2004 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

2004 NCAA Division I
men's basketball tournament
Season	2003–04
Teams	65
Finals site	Alamodome; San Antonio, Texas
Champions	Connecticut Huskies (2nd title, 2nd title game,; 2nd Final Four)
Runner-up	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (1st title game,; 2nd Final Four)
Semifinalists	Duke Blue Devils (14th Final Four); Oklahoma State Cowboys (6th Final Four);
Winning coach	Jim Calhoun (2nd title)
MOP	Emeka Okafor (Connecticut)
Attendance	716,899
Top scorer	Ben Gordon (Connecticut); (154 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments
«2003	2005»

The 2004 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16, 2004, and ended with the championship game on April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. A total of 64 games were played.

The NCAA named, for the first time, the four tournament regions after regional site host cities instead of the "East", "Midwest", "South", and "West" designations. It was also the first year that the matchups for the national semifinals were determined at least in part by the overall seeding of the top team in each regional ^{[citation needed]}. The top four teams in the tournament were Kentucky, Duke, Stanford, and Saint Joseph's. Had all of those teams advanced to the Final Four, Kentucky would have played Saint Joseph's and Duke would have played Stanford in the semifinal games.

Of those teams, only Duke advanced to the Final Four. They were joined by Connecticut, making their first appearance since defeating Duke for the national championship in 1999, Oklahoma State, making their first appearance since 1995, and Georgia Tech, making their first appearance since 1990.

Connecticut defeated Georgia Tech 82–73 to win their second national championship in as many tries. Emeka Okafor of Connecticut was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

As they had in 1999, Connecticut won their regional championship in Phoenix, Arizona.

Two of the tournament's top seeds failed to make it past the opening weekend. Kentucky, number one seed of the St. Louis region, and Stanford, #1 seed of the Phoenix region, both were defeated. Incidentally, both teams were defeated by schools from Alabama, as Kentucky fell to UAB while Stanford lost to Alabama.

Due to their strong 2003–04 season, Gonzaga achieved its highest NCAA tournament seed until 2013 by receiving the #2 seed in the St. Louis region. Gonzaga would receive a #1 seed in the 2013 tournament. The team failed to advance beyond the first weekend of the tournament, however.

Schedule and venues

Dayton

Seattle

Denver

Kansas City

Milwaukee

Columbus

Buffalo

Raleigh

Orlando

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2004 play-in game (orange) and first and second rounds (green)

Phoenix

St. Louis

Atlanta

East Rutherford

San Antonio

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2004 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2004 tournament:^[1]

Opening Round

March 16
- University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio (Host: University of Dayton)

First and Second Rounds

March 18 and 20
- HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York (Hosts: Canisius College and Niagara University)
- KeyArena, Seattle, Washington (Host: University of Washington)
- Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado (Hosts: Colorado State University and Mountain West Conference)
- RBC Center, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)
March 19 and 21
- Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Host: Marquette University)
- Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Big 12 Conference)
- Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio (Host: Ohio State University)
- TD Waterhouse Centre, Orlando, Florida (Host: Stetson University)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

March 25 and 27
- East Rutherford Regional
  - Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey (Host: Rutgers University)
- Phoenix Regional
  - America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)
March 26 and 28
- Atlanta Regional
  - Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia (Host: Georgia Tech)
- St. Louis Regional
  - Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)

April 3 and 5
- Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas (Host: University of Texas at San Antonio)

Qualifying teams

Automatic bids

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2004 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament (except for the Ivy League, whose regular-season champion received the automatic bid).

Conference	School	Appearance	Last bid
ACC	Maryland	21st	2003
America East	Vermont	2nd	2003
Atlantic 10	Xavier	16th	2003
Atlantic Sun	Central Florida	3rd	1996
Big 12	Oklahoma State	21st	2003
Big East	Connecticut	25th	2003
Big Sky	Eastern Washington	1st	Never
Big South	Liberty	2nd	1994
Big Ten	Wisconsin	10th	2003
Big West	Pacific	6th	1997
Colonial	VCU	7th	1996
C-USA	Cincinnati	23rd	2003
Horizon	Illinois–Chicago	3rd	2002
Ivy League	Princeton	23rd	2001
MAAC	Manhattan	6th	2003
MAC	Western Michigan	3rd	1998
MEAC	Florida A&M	2nd	1999
Mid-Con	Valparaiso	7th	2002
Missouri Valley	Northern Iowa	2nd	1990
Mountain West	Utah	25th	2003
Northeast	Monmouth	3rd	2001
Ohio Valley	Murray State	12th	2002
Pac-10	Stanford	13th	2003
Patriot	Lehigh	3rd	1988
SEC	Kentucky	46th	2003
Southern	East Tennessee State	7th	2003
Southland	UTSA	3rd	1999
Sun Belt	Louisiana–Lafayette	8th	2000
SWAC	Alabama State	2nd	2001
WAC	Nevada	3rd	1985
West Coast	Gonzaga	7th	2003

