the young men in our program," Maine coach Jack Cosgrove told the Globe at the time. "We were fortunate nobody else recruited him." 

Cosgrove described Belcher's "infectious smile" and said he was a great role model who worked well with children -- the football player had been a child development and family relations major.  

"His move to the NFL was in keeping with his dreams," Cosgrove said Saturday.

Belcher wasn't picked up as a possible draftee by the NFL. So he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent, made the team and stayed with it for four years, moving into the starting lineup. He'd played in all 11 games this season.

He also stayed connected with his college passion. The Kansas City Star newspaper has video of the linebacker reading with a third-grade boy. 

"I love doing stuff like this because I went to school to work with young adolescents," Belcher told the Star. "I feel like I can connect with kids real well." 

Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt issued a statement Saturday, saying, "The entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by today's events, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy." 

NBC Sports: Chiefs' owner Clark Hunt 'deeply saddened'  

The NFL also released a statement expressing sympathy: "We have connected the Chiefs with our national team of professional counselors to support both the team and the families of those affected. We will continue to provide assistance in any way that we can."

Saturday breakdown
Authorities reported receiving a call Saturday morning from Belcher's mother, who said it was her daughter who had been shot multiple times at a residence about five miles from the Arrowhead complex, an identification that initally led to confusion.

"She treated Kasandra like a daughter," said Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp. Perkins was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police then received a phone call from the Chiefs' training facility.

"We kind of knew what we were dealing with," Snapp said. The player was "holding a gun to his head" as he stood in front of the front doors of the practice facility.

"And there were (General Manager Scott) Pioli and Crennel and another coach or employee was standing outside and appeared to be talking to him. It appeared they were talking to the suspect," Snapp said. "The suspect began to walk in the opposite direction of the coaches and the officers and that's when they heard the gunshot. It appears he took his own life."

The coaches told police they never felt in any danger, Snapp said.

"They said the player was actually thanking them for everything they'd done for him," he said. "They were just talking to him and he was thanking them and everything. That's when he walked away and shot himself."

At Belcher's mother's home on Long Island, relatives declined to talk to reporters. A purple SUV in the home's driveway was flying a small Kansas City Chiefs flag.

Perkins' Facebook page shows the couple smiling and holding the baby. Jennifer Ashley, a friend of Perkins, told the Star that Perkins was a student at Blue River Community College in nearby Independence and that she wanted to be a teacher.

Ashley told the Star that Perkins was introduced to Belcher by the girlfriend of another Chiefs’ player. 

The young mother updated her Instagram account regularly with photos of baby Zoey and Belcher. On Friday, she posted photos of Belcher smiling and kissing their daughter. 

Football tragedies
Belcher is the latest among several players and NFL retirees to die from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in the past couple of years. The death of the beloved star Junior Seau, who shot himself in the chest in at his California home last May, sent shock waves around the league.

Seau's family, like those of other suicide victims, has donated his brain tissue to determine if head injuries he sustained playing football might be linked to his death.

Belcher did not have an extensive injury history, though the linebacker showed up on the official injury report on Nov. 11, 2009, as being limited in practice with a head injury. Belcher played four days later against the Oakland Raiders.

Earlier this year, the NFL provided a grant to help establish an independently operated phone service that connects players, coaches, team officials and other staff with counselors trained to work through personal and emotional crises. The NFL Life Line is available 24 hours a day.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James said that he spoke to Pioli after the shooting.

"It's unfathomable ... Think about your worst nightmare and multiply it by five," James said.

The season has been a massive disappointment for the Chiefs, who were expected to contend for the AFC West title. They're just 1-10 and mired in an eight-game losing streak marked by injuries, poor play and fan upheaval, with constant calls the past several weeks for Pioli and Crennel to be fired.

Chiefs quarterback Brady Quinn told The Kansas City Star that when the team met later Saturday morning, Crennel broke the news to them.

"It was obviously tough for coach to have to tell us that," Quinn said. "He really wasn't able to finish talking to us. We got together and prayed and then we moved on."

But Quinn said the team was so stunned, it was hard to digest what had happened.

"It's hard mostly because I keep thinking about what I could have done to stop this," he said.

This article includes reporting from NBC News staff and The Associated Press. 

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Should schools punish students who tweeted racist remarks after a black pro hockey player scored the winning goal to knock the Boston Bruins out of the NHL playoffs?

Administrators at high schools and colleges in New England are wrestling with that question, straddling a fine line between free speech and socially incorrect remarks that shame the school.

Hordes of angry hockey fans – presumably Boston Bruins fans -- unleashed a barrage of racist rants on Twitter and other social-networking sites after the Washington Capitals beat the defending champion Bruins a week ago Wednesday on an overtime goal by Joel Ward, the Capitals’ 31-year-old left wing. Ward is one of just a handful of black players in the NHL.

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According to local media reports, several students at high schools in Gloucester and Danvers in Massachusetts, the Cumberland, R.I., School District, and Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire were among the tweeters.

Ward brushed off the denigrating comments. “It's a few people that just made a couple of terrible comments, and what can you do? I know what I signed up for. I'm a black guy playing a predominantly white sport. It's just going to come with the territory,” he told reporters last week.

Racist tweets that have since been taken down were traced to at least five Gloucester High School students, including at least three student-athletes, The Gloucester Daily Times reported.

Gloucester School District Superintendent Richard Safier, in a statement issued to the local newspaper two days after the game, said the district is “conducting a full investigation and will consider whether disciplinary action is warranted, and whether the schools have jurisdiction.

"Second, we will implement a strong educational component that looks at the social, moral, and legal aspects of such remarks," he added.

Safier did not return a call from msnbc.com this week about the status of the investigation.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Jonathan Pope, chairman of the seven-member Gloucester School Committee, which sets school policy, said the committee doesn’t “have anything on the books” that addresses scenarios like the racist hockey tweets.

“We don’t know whether we actually have any legal standing to implement any kinds of penalties for that kind of behavior done outside school on a private communication system,” Pope told msnbc.com. “Everything links to what happens in school, what happens on the (school) playing field and what happens during school supplemental activities. It doesn’t really apply to what kids do walking down the street.”

At Franklin Pierce University, a private college in Rindge, N.H., administrators said they were investigating “vile racial slurs” tweeted by a freshman after the Bruins’ loss.

“This first-year student, who is not a part of any Franklin Pierce University athletic team, will be addressed appropriately and in accordance with our Student Conduct Code,” the university said in a statement.

The student apologized in a follow-up tweet, saying: “I was in a state that had me frustrated. I am not racist and never will be. Sorry.”

A university spokeswoman said student privacy issues prevent the school from disclosing details of the case and possible disciplinary action.

Franklin Pierce students and faculty upset by the tweets held a “Take A Stand” rally Wednesday at the campus courtyard.

In Danvers, Mass., a 17-year-old who reportedly used the N-word in a tweet referring to Ward was fired by the sandwich shop where he works, according to the Danvers Herald.

The teen is a student at St. John’s Prep, a private, Catholic high school for boys. “As a school community, St. John’s Prep stands against racism in any form, and we are deeply disturbed by the remarks posted online following the Bruins game on Wednesday, April 25. In keeping with school disciplinary policies, we are investigating the matter at this time,” the school said. A school spokeswoman declined further comment on any potential action the school might take.

In Cumberland, R.I., school Superintendent Phil Thornton said a junior hockey player posted a racist tweet under his own name, followed by the name of his high school.

“The comments ... are deeply disturbing and not part of what we teach,” Thornton said, according to the Boston Herald. “We have been in contact with the family and are taking all steps to address this very serious issue.”

In a follow-up radio interview on WPRO’s “The Dan Yorke Show,” Thornton wouldn’t specify what actions, if any, the school might take. He noted that students are entitled to free speech as long as they don’t disrupt the learning environment, but those who participate in extracurricular activities such as sports sign an agreement to abide by a code of conduct.

"It says in there, students doing anything unbecoming, i.e. Twitter, social networking, may have a consequence,” Thornton said. "In terms of after-school activities, these students are ambassadors. What they say and what do, how they conduct themselves, matters."

Whether schools can punish students for what they post online via social-media networks is not clear-cut.

A 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tinker vs. Des Moines, found that public schools could only punish students’ speech if they could show that the activities “would materially and substantially” disrupt the school’s educational mission.

In a more recent case, the Supreme Court in 2007 ruled against an Alaska high school student who argued his free-speech rights were violated when he was suspended for unveiling a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner across the street from the school during the 2002 Olympic Torch Relay. The court said the banner could be interpreted as a pro-illegal drug-use message at a school-sanctioned activity.

“It gets tricky because the Supreme Court’s standard for schools being able to punish or discipline students is where speech causes a disruption in school or hurts the learning environment. That’s the legal standard,” said Eric P. Robinson, deputy director of the Reynolds Center for Courts and Media at the University of Nevada-Reno and former staff attorney at the Media Law Resource Center.

In the hockey tweets case, “it might be a little hard for school administrators to show that sending those messages disrupts school directly,” said Robinson, who also blogs about Internet law and policy.

Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate with the Student Press Law Center, an Arlington, Va.-based organization that advocates for students' First Amendment rights and free online speech, said disciplining students for hateful speech is counterproductive.

“I do think it is a case of free expression. There’s a problem with the reaction that everything we think is bad is something we should punish,” Goldstein said. “I think the attitude that we should punish speech that’s racist is what gives that speech power.”

Instead, Goldstein said, schools should use the incidents as teaching moments and leave the discipline to parents. “Schools should be taking action; I just don’t think the action should be to punish the speech.”

