1997 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

1997 NCAA Division I
Men's Basketball Tournament
Season	1996–97
Teams	64
Finals site	RCA Dome; Indianapolis, Indiana
Champions	Arizona Wildcats (1st title, 1st title game,; 3rd Final Four)
Runner-up	Kentucky Wildcats (9th title game,; 12th Final Four)
Semifinalists	Minnesota Golden Gophers (Vacated) (1st Final Four); North Carolina Tar Heels (13th Final Four);
Winning coach	Lute Olson (1st title)
MOP	Miles Simon (Arizona)
Attendance	646,531
Top scorer	Miles Simon Arizona; (132 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments
«1996	1998»

The 1997 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 13, 1997, and ended with the championship game on March 31 in Indianapolis, Indiana at the RCA Dome. A total of 63 games were played.

The Final Four consisted of Kentucky, who entered the tournament as the defending national champions, Minnesota, making their first Final Four appearance, Arizona, making their third Final Four appearance and first since 1994, and North Carolina, making their thirteenth Final Four appearance and first since 1995.

In the national championship game, Arizona defeated Kentucky in overtime 84–79 to win their first national championship. For the second time in the last three seasons, the defending national champions reached the final game and lost.

Miles Simon of Arizona was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Several years later, Minnesota was stripped of its Final Four appearance following the discovery of NCAA academic rule violations. In addition, the Gophers were stripped of their Big Ten title they had also won.^[1]

Arizona also became the only school since the introduction of the 64-team bracket in 1985,^[2] to defeat three number 1 seeds in the tournament, having upset overall number one seed Kansas in addition to their two Final Four victories.

The tournament also saw the third victory by a #15 seed over a #2 seed, as Coppin State defeated South Carolina in their first round matchup. In addition, a #14 seed advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for only the second time, as Southeast Region #14 seed Chattanooga defeated both Georgia and Illinois.

The tournament marked the end of the career of North Carolina coach Dean Smith. Smith, whose team lost in the national semifinals, retired just prior to the beginning of the 1997–98 season.

Schedule and venues[]

Pittsburgh

Charlotte

Winston-Salem

Memphis

Auburn Hills

Kansas City

Salt Lake City

Tucson

1997 first and second rounds

San Jose

San Antonio

Birmingham

Syracuse

Indianapolis

1997 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1997 tournament:

First and Second Rounds

March 13 and 15
- East Region
  - Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Host: Wake Forest University)
- Midwest Region
  - The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan (Host: Mid-American Conference)
- Southeast Region
  - Memphis Pyramid, Memphis, Tennessee (Host: University of Memphis)
- West Region
  - Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (Host: University of Utah)
March 14 and 16
- East Region
  - Pittsburgh Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Host: Duquesne University)
- Midwest Region
  - Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: University of Kansas)
- Southeast Region
  - Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina (Host: Davidson College)
- West Region
  - McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona (Host: University of Arizona)

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

March 20 and 22
- Midwest Regional, Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas (Host: University of Texas at San Antonio)
- West Regional, San Jose Arena, San Jose, California (Host: San Jose State University)
March 21 and 23
- East Regional, Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York (Host: Syracuse University)
- Southeast Regional, BJCC Coliseum, Birmingham, Alabama (Host: Southeastern Conference)

National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

March 29 and 31
- RCA Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana (Hosts: Butler University and IUPUI)

The Final Four returned to Indianapolis for the third time, and to the RCA Dome for the second time in seven years. There were three new host cities and four new arenas in the 1997 tournament. For the first time since 1953, the tournament returned to the southern San Francisco Bay area, this time at the San Jose Arena in San Jose. The tournament also saw the first games held at the Alamodome and in San Antonio, the eighth city in Texas to host games; only California has hosted in more cities. The city of Pittsburgh hosted for the first time, at the Civic Arena, the first games played outside Philadelphia within the state of Pennsylvania. Finally, the Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit's major indoor basketball arena from 1988 to 2017, hosted games for the first time in 1997. All thirteen venues in the tournament have hosted games since this one. Any future tournament games to be held in Detroit would be played at Ford Field or Little Caesars Arena.