Listed by region and seeding

East Rutherford Regional
Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Saint Joseph's	Atlantic 10	27–1	At-large
#2	Oklahoma State	Big 12	27–3	Automatic
#3	Pittsburgh	Big East	29–4	At-large
#4	Wake Forest	ACC	19–9	At-large
#5	Florida	SEC	20–10	At-large
#6	Wisconsin	Big Ten	24–6	Automatic
#7	Memphis	C-USA	21–7	At-large
#8	Texas Tech	Big 12	22–10	At-large
#9	Charlotte	C-USA	21–8	At-large
#10	South Carolina	SEC	23–10	At-large
#11	Richmond	Atlantic 10	20–12	At-large
#12	Manhattan	MAAC	24–5	Automatic
#13	VCU	CAA	23–7	Automatic
#14	Central Florida	Atlantic Sun	25–5	Automatic
#15	Eastern Washington	Big Sky	17–12	Automatic
#16	Liberty	Big South	18–14	Automatic

St. Louis Regional
Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Kentucky	SEC	26–4	Automatic
#2	Gonzaga	WCC	27–2	Automatic
#3	Georgia Tech	ACC	23–9	At-large
#4	Kansas	Big 12	21–8	At-large
#5	Providence	Big East	20–8	At-large
#6	Boston College	Big East	23–9	At-large
#7	Michigan State	Big Ten	18–11	At-large
#8	Washington	Pac-10	19–11	At-large
#9	UAB	C-USA	20–9	At-large
#10	Nevada	WAC	23–8	Automatic
#11	Utah	Mountain West	24–8	Automatic
#12	Pacific	Big West	25–7	Automatic
#13	Illinois–Chicago	Horizon	24–7	Automatic
#14	Northern Iowa	Missouri Valley	21–9	Automatic
#15	Valparaiso	Mid-Continent	18–12	Automatic
#16	Florida A&M	MEAC	14–16	Automatic
#16	Lehigh	Patriot	20–10	Automatic

Atlanta Regional
Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Duke	ACC	27–5	At-large
#2	Mississippi State	SEC	25–3	At-large
#3	Texas	Big 12	23–7	At-large
#4	Cincinnati	C-USA	24–6	Automatic
#5	Illinois	Big Ten	24–6	At-large
#6	North Carolina	ACC	18–10	At-large
#7	Xavier	Atlantic 10	23–10	Automatic
#8	Seton Hall	Big East	20–9	At-large
#9	Arizona	Pac-10	20–9	At-large
#10	Louisville	C-USA	20–9	At-large
#11	Air Force	Mountain West	22–6	At-large
#12	Murray State	Ohio Valley	28–5	Automatic
#13	East Tennessee State	SoCon	27–5	Automatic
#14	Princeton	Ivy	20–7	Automatic
#15	Monmouth	Northeast	21–11	Automatic
#16	Alabama State	SWAC	16–14	Automatic

Phoenix Regional
Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Stanford	Pac-10	29–1	Automatic
#2	Connecticut	Big East	27–6	Automatic
#3	NC State	ACC	20–9	At-large
#4	Maryland	ACC	19–11	Automatic
#5	Syracuse	Big East	21–7	At-large
#6	Vanderbilt	SEC	21–9	At-large
#7	DePaul	C-USA	21–9	At-large
#8	Alabama	SEC	17–12	At-large
#9	Southern Illinois	Missouri Valley	25–4	At-large
#10	Dayton	Atlantic 10	24–8	At-large
#11	Western Michigan	Mid-American	26–4	Automatic
#12	BYU	Mountain West	21–8	At-large
#13	UTEP	WAC	24–7	At-large
#14	Louisiana–Lafayette (vacated)	Sun Belt	20–8	Automatic
#15	Vermont	America East	22–8	Automatic
#16	UTSA	Southland	19–13	Automatic

