2004 NCAA MEN'S DIVISION I BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The '2004 NCAA Men's Division I 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.
This was the first year in which the regional sites were referred to by the cities in which the games were held in 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. 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. Only Duke advanced to the Final Four, where it played and lost to Connecticut in the semifinals. Despite being a #2 seed, Connecticut was widely considered the best team in the tournament, and many commentators felt this semifinal game should have been for the national championship.
Connecticut, coached by Jim Calhoun, won the national title with an 82-73 victory in the final game over Georgia Tech, coached by Paul Hewitt. Emeka Okafor of Connecticut was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Contents

Locations

Qualifying Teams

Bids by conference

Final Four

National Semifinals

Championship Game

Brackets

East Rutherford Regional

St. Louis Regional

Atlanta Regional

Phoenix Regional

Final Four

See also

Locations

Region	Site	Other Locations
East Rutherford	East Rutherford, New Jersey	Buffalo, New York, Kansas City, Missouri, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Raleigh, North Carolina
St. Louis	St. Louis, Missouri	Columbus, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, Kansas City, Missouri, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Seattle, Washington
Atlanta	Atlanta, Georgia	Columbus, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Orlando, Florida, Raleigh, North Carolina
Phoenix	Phoenix, Arizona	Buffalo, New York, Denver, Colorado, Orlando, Florida, Seattle, Washington
Finals	San Antonio, Texas

Qualifying Teams

East Region - East Rutherford
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	St. Joseph's	Phil Martelli	Atlantic 10	27-1	At-Large Bid
#2	Oklahoma State	Eddie Sutton	Big 12	30-3	Tournament Champion
#3	Pittsburgh	Jamie Dixon	Big East	29-4	At-Large Bid
#4	Wake Forest	Skip Prosser	ACC	19-9	At-Large Bid
#5	Florida	Billy Donovan	SEC	20-10	At-Large Bid
#6	Wisconsin	Bo Ryan	Big Ten	24-6	Tournament Champion
#7	Memphis	John Calipari	C-USA	21-7	At-Large Bid
#8	Texas Tech	Bob Knight	Big 12	23-11	At-Large Bid
#9	UNC-Charlotte	Bobby Lutz	C-USA	21-8	At-Large Bid
#10	South Carolina	Dave Odom	SEC	23-10	At-Large Bid
#11	Richmond	Jerry Wainwright	CAA	20-12	At-Large Bid
#12	Manhattan	Bobby Gonzalez	MAAC	24-5	Tournament Champion
#13	Virginia Commonwealth	Jeff Capel	CAA	23-7	Tournament Champion
#14	Central Florida	Kirk Speraw	Atlantic Sun	24-5	Tournament Champion
#15	Eastern Washington	Ray Giacoletti	Big Sky	16-12	Tournament Champion
#16	Liberty	Randy Dunton	Big South	17-14	Tournament Champion

Midwest Region - St. Louis
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Kentucky	Tubby Smith	SEC	26-4	Tournament Champion
#2	Gonzaga	Mark Few	WCC	27-2	Tournament Champion
#3	Georgia Tech	Paul Hewitt	ACC	23-9	At-Large Bid
#4	Kansas	Bill Self	Big 12	22-9	At-Large Bid
#5	Providence	Tim Welsh	Big East	20-8	At-Large Bid
#6	Boston College	Al Skinner	Big East	23-9	At-Large Bid
#7	Michigan State	Tom Izzo	Big Ten	18-11	At-Large Bid
#8	Washington	Lorenzo Romar	Pac-10	19-11	At-Large Bid
#9	UAB	Mike Anderson	C-USA	20-9	At-Large Bid
#10	Nevada	Trent Johnson	WAC	22-8	Tournament Champion
#11	Utah	Kerry Rupp	Mountain West	24-8	Tournament Champion
#12	Pacific	Bob Thomason	Big West	23-7	Tournament Champion
#13	UI-Chicago	Jimmy Collins	Horizon	24-7	Tournament Champion
#14	Northern Iowa	Greg McDermott	Missouri Valley	20-9	Tournament Champion
#15	Valparaiso	Homer Drew	Mid-Continent	17-12	Tournament Champion
Play-in Winner	Florida A&M	Mike Gillespie	MEAC	14-16	Tournament Champion
Play-in Loser	Lehigh	Billy Taylor	Patriot	18-10	Tournament Champion

