1978 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament

1978 NCAA Division I
Basketball Tournament

NCAA logo from 1971 to 1979
Season	1977–78
Teams	32
Finals site	The Checkerdome St. Louis, Missouri
Champions	Kentucky Wildcats (5th title, 7th title game, 8th Final Four)
Runner-up	Duke Blue Devils (2nd title game, 4th Final Four)
Semifinalists	Arkansas Razorbacks (3rd Final Four) Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	Joe B. Hall (1st title)
MOP	Jack Givens (Kentucky)
Attendance	227,149
Top scorer	Mike Gminski Duke (109 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments «1977 1979»

The 1978 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament involved 32 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1978, and ended with the championship game on March 27 in St. Louis, Missouri. A total of 32 games were played, including a national third place game.

The process of seeding the bracket was first used in this tournament. Sixteen conference winners with automatic bids were seeded 1 through 4 in each region. At-large teams were seeded 1 through 4 in each region separately. There were in fact only eleven true at-large teams in the field, as the remaining five were conference winners with automatic bids and seeded as "at-large."^[1] The practice of distinguishing between automatic and at-large teams ended with this edition; the expanded field of forty in the 1979 tournament was simply seeded from one to ten in each of the four regions.

Led by head coach Joe B. Hall, Kentucky won its fifth national title with a 94–88 victory over Duke, coached by Bill Foster. Wildcat forward Jack Givens scored 41 points in the finale and was named the tournament's most outstanding player.^[2][3][4][5]

The bracket's biggest upset came in the first round, when little-heralded Miami (Ohio) defeated defending champion Marquette 84-81 in overtime. The victory was even sweeter for Miami Redskins (now RedHawks) fans as former Marquette coach Al McGuire had earlier strongly criticized the NCAA for potentially matching Marquette against Kentucky in the second round, with Marquette being given a first-round opponent in Miami that was supposedly not even worthy of providing an adequate tune-up game.

Unranked Cal State Fullerton (CSUF) pulled off two upsets, first over 4th ranked New Mexico (coached by Norm Ellenberger and led by Michael Cooper) and then over top-10 San Francisco (featuring Bill Cartwright). The loss was especially painful for New Mexico as the regional semifinals and finals were held on the Lobos' home court in Albuquerque. CSUF then almost upset Arkansas in the West Regional final, losing by 3 points. In each of the three games, the Titans overcame second-half double-digit deficits. In the Arkansas game, they cut a big deficit to 1 and had the ball with 14 seconds left. But Arkansas' Jim Counce stole the ball from Keith Anderson (many observers felt Anderson was fouled) and drove down to hit a clinching layup.

In the Mideast regional final, Kentucky knocked off top-seeded Michigan State, led by freshman Earvin "Magic" Johnson. This was the only time in a 4-year period (that included his senior year in high school, 2 years of college, and his rookie NBA season) that Magic's team did not win its final game of the playoffs and hence the championship.

The Final Four games (semifinals, third-place, and championship) at St. Louis Arena (a.k.a. The Checkerdome) were not played on the arena's official floor. Water damage to it forced the NCAA to borrow the floor from Indiana University's Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

This was the fourth and last year for a 32-team bracket; the field expanded to forty teams in 1979 and 48 in 1980, all seeded. The 64-team field debuted in 1985, eliminating byes for the top seeds (1979–1984). The third-place game at the Final Four was last played in 1981.

Schedule and venues[]

Charlotte

Philadelphia

Tulsa

Knoxville

Wichita

Indianapolis

Eugene

Tempe

1978 sites for first round games

Providence

Dayton

Lawrence

Albuquerque

St. Louis

1978 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1978 tournament:

First Round

• March 11
  • Mideast Region
    • Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana
    • Stokely Athletic Center, Knoxville, Tennessee
  • West Region
    • McArthur Court, Eugene, Oregon
    • ASU Activity Center, Tempe, Arizona
• March 12
  • East Region
    • Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina
    • The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Midwest Region
    • Mabee Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
    • Levitt Arena, Wichita, Kansas

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 16 and 18
  • Mideast Regional, University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio
  • West Regional, University Arena ("The Pit"), Albuquerque, New Mexico
• March 17 and 19
  • East Regional, Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
  • Midwest Regional, Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, Kansas

National Semifinals, 3rd Place Game, and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

• March 25 and 27
  • The Checkerdome, St. Louis, Missouri

For the second time in six years, St. Louis was chosen as the host city for the Final Four, the eighth city to host multiple times. There were no new host cities for the first time since 1950, but one new venue, Market Square Arena, marking the first time since 1940 that the tournament returned to Indianapolis, now a common site of Final Fours. The tournament did mark the last time it would be held at McArthur Court, as it has not returned to Eugene since. It was also the last time the regionals would be held in historic Allen Fieldhouse, something it did eight times.

Teams[]

Bracket[]

* – Denotes overtime period

East region[]

Midwest region[]

Mideast region[]

West region[]

Final Four[]

Q = automatic qualifier bid L = at-large bid (including 5 automatic bids seeded with at-large teams)

Game summaries[]

Final Four[]

Championship[]

Announcers[]

• Dick Enberg, Billy Packer, and Al McGuire – Final Four at St. Louis, Missouri
• Dick Enberg and Al McGuire – First Round at Tulsa, Oklahoma (Louisville–St. John's, Notre Dame–Houston); Midwest Regional Final at Lawrence, Kansas; West Regional Final at Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Curt Gowdy and Billy Packer – East Regional Final at Providence, Rhode Island; Mideast Regional Final at Dayton, Ohio
• Jay Randolph and Gary Thompson – Midwest Regional Semifinals at Lawrence, Kansas
• Connie Alexander and Bill Strannigan – West Regional Semifinals at Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Dick Enberg and Billy Packer – First Round at Knoxville, Tennessee (Kentucky–Florida State, Syracuse–Western Kentucky)
• Curt Gowdy and Al McGuire – First Round at Eugene, Oregon (Arkansas–Weber State, UCLA–Kansas)
• Marv Albert and Bucky Waters – First Round at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Villanova–La Salle, St. Bonaventure–Pennsylvania)
• Merle Harmon and Fred Taylor – First Round at Indianapolis, Indiana (Marquette–Miami Ohio, Michigan State–Providence)

See also[]

• 1978 NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament
• 1978 NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament
• 1978 National Invitation Tournament
• 1978 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
• 1978 National Women's Invitation Tournament

References[]