Bids by conference

Bids	Conference	Schools
6	ACC	Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest
	Big East	Boston College, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Providence, Seton Hall, Syracuse
	C-USA	Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Memphis, UAB
	SEC	Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
4	Atlantic 10	Dayton, Richmond, Saint Joseph's, Xavier
4	Big 12	Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech
3	Big Ten	Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin
	Mountain West	Air Force, BYU, Utah
	Pac-10	Arizona, Stanford, Washington
2	Missouri Valley	Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois
2	WAC	Nevada, UTEP
1	20 other conferences

Record by conference

Conference	# of Bids	Record	Win %	R32	S16	E8	F4	CG
Big East	6	12–5	.706	5	3	1	1	1
SEC	6	7–6	.538	4	2	1	–	–
Big Ten	3	3–3	.500	2	1	–	–	–
ACC	6	14–6	.700	6	3	2	2	1
Big 12	4	10–4	.714	4	3	2	1	–
Pac-10	3	1–3	.250	1	–	–	–	–
Missouri Valley	2	0–2	.000	–	–	–	–	–
Atlantic 10	4	6–4	.600	2	2	2	–	–
C–USA	6	5–6	.455	4	1	–	–	–
MWC	3	0–3	.000	–	–	–	–	–
WAC	2	2–2	.500	1	1	–	–	–
MAAC	1	1–1	.500	1	–	–	–	–
WCC	1	1–1	.500	1	–	–	–	–
Big West	1	1–1	.500	1	–	–	–	–
MEAC	1	1–1*	.500	–	–	–	–	–

*Florida A&M University won the Opening Round game.

The America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, CAA, Horizon League, Mid-Continent, Ivy, MAC, MEAC, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, and Sun Belt conferences all went 0–1.

The columns R32, S16, E8, F4, and CG respectively stand for the Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and championship Game.

Final Four

At Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas

National semifinals

April 3, 2004
- Connecticut (W2) 79, Duke (S1) 78
With the Connecticut Huskies trailing by 8 points with less than 3 minutes to go, it looked as if the Duke Blue Devils were going to spoil Jim Calhoun's chance at a second national title. Connecticut's All-American center Emeka Okafor was limited to just 22 minutes because of early foul trouble, but he came up clutch with several big plays down the stretch and finished with 18 points and only 3 fouls. By contrast, all three of Duke's centers fouled out, including Shelden Williams, who committed his fifth foul with 3:04 to play. In addition, Duke went without a field goal for the last 4⁠1/2⁠ minutes until Chris Duhon's meaningless three-pointer at the buzzer. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was denied his 65th NCAA Tournament victory which would have tied him with Dean Smith for the all-time record. He later broke that record.^[2]
- Georgia Tech (M3) 67, Oklahoma State (E2) 65
Will Bynum's layup in the final moments kept the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets dream for a National Championship alive as they defeated the Oklahoma State Cowboys, in a nail-biter, in the first of the national semifinal doubleheader. Georgia Tech led for most of the game including a seven-point edge at halftime. However, Oklahoma State was able to tie the game on John Lucas's three-pointer with 26.3 seconds left. Georgia Tech then milked the clock which set up Bynum's game-winner. Georgia Tech advanced to their first ever National Championship appearance. Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton was denied yet another chance at an elusive national title.^[3]

National Championship Game

April 5, 2004
- Connecticut (W2) 82, Georgia Tech (M3) 73
The 2004 National Championship Game proved to be a coronation for the Connecticut Huskies as they handled Paul Hewitt's Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Emeka Okafor led Connecticut with 24 points and was an easy choice for Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Guard Ben Gordon added 21 points to Connecticut's cause. The victory gave Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun his second National Championship (1999).^[4]

Bracket

Opening Round game – Dayton, Ohio

Winner advances to 16th seed in St. Louis Regional vs. (1) Kentucky.

Opening Round Game March 16

16a	Florida A&M	72

16b	Lehigh	57

East Rutherford Regional

First round March 18–19			Second round March 20–21			Regional semifinals March 25			Regional finals March 27

