1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. The 56th annual edition of the tournament began on March 17, 1994, and ended with the championship game at Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 4, 1994. The tournament consisted of 63 games.
The Final Four consisted of Arkansas, making its fifth trip and first since 1990, Arizona, Florida, making its first trip, and Duke, making its sixth trip in the last seven tournaments.
In the national championship game, Arkansas defeated Duke by a score of 76–72 and won its first-ever national championship.
Schedule and venues
The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1994 tournament:First and Second Rounds
- March 17 and 19
- *East Region
- ** Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
- *Midwest Region
- ** Kansas Coliseum, Wichita, Kansas
- *Southeast Region
- ** Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
- *West Region
- ** Dee Events Center, Ogden, Utah
- March 18 and 20
- *East Region
- ** USAir Arena, Landover, Maryland
- *Midwest Region
- ** Myriad Convention Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- *Southeast Region
- ** Thunderdome, St. Petersburg, Florida
- *West Region
- ** ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California
- March 24 and 26
- *Southeast Regional, Thompson–Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee
- *West Regional, Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California
- March 25 and 27
- *East Regional, Miami Arena, Miami, Florida
- *Midwest Regional, Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas
- April 2 and 4
- *Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Teams
There were 30 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 27 were given to the winners of their conference's tournament, while three were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference.Three conferences, the East Coast Conference, Great Midwest Conference, and Midwestern Collegiate Conference, did not receive automatic bids to the tournament.
Four conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: Liberty, Loyola (MD), Southwest Texas State, and UCF. Additionally, College of Charleston received an at-large bid for its first appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Tournament seeds
BracketWest Regional – Los Angeles, CaliforniaMinnesota vacated its NCAA Tournament appearance from the 1993–94 season due to an academic fraud scandal. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Minnesota removing the wins from its own record.Broadcast informationOn television, CBS Sports covered all 63 games of the tournament, with regional splits until the Regional Finals followed by national telecasts.Exclusive national radio coverage was provided by CBS Radio Sports. CBS announcers
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