Teams[]

East Regional - Syracuse
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Bid Type
#1	North Carolina	Dean Smith	ACC	24–6	Automatic
#2	South Carolina	Eddie Fogler	SEC	24–7	At-Large
#3	New Mexico	Dave Bliss	WAC	24–7	At-Large
#4	Villanova	Steve Lappas	Big East	23–9	At-Large
#5	California	Ben Braun	Pac-10	21–8	At-Large
#6	Louisville	Denny Crum	Conference USA	23–8	At-Large
#7	Wisconsin	Dick Bennett	Big Ten	18–9	At-Large
#8	Indiana	Bob Knight	Big Ten	22–10	At-Large
#9	Colorado	Ricardo Patton	Big 12	21–9	At-Large
#10	Texas	Tom Penders	Big 12	16–11	At-Large
#11	Massachusetts	Bruiser Flint	Atlantic 10	19–13	At-Large
#12	Princeton	Bill Carmody	Ivy League	24–3	Automatic
#13	Long Island		NEC	21–8	Automatic
#14	Old Dominion	Jeff Capel II	CAA	22–10	Automatic
#15	Coppin State	Ron Mitchell	MEAC	21–8	Automatic
#16	Fairfield	Paul Cormier	MAAC	11–18	Automatic

Southeast Regional - Birmingham
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Bid Type
#1	Kansas	Roy Williams	Big 12	32–1	Automatic
#2	Duke	Mike Krzyzewski	ACC	23–8	At-Large
#3	Georgia	Tubby Smith	SEC	24-8	At-Large
#4	Arizona	Lute Olson	Pac-10	19–9	At-Large
#5	Maryland	Gary Williams	ACC	21–10	At-Large
#6	Illinois	Lon Kruger	Big Ten	21–9	At-Large
#7	Marquette	Mike Deane	Conference USA	22–8	Automatic
#8	Purdue	Gene Keady	Big Ten	17–11	At-Large
#9	Rhode Island	Al Skinner	Atlantic 10	20–9	At-Large
#10	Providence	Pete Gillen	Big East	21–11	At-Large
#11	USC	Henry Bibby	Pac-10	17–10	At-Large
#12	College of Charleston	John Kresse	TAAC	28–2	Automatic
#13	South Alabama	Bill Musselman	Sun Belt	23–6	Automatic
#14	Chattanooga	Mack McCarthy	Southern	22–10	Automatic
#15	Murray State	Mark Gottfried	Ohio Valley	20–9	Automatic
#16	Jackson State		SWAC	14–15	Automatic

Midwest Regional - San Antonio
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Bid Type
#1	Minnesota (vacated)	Clem Haskins	Big Ten	27–3	Automatic
#2	UCLA	Steve Lavin	Pac-10	21–7	Automatic
#3	Cincinnati	Bob Huggins	Conference USA	25–7	At-Large
#4	Clemson	Rick Barnes	ACC	21–9	At-Large
#5	Tulsa	Steve Robinson	WAC	23–9	At-Large
#6	Iowa State	Tim Floyd	Big 12	20–8	At-Large
#7	Xavier	Skip Prosser	Atlantic 10	22–5	At-Large
#8	Ole Miss	Rob Evans	SEC	20–8	At-Large
#9	Temple	John Chaney	Atlantic 10	19–10	At-Large
#10	Vanderbilt	Jan van Breda Kolff	SEC	19–11	At-Large
#11	Illinois State	Kevin Stallings	Missouri Valley	24–5	Automatic
#12	Boston University	Dennis Wolff	America East	25–4	Automatic
#13	Miami (OH)	Charlie Coles	Mid-American	21–8	Automatic
#14	Butler	Barry Collier	MCC (Horizon)	23–9	Automatic
#15	Charleston Southern		Big South	17–12	Automatic
#16	Southwest Texas State	Mike Miller	Southland	16–12	Automatic

West Regional - San Jose
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Bid Type
#1	Kentucky	Rick Pitino	SEC	30–4	Automatic
#2	Utah	Rick Majerus	WAC	26–3	Automatic
#3	Wake Forest	Dave Odom	ACC	23–6	At-Large
#4	Saint Joseph's	Phil Martelli	Atlantic 10	24–6	Automatic
#5	Boston College	Jim O'Brien	Big East	21–8	Automatic
#6	Stanford	Mike Montgomery	Pac-10	20–7	At-Large
#7	Charlotte	Melvin Watkins	Conference USA	21–8	At-Large
#8	Iowa	Tom Davis	Big Ten	21–9	At-Large
#9	Virginia	Jeff Jones	ACC	19–10	At-Large
#10	Georgetown	John Thompson	Big East	20–9	At-Large
#11	Oklahoma	Kelvin Sampson	Big 12	19–7	At-Large
#12	Valparaiso	Homer Drew	Mid-Continent	24–6	Automatic
#13	Pacific	Bob Thomason	Big West	23–5	Automatic
#14	Saint Mary's	Ernie Kent	West Coast	23–7	Automatic
#15	Navy	Don DeVoe	Patriot League	20–8	Automatic
#16	Montana	Blaine Taylor	Big Sky	21–10	Automatic