South Region - Atlanta
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Duke	Mike Krzyzewski	ACC	27-5	At-Large Bid
#2	Mississippi State	Rick Stansbury	SEC	25-3	At-Large Bid
#3	Texas	Rick Barnes	Big 12	25-8	At-Large Bid
#4	Cincinnati	Bob Huggins	C-USA	24-6	Tournament Champion
#5	Illinois	Bruce Weber	Big Ten	24-6	At-Large Bid
#6	North Carolina	Roy Williams	ACC	18-10	At-Large Bid
#7	Xavier	Thad Matta	Atlantic 10	23-10	Tournament Champion
#8	Seton Hall	Louis Orr	Big East	19-9	At-Large Bid
#9	Arizona	Lute Olson	Pac-10	20-9	At-Large Bid
#10	Louisville	Rick Pitino	C-USA	20-9	At-Large Bid
#11	Air Force	Joe Scott	Mountain West	22-6	At-Large Bid
#12	Murray State	Mick Cronin	Ohio Valley	25-5	Tournament Champion
#13	East Tennessee State	Murry Bartow	Southern	24-5	Tournament Champion
#14	Princeton	John Thompson III	Ivy	19-7	Regular Season Champion
#15	Monmouth	Dave Calloway	Northeast	21-11	Tournament Champion
#16	Alabama State	Rob Spivery	SWAC	16-14	Tournament Champion

West Region - Phoenix
Seed	School	Coach	Conference	Record	Berth Type
#1	Stanford	Mike Montgomery	Pac-10	29-1	Tournament Champion
#2	Connecticut	Jim Calhoun	Big East	27-6	Tournament Champion
#3	North Carolina State	Herb Sendek	ACC	20-9	At-Large Bid
#4	Maryland	Gary Williams	ACC	19-11	Tournament Champion
#5	Syracuse	Jim Boeheim	Big East	21-7	At-Large Bid
#6	Vanderbilt	Kevin Stallings	SEC	21-9	At-Large Bid
#7	DePaul	Dave Leitao	C-USA	21-9	At-Large Bid
#8	Alabama	Mark Gottfried	SEC	17-12	At-Large Bid
#9	Southern Illinois	Matt Painter	Missouri Valley	25-4	At-Large Bid
#10	Dayton	Brian Gregory	Atlantic 10	24-8	At-Large Bid
#11	Western Michigan	Steve Hawkins	Mid-American	26-4	Tournament Champion
#12	Brigham Young	Steve Cleveland	Mountain West	19-8	At-Large Bid
#13	UTEP	Billy Gillispie	WAC	22-7	At-Large Bid
#14	Louisiana-Lafayette	Jessie Evans	Sun Belt	18-8	Tournament Champion
#15	Vermont	Tom Brennan	America East	22-8	Tournament Champion
#16	Texas-San Antonio	Tim Carter	Southland	16-12	Tournament Champion

Bids by conference

Bids by Conference
Bids	Conference
6	ACC, Big East, C-USA, SEC
4	Atlantic 10, Big 12
3	Big Ten, Mountain West, Pac-10
2	Missouri Valley, WAC
1	20 others

Final Four

At Alamo Dome, San Antonio, Texas

National Semifinals

★ April 3, 2004

★
★ Connecticut (W2) 79, Duke (S1) 78

★ :With the very talented Connecticut Huskies trailing by nine with 4:32 to go, it looked as if the Duke Blue Devils were going to spoil Jim Calhoun's chance at a second national title. However, Connecticut scored 12 straight points at one point to complete the comeback. It was a survival game to the truest sense. 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. Connecticut clearly wore down Duke, as all three of their centers fouled out (Shelden Williams, Shavlik Randolph, and Nick Horvath). Duke tried to score at the end of the game, but there was a controversial no-call when J.J. Redick was slapped across the arms on his way to the basket and missed the shot. Redick shot better than 93% from the line that season, which exacerbated the controversy of the no-call. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was denied his 65th NCAA Tournament victory which would have tied him with Dean Smith for the all-time record.

★
★ 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.

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 easily handled Paul Hewitt's Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The final nine-point margin of victory for the Huskies was misleading, as Connecticut led 60-35 midway through the second Half. 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).

Brackets

East Rutherford Regional

St. Louis Regional

Atlanta Regional

Phoenix Regional

Final Four

See also

★ 2004 NCAA Basketball Tournament on Shrp Sports (source for the bracket)

★ HoopsTournament.Net, source for much of the information on this page.

★ 2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament