Back Torneo de la División I de Baloncesto Masculino de la NCAA de 2004 Spanish Championnat NCAA masculin de basket-ball 2004 French Torneo di pallacanestro maschile NCAA Division I 2004 Italian
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| 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 |
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| Winning coach | Jim Calhoun (2nd title) | ||||
| MOP | Emeka Okafor (Connecticut) | ||||
| Attendance | 716,899 | ||||
| Top scorer | Ben Gordon (Connecticut) (154 points) | ||||
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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.