Pope, of the Gloucester School Committee, seemed to agree.

“I think ultimately it’s a parental issue. On the district level it’s really an issue of us trying to use it as a teaching moment and use it to have discussions around diversity and racism," he said.

“We work very hard, but ultimately the parents are the main educators of children."

As to the fine line between students' free speech and potentially disruptive speech, Robinson notes that Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites weren’t around when the Supreme Court issued its landmark Tinker vs. Des Moines decision, a case that involved students wearing black armbands to protest America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

“There is some thinking that the standard needs to be rethought because of just this sort of circumstance,” he said, referring to the hockey tweets. “Social media is challenging a lot of legal ideas and principles when it comes to the First Amendment, and this may be another one of those cases.”

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A cash-strapped Little League in Los Angeles County will return a surprise $1,200 donation from a strip club that appeared to save its season.

League President Roberto Aguirre said the league's board of directors decided to return the money donated two weeks ago by Jet Strip gentlemen's club, according to the Daily Breeze newspaper of Torrance, Calif.

Little League decides to turn down donation from strip club

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The league needs the money to rent fields from the Lennox School District, which doubled fees to play on its baseball diamonds. As news of the strip club's donation spread, contributions came from around the country. Aguirre said the league still needs help.

Lennox is a poor, unincorporated neighborhood near the Los Angeles International Airport. The league offers a payment plan so families can afford the annual $85 per-player fee.

Earlier story: Strip club saves Little League's season

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SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego-area school district has agreed to pay a $4.4 million settlement to a man who suffered a head injury playing high school football and now must communicate through a keyboard.

The agreement announced Friday comes as the problem of head injuries in football has gained prominence due to lawsuits brought against the National Football League by former players complaining of ongoing life struggles from concussions.

Scott Eveland, now 22, was a senior and a linebacker with the Mission Hills High School Grizzlies in San Marcos, a town 30 miles north of San Diego.

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He collapsed on the sidelines after playing the first half of a game on Sept. 14, 2007, and was rushed to the hospital where doctors were able to save his life by removing part of his skull. But the heavy bleeding inside his brain caused him extensive damage.

 

"We are very pleased we were able to get that settlement because it gives Scotty a safety net," said his attorney David Casey Jr.

The San Marcos Unified School District, which oversees the school Eveland attended, did not admit any responsibility in the settlement. "Scott Eveland and his family agree that this settlement does not suggest that the professional and hard working coaches, athletic trainers, administrators and staff of the Mission Hills High School intentionally contributed to the unfortunate and tragic accident that occurred during a high school football game," the district and attorneys for Eveland said in a joint statement on Friday.

Due to the head injury, Eveland is confined to a wheelchair and he cannot stand or speak, said his principal attorney, Robert Francavilla.

He communicates through an iPad or a specially designed keyboard, and someone must support his arm at the elbow so he can do that, Francavilla said.

Earlier this year, more than 20 concussion-related lawsuits brought since August by former players against the NFL were consolidated in federal court in Philadelphia.

The NFL has recently faced a mounting number of suits by former players who contend they suffer long-term effects from head injuries. League officials have sought to crack down on helmet-to-helmet hits, and in 2010 the NFL created a committee to try to prevent and better manage concussions.

Eveland's mother, Diane Luth, sued the district for what happened to her son in September 2007.

"The care that we have to give Scotty, it's something I would not wish on any person, anybody's family," Luth told NBCSanDiego in a 2010 interview.

A former student claimed the team's head coach ignored signs that Scott was in distress.

According to a deposition obtained by NBCSanDiego, an assistant student trainer, Breanna Bingen, said warning signs about Scott's condition were ignored.

In the deposition, Bingen said that a week before the injury, Scott complained to the team's athletic trainer about having headaches, which caused Scott to miss certain parts of practice.

Bingen also said that just a few minutes before the game, Scott asked if he could sit out the first quarter because his head was hurting, but Bingen claims Coach Chris Hauser refused to take him out.

Reuters and NBCSanDiego contributed to this story.

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A Texas school district has apologized for what some perceived as a racist chant from fans after one of its teams beat a rival in a high school basketball playoff game.

Alamo Heights High School, which is made up mostly of white students, beat Edison High, which is predominantly Hispanic, in the Region IV-4A championship in San Antonio on Saturday. As Alamo players celebrated the win on the court, a large group of students began cheering “USA! USA!”

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Alamo Heights head coach Andrew Brewer silenced the students as soon as he heard them, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Alamo Heights Superintendent Kevin Brown said he has apologized to San Antonio Independent School District officials. As punishment, Alamo Heights students who were involved in the chanting will not be allowed to attend the team’s remaining state title games.

The San Antonio district on Tuesday also filed a complaint with the University Interscholastic League, the governing body of high school sports in the area.

Read NBC Sports’ story of fallout from the incident here.

You can also see video of the incident on KSAT.com.

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