Duke, coached by Mike Krzyzewski, won a rematch of the previous year's national final matchup against undefeated UNLV 79–77 in the semifinal,[1] then won the national title with a 72–65 victory in the final game over Kansas, coached by Roy Williams.[2] This was the first national championship game for Williams as a head coach. Kansas defeated Williams' mentor Dean Smith and North Carolina (where Williams later coached) in the semifinal. Kansas made its second trip to the national championship game in four seasons, the prior appearance being 1988 when they defeated Oklahoma. Christian Laettner of Duke was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
This tournament marked the first time a #15 seed upset a #2 seed since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, when Richmond accomplished against Syracuse in the East region. In addition, for the first time ever, at least one team seeded #9 through #15 won a first-round game. This feat would be followed in 2013, 2016, and 2021.
This tournament adopted the NBA's 10ths-second timer during the final minute of each period in all arenas.
There were 26 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 23 were given to the winners of their conference's tournament, while three were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference (Big Ten, Ivy League and Pac-10). Another 35 bids were awarded by the NCAA tournament committee at-large to the best teams in the nation not already qualified.
The Big Eight was eligible for an automatic bid to the tournament, but their conference tournament was won by Missouri, who were on probation and ineligible for the NCAA tournament.[3] No automatic bid was awarded to the Big Eight.
Play-in Games
The remaining three bids were decided by play-in games between the six lowest-rated conferences in the nation. These matchups, which were decided prior to the season, paired the tournament champions of the six lowest-rated conferences in the nation in games played at campus sites:[4]
Unlike the later Opening Round and First Four games, the play-in games were not considered part of the NCAA tournament. This meant that the winners of these games were not credited with an NCAA tournament win, and only the teams that advanced to the field of 64 were credited with an NCAA tournament appearance.
For the first time, CBS Sports showed all 63 tournament games. In the first three rounds, games were shown on a regional basis, except for one game each on Saturday and Sunday in the second round. Usual start times were noon and 7:30 or 8 p.m. Eastern time on each of the Thursdays and Fridays. During the weekend of the second round, the national telecast began at noon, with the regional windows (three on Saturday, two on Sunday) following. Although the times would be adjusted, the same basic format was in place until 2010. As of 2011, the regional broadcasts have been replaced by simulcast feeds on non-broadcast networks owned by Turner Sports.
Announcers
Jim Nantz and Billy Packer – Midwest Regional at Pontiac, Michigan; Final Four at Indianapolis, Indiana
Dick Stockton and Billy Cunningham – First and Second Rounds at Minneapolis, Minnesota; West Regional at Seattle, Washington
James Brown and Bill Raftery – First and Second Rounds at Dayton, Ohio; East Regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey
Greg Gumbel and Quinn Buckner – First and Second Rounds at Tucson, Arizona; Southeast Regional at Charlotte, North Carolina
Duke's 79–77 win over UNLV in the Final Four became one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. Duke was an 8-point underdog in the game. UNLV's juggernaut 1990–91 squad ranked #2 on ESPN Classic's Who's #1? for Best Teams Not To Win a Title. UNLV was undefeated entering the 1991 tournament, which was unmatched until Wichita State in 2014 and Kentucky in 2015. (Saint Joseph's went unbeaten in the 2004 regular season, finishing 27–0, but lost in their conference tournament before the NCAAs. Alcorn State went unbeaten in the 1979 regular season, but got invited to the NIT since the Southwestern Athletic Conference did not have an automatic bid to the NCAAs, and lost to eventual winner Indiana in the 2nd round. Indiana is the last team to win the championship undefeated in 1976).
This was Duke's fourth (of five) consecutive Final Four trips, the first team to achieve such a feat since UCLA. Since freshmen were not eligible at the time of UCLA's run, Duke's Greg Koubek became the first player to play in four Final Fours, a record matched by Duke teammates Christian Laettner and Brian Davis the next year when the team repeated as national champions.
For the first time in tournament history a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed. Richmond defeated Syracuse 73–69. Since then this has happened ten additional times: in 1993, Santa Clara defeated Arizona 64–61; in 1997, Coppin State defeated South Carolina 78–65; in 2001, Hampton defeated Iowa State 58–57; on the same day in 2012 Norfolk State defeated Missouri 86–84 and Lehigh defeated Duke 75–70; in 2013 Florida Gulf Coast defeated Georgetown 78–68;[8] in 2016, Middle Tennessee defeated Michigan State 90–81; in 2021, Oral Roberts defeated Ohio State 75–72; in 2022, Saint Peter's defeated Kentucky 85–79; and in 2023, Princeton defeated Arizona 59–55.
In the Final Four against Kansas, legendary North Carolina coach Dean Smith was ejected from the game for leaving the coach's box.[9]
For bracketologists, this tournament is notable for several reasons. The first is the upset-heavy opening round, which led to every seed number except 16 being represented by at least one team in the second round. The East region, in particular, featured first round victories by seeds 9, 10, 12, 13, and 15. Two 11's and a 14-seed advanced in the other regions. The second round is equally remarkable because there were no upsets in this round whatsoever. The combination of these two anomalies led to an unprecedented occurrence in which a 10 (Temple), an 11 (Connecticut), and a 12-seed (Eastern Michigan) advanced to the Sweet Sixteen without any of the teams pulling off consecutive upsets. The reason for this was that the first round successes of 15-seed Richmond, 14-seed Xavier, and 13-seed Penn State led to Temple, Connecticut, and Eastern Michigan (respectively) being considered favorites for their second round matchups.
The Final Four was also the first to include both halves of the North Carolina–Duke rivalry. Had both teams won, they would have faced each other for the national championship, but to this day, the teams have only faced each other once each in the NCAA tournament and the NIT – the 1971 NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden, which North Carolina won 73–67 and the 2022 Final Four at the Caesars Superdome, which the 8th-seeded Tar Heels won 81–77 in the last game of Mike Krzyzewski's coaching career.
UNLV's semi-final loss in the NCAA tournament brought an end to their astounding 45-game win streak. That is the fourth-longest consecutive-game win streak in NCAA Division 1 basketball history, and the longest win streak since the longest one ever (by UCLA) ended in 1974.[13]
DePaul's appearance is, as of 2023, the last appearance of an independent team in the tournament. The Blue Demons would join the Great Midwest Conference in 1991; Notre Dame, the last prominent independent, would join the Big East in 1995. Though there have been independent teams since, most have been minor programs, or programs in transition between conference affiliations and divisions. It was also the last tournament to feature an East Coast Conference team; the conference, which was born in 1974 from former Middle Atlantic Conference teams, would cease operations in 1994 after most of the teams joined larger conferences.
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