2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament


The 2003 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. The 65th annual edition of the tournament began on March 18, 2003, and ended with the championship game on April 7, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Louisiana Superdome. A total of 64 games were played.
The Final Four consisted of Kansas, making its second straight appearance; Marquette, making its first appearance since they won the national championship in 1977; Syracuse, making its first appearance since 1996; and Texas, making its first appearance since 1947. Texas was the only top seed to advance to the Final Four; the other three advanced as far as the Elite Eight but fell.
Syracuse won its first national championship in three tries under 27th-year head coach Jim Boeheim, who would ultimately retire after the 2022–2023 season. This was also Roy Williams’s final game as Kansas head coach; he would depart after the season to become head coach at North Carolina.
Carmelo Anthony of Syracuse was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Syracuse beat four Big 12 teams on its way to the title: Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2003 tournament:
Opening Round
First and Second Rounds
Regional semifinals and finals
National semifinals and championship

Qualifying teams

Automatic bids

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2003 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.
ConferenceSchoolAppearanceLast bid
ACCDuke27th2002
America EastVermont1stNever
Atlantic 10Dayton12th2000
Atlantic SunTroy State1stNever
Big 12[2002–03 2002–03 Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team|Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team|Oklahoma]22nd2002
Big EastPittsburgh15th2002
Big SkyWeber State13th1999
Big SouthUNC Asheville1stNever
Big TenIllinois23rd2002
Big WestUtah State15th2001
ColonialUNC Wilmington3rd2002
C-USALouisville30th2000
HorizonUW–Milwaukee1stNever
Ivy LeaguePenn20th2002
MAACManhattan5th1995
MACCentral Michigan4th1987
MEACSouth Carolina State5th2000
Mid-ConIUPUI1stNever
Missouri ValleyCreighton14th2002
Mountain WestColorado State8th1990
NortheastWagner1stNever
Ohio ValleyAustin Peay5th1996
Pac-10Oregon8th2002
PatriotHoly Cross11th2002
SECKentucky45th2002
SouthernEast Tennessee State6th1992
SouthlandSam Houston State1stNever
Sun BeltWestern Kentucky19th2002
SWACTexas Southern4th1995
WACTulsa14th2002
West CoastSan Diego3rd1987

Listed by region and seeding



BYU bracketing switch

When the bracket was first revealed, it contained a mistake that would have forced BYU, a Mormon-run school, to play its potential Elite 8 game on a Sunday, which is against school policy. As a solution, the selection committee had a plan to switch BYU, the 12 seed in the Friday-Sunday South regional, with the team that reached the Sweet 16 in the Thursday-Saturday Midwest regional should the Cougars advance to the Sweet 16. BYU lost its first-round game to Connecticut, which meant no switches were necessary.

Final Four

At Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans

National semifinals

Championship game

  • April 7, 2003
  • *Syracuse 81, Kansas 78
  • : Leading up to the championship game, much of the conversation revolved around how, no matter the outcome, one of the well-known head coaches would win their first championship. In Jim Boeheim's 27 years as head coach at Syracuse his team had been to two previous Final Fours, and finished runner-up each time. Roy Williams, during his fifteen seasons as Kansas head coach, had reached the Final Four three previous times, and finished runner up once. Syracuse dominated with a hot shooting first half to lead by 11 at the break. Gerry McNamara connected on an impressive six three-pointers in the half, which were his 18 points for the game. Kansas fought back to within 80–78 in the final minute and had a chance to tie after Hakim Warrick missed a pair of free throws in the final moments; free throws were a major problem throughout the game for Kansas, who went 12-for-30 in attempts. Warrick then blocked Michael Lee's three point attempt with 1.5 seconds remaining on the game clock, followed by Kirk Hinrich's three-pointer at the buzzer going over the net. Kansas' free throw struggles would prove costly in giving Syracuse and Jim Boeheim their first ever national championship. Carmelo Anthony was named Most Outstanding Player with 20 points and 10 Rebounds in the win. Syracuse also avenged a second-round loss to Kansas two years earlier.

Bracket

Opening Round game

Winner advances to 16th seed in South Regional vs. Texas.

Broadcast information

Originally, CBS Sports was to have shown all 63 games of the tournament following the opening round, which was on ESPN. However, because of the start of the Iraq War the night before, the afternoon games on Thursday and Friday were moved to ESPN while retaining CBS graphics and production. CBS News then joined other broadcast and non-broadcast outlets in showing extended news coverage.
Thursday and Friday night's games were shown on CBS, albeit with frequent news updates. To make up for lost advertising revenue, an additional time slot was opened the following Sunday evening for more CBS telecasts.
2003 also marked the debut of Mega March Madness as an exclusive package on DirecTV. This offered additional game broadcasts not available to the viewer's home market during the first three rounds of the tournament. All games from the 4th round onward were national telecasts.
Westwood One had exclusive national radio coverage.

CBS Sports announcers

Westwood One announcers

First and second rounds

Doug Kennedy and Richard Larsen