1	Saint Joseph's	82

16	Liberty	63
			1	Saint Joseph's	70
Buffalo - Thu/Sat
			8	Texas Tech	65
8	Texas Tech	76

9	Charlotte	73
						1	Saint Joseph's	84

						4	Wake Forest	80
5	Florida	60

12	Manhattan	75
			12	Manhattan	80
Raleigh - Thu/Sat
			4	Wake Forest	84
4	Wake Forest	79

13	VCU	78
									1	Saint Joseph's	62

									2	Oklahoma State	64
6	Wisconsin	76

11	Richmond	64
			6	Wisconsin	55
Milwaukee - Fri/Sun
			3	Pittsburgh	59
3	Pittsburgh	53

14	Central Florida	44
						3	Pittsburgh	51

						2	Oklahoma State	63
7	Memphis	59

10	South Carolina	43
			7	Memphis	53
Kansas City - Fri/Sun
			2	Oklahoma State	70
2	Oklahoma State	75

15	Eastern Washington	56

St. Louis Regional

First round March 18–19			Second round March 20–21			Regional semifinals March 26			Regional finals March 28

1	Kentucky	96

16	Florida A&M	76
			1	Kentucky	75
Columbus - Fri/Sun
			9	UAB	76
8	Washington	100

9	UAB	102
						9	UAB	74

						4	Kansas	100
5	Providence	58

12	Pacific	66
			12	Pacific	63
Kansas City - Fri/Sun
			4	Kansas	78
4	Kansas	78

13	UIC	53
									4	Kansas	71

									3	Georgia Tech	79^OT
6	Boston College	58

11	Utah	51
			6	Boston College	54
Milwaukee - Fri/Sun
			3	Georgia Tech	57
3	Georgia Tech	65

14	Northern Iowa	60
						3	Georgia Tech	72

						10	Nevada	67
7	Michigan State	66

10	Nevada	72
			10	Nevada	91
Seattle - Thu/Sat
			2	Gonzaga	72
2	Gonzaga	76

15	Valparaiso	49

Atlanta Regional

First round March 18–19			Second round March 20–21			Regional semifinals March 26			Regional finals March 28

1	Duke	96

16	Alabama State	61
			1	Duke	90
Raleigh - Thu/Sat
			8	Seton Hall	62
8	Seton Hall	80

9	Arizona	76
						1	Duke	72

						5	Illinois	62
5	Illinois	72

12	Murray State	53
			5	Illinois	92
Columbus - Fri/Sun
			4	Cincinnati	68
4	Cincinnati	80

13	East Tennessee State	77
									1	Duke	66

									7	Xavier	63
6	North Carolina	63

11	Air Force	52
			6	North Carolina	75
Denver - Thu/Sat
			3	Texas	78
3	Texas	66

14	Princeton	49
						3	Texas	71

						7	Xavier	79
7	Xavier	80

10	Louisville	70
			7	Xavier	89
Orlando - Fri/Sun
			2	Mississippi State	74
2	Mississippi State	85

15	Monmouth	52

Phoenix Regional

First round March 18–19			Second round March 20–21			Regional semifinals March 25			Regional finals March 27

1	Stanford	71

16	UTSA	45
			1	Stanford	67
Seattle - Thu/Sat
			8	Alabama	70
8	Alabama	65

9	Southern Illinois	64
						8	Alabama	80

						5	Syracuse	71
5	Syracuse	80

12	BYU	75
			5	Syracuse	72
Denver - Thu/Sat
			4	Maryland	70
4	Maryland	86

13	UTEP	83
									8	Alabama	71

									2	Connecticut	87
6	Vanderbilt	71

11	Western Michigan	58
			6	Vanderbilt	75
Orlando - Fri/Sun
			3	North Carolina State	73
3	NC State	61

14	Louisiana–Lafayette	52
						6	Vanderbilt	53

						2	Connecticut	73
7	DePaul	76^2OT

10	Dayton	69
			7	DePaul	55
Buffalo - Thu/Sat
			2	Connecticut	72
2	Connecticut	70

15	Vermont	53

Final Four – San Antonio, Texas

National semifinals April 3			National Championship Game April 5

ER2	Oklahoma State	65

SL3	Georgia Tech	67
			SL3	Georgia Tech	73

			PH2	Connecticut	82
AT1	Duke	78

PH2	Connecticut	79

Game summaries

Final four

CBS

April 3
6:07 pm

box score

#3 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 67, #2 Oklahoma State Cowboys 65
Scoring by half: 37–30, 30–35
Pts: L. Schenscher – 19 Rebs: L. Schenscher – 12 Asts: J. Jack – 5		Pts: J. Graham – 17 Rebs: J. Graham – 10 Asts: T. Allen – 4

Alamodome – San Antonio, TX
Attendance: 44,417
Referees: Donnie Gray, Jim Burr, Tim Higgins

CBS

April 3
8:47 pm