Bracket[]

* – Denotes overtime period

East Regional - Syracuse, New York[]

First round			Second round			Regional Semifinals			Regional Finals

1	North Carolina	82

16	Fairfield	74
			1	North Carolina	73
Winston-Salem
			9	Colorado	56
8	Indiana	62

9	Colorado	80
						1	North Carolina	63

						5	California	57
5	California	55

12	Princeton	52
			5	California	75
Winston-Salem
			4	Villanova	68
4	Villanova	101

13	Long Island	91
									1	North Carolina	97

									6	Louisville	74
6	Louisville	65

11	Massachusetts	57
			6	Louisville	64
Pittsburgh
			3	New Mexico	63
3	New Mexico	59

14	Old Dominion	55
						6	Louisville	78

						10	Texas	63
7	Wisconsin	58

10	Texas	71
			10	Texas	82
Pittsburgh
			15	Coppin State	81
2	South Carolina	65

15	Coppin State	78

Southeast Regional - Birmingham, Alabama[]

First round			Second round			Regional Semifinals			Regional Finals

1	Kansas	78

16	Jackson State	64
			1	Kansas	75
Memphis
			8	Purdue	61
8	Purdue	83

9	Rhode Island	76*
						1	Kansas	82

						4	Arizona	85
5	Maryland	66

12	College of Charleston	75
			12	College of Charleston	69
Memphis
			4	Arizona	73
4	Arizona	65

13	South Alabama	57
									4	Arizona	96

									10	Providence	92*
6	Illinois	90

11	Southern California	77
			6	Illinois	63
Charlotte
			14	Chattanooga	75
3	Georgia	70

14	Chattanooga	73
						14	Chattanooga	65

						10	Providence	71
7	Marquette	59

10	Providence	81
			10	Providence	98
Charlotte
			2	Duke	87
2	Duke	71

15	Murray State	68

Midwest Regional - San Antonio, Texas[]

First round			Second round			Regional Semifinals			Regional Finals

1	Minnesota	78

16	Southwest Texas State	46
			1	Minnesota	76
Kansas City
			9	Temple	57
8	Ole Miss	40

9	Temple	62
						1	Minnesota	90

						4	Clemson	84**
5	Tulsa	81

12	Boston University	52
			5	Tulsa	59
Kansas City
			4	Clemson	65
4	Clemson	68

13	Miami (OH)	56
									1	Minnesota	80

									2	UCLA	72
6	Iowa State	69

11	Illinois State	57
			6	Iowa State	67
Auburn Hills
			3	Cincinnati	66
3	Cincinnati	86

14	Butler	69
						6	Iowa State	73*

						2	UCLA	74
7	Xavier	80

10	Vanderbilt	68
			7	Xavier	83
Auburn Hills
			2	UCLA	96
2	UCLA	109

15	Charleston Southern	75

West Regional - San Jose, California[]

First round			Second round			Regional Semifinals			Regional Finals

1	Kentucky	92

16	Montana	54
			1	Kentucky	75
Salt Lake City
			8	Iowa	69
8	Iowa	73

9	Virginia	60
						1	Kentucky	83

						4	Saint Joseph's	68
5	Boston College	73

12	Valparaiso	66
			5	Boston College	77*
Salt Lake City
			4	Saint Joseph's	81
4	Saint Joseph's	75

13	Pacific	65
									1	Kentucky	72

									2	Utah	59
6	Stanford	80

11	Oklahoma	67
			6	Stanford	72
Tucson
			3	Wake Forest	66
3	Wake Forest	68

14	Saint Mary's	46
						6	Stanford	77*

						2	Utah	82
7	Charlotte	79

10	Georgetown	67
			7	Charlotte	58
Tucson
			2	Utah	77
2	Utah	75

15	Navy	61

Final Four – Indianapolis, Indiana[]

National Semifinals			National Championship Game

E1	North Carolina	58

SE4	Arizona	66
			SE4	Arizona	84

			W1	Kentucky	79*
M1	Minnesota	69

W1	Kentucky	78