2004 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

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. The 66th annual edition of the tournament 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. 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

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2004 tournament:
Opening Round

March 16
*University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio

First and Second Rounds

March 18 and 20
* HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York
* KeyArena, Seattle, Washington
* Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
* RBC Center, Raleigh, North Carolina
March 19 and 21
* Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri
* Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
* TD Waterhouse Centre, Orlando, Florida

Regional semifinals and finals

March 25 and 27
*East Rutherford Regional
**Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
*Phoenix Regional
**America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
March 26 and 28
*Atlanta Regional
**Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
*St. Louis Regional
**Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri

National semifinals and championship

April 3 and 5
*Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas

Qualifying teams

Automatic bids

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2004 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.

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 Cowboys basketball team\|Oklahoma State]	21st	2003
Big East	Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team\|Connecticut]	25th	2003
Big Sky	Eastern Washington	1st	Never
Big South	Liberty	2nd	1994
Big Ten	Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team\|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

Record by conference

*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 79, Duke 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 4 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.
*Georgia Tech 67, Oklahoma State 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.

National Championship Game

April 5, 2004
*Connecticut 82, Georgia Tech 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.

Bracket

Opening Round game – Dayton, Ohio

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

Announcers

Jim Nantz/Billy Packer/Bonnie Bernstein – First & Second Round at Denver, Colorado; East Rutherford Regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey; Final Four at San Antonio, Texas
Dick Enberg/Matt Guokas/Armen Keteyian/Heather Cox – First & Second Round at Columbus, Ohio; Phoenix Regional at Phoenix, Arizona
Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery/Solomon Wilcots – First & Second Round at Buffalo, New York; Atlanta Regional at Atlanta, Georgia
Gus Johnson/Len Elmore/Dwayne Ballen – First & Second Round at Orlando, Florida; St. Louis Regional at St. Louis, Missouri
Kevin Harlan/Dan Bonner/Tracy Wolfson – First & Second Round at Raleigh, North Carolina
Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel – First & Second Round at Seattle, Washington
Craig Bolerjack/Bob Wenzel/Scott Kaplan – First & Second Round at Kansas City, Missouri
Tim Brando/Mike Gminski/Heather Cox – First & Second Round at Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Greg Gumbel once again served as the studio host, joined by analysts Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis.