2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2006-07 season. The 69th annual edition of the tournament began on March 13, 2007, with the opening round game and concluded with the championship game on April 2, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
Both of the finalists from the year before returned to the Final Four as Florida, who returned its entire starting lineup from the year before, and UCLA advanced. They were joined in the Final Four by Ohio State, who was making its first appearance since their 1999 appearance, and Georgetown, appearing for the first time since their national runner-up finish in 1985.
Florida successfully defended their title by defeating Ohio State in the championship 84–75. This marked the second time in 2007 that a Florida team beat an Ohio State team to win a national championship, as Florida's football team won the BCS National Championship Game over Ohio State in January. Florida's Corey Brewer was named the Most Outstanding Player. Florida became the first team to repeat since Duke in 1992, and were the seventh school to repeat overall. The 2007 Gators were the last team to repeat as national champions until the UConn Huskies repeated as national champions in 2024 as well as Gators would become a third champion in 2025.
This tournament was notable because it featured significantly fewer upsets than prior years. There were only 12 games in which a lower-seeded team defeated a higher-seeded team, and eight of these "upsets" were by teams ranked only one seed lower than their opponent. As of 2025, this is the last tournament in which no team seeded 12 or lower won a round of 64 game, while No. 7-seed UNLV was the lowest-seeded team to make it to the Sweet Sixteen. This marked the second time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams that no team seeded No. 8 or lower played in the Sweet Sixteen; the other instance was in 1995. Southland Conference champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi made their first NCAA appearance.
This was the first Tournament since 2003 that regional sites were designated as "East", "West", "South", and "Midwest", rather than by the names of the host cities.

Tournament procedure

A total of 65 teams entered the tournament. Of that total, 30 of the teams earned automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. The automatic bid of the Ivy League, which did not conduct a post-season tournament, went to its regular season champion, Penn. The remaining 34 teams were granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.
The initial game on March 13 officially named the opening round game, but popularly called the "play-in game", had Niagara, winner of the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament, facing Florida A&M, who won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament, for a chance to play top seed Kansas in the first round of the Tournament. Niagara defeated Florida A&M, 77–69, to advance to play Kansas.
All teams are seeded 1 to 16 within their regionals, while the Selection Committee seeded the entire field from 1 to 65.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2007 tournament:
Opening Round

March 13
*University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio

First and Second Rounds

March 15 and 17
* HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York
* ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California
* Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
* Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
March 16 and 18
* United Center, Chicago, Illinois
* Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
* Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Spokane, Washington
* New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana

Regional semifinals and finals

March 22 and 24
*South Regional, Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas
*West Regional, HP Pavilion at San Jose, San Jose, California
March 23 and 25
*East Regional, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
*Midwest Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri

National semifinals and championship

March 31 and April 2
*Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
Qualifying teams

Automatic bids

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2007 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.

Conference	School	Appearance	Last bid
ACC	North Carolina	39th	2006
America East	Albany	2nd	2006
Atlantic 10	George Washington	19th	2006
Atlantic Sun	Belmont	2nd	2006
Big 12	Kansas	36th	2006
Big East	Georgetown	24th	2006
Big Sky	Weber State	14th	2003
Big South	Winthrop	7th	2006
Big Ten	Ohio State	24th	2006
Big West	Long Beach State	8th	1995
Colonial	VCU	8th	2004
C-USA	Memphis	20th	2006
Horizon	Wright State	2nd	1993
Ivy League	Penn	23rd	2006
MAAC	Niagara	3rd	2005
MAC	Miami	17th	1999
MEAC	Florida A&M	3rd	2004
Mid-Con	Oral Roberts	4th	2006
Missouri Valley	Creighton	16th	2005
Mountain West	UNLV	15th	2000
Northeast	Central Connecticut	3rd	2002
Ohio Valley		7th	2005
Pac-10	Oregon	9th	2003
Patriot	Holy Cross	12th	2003
SEC	Florida	13th	2006
Southern	Davidson	9th	2006
Southland	Texas A&M–Corpus Christi	1st	Never
Sun Belt	North Texas	2nd	1988
SWAC	Jackson State	3rd	2000
WAC	New Mexico State	17th	1999
West Coast	Gonzaga	10th	2006

Here are the top seeded teams in each regional and their overall seeds.

Midwest Regional
West Regional
East Regional
'''South Regional '''
Listed by region and seeding

Bracket

Opening Round game – Dayton, Ohio

Winner advances to West Regional vs. No. Kansas.

Midwest Regional – St. Louis, Missouri

West Regional – San Jose, California

East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey

South Regional – San Antonio, Texas

Final Four – Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia

Game summaries

Unless otherwise specified, all games were on CBS, except for the play-in game, which aired on ESPN and two additional games. Those games were broadcast on CSTV except in the natural areas of the teams involved, as those were broadcast on CBS. Times listed are US EDT.
''Team names are those listed on the NCAA's scoreboard for the play-in game and first-round matchups. Only UNLV and UCLA use abbreviations; all other names are unabbreviated except for the common abbreviation "A&M".''

Opening rounds

First round upsets, close games, and other facts

The two major upsets of the first round were #11 Virginia Commonwealth's win over #6 Duke, and #11 Winthrop's win over #6 Notre Dame. VCU beat Duke, 79–77, on a shot by Eric Maynor with 1.8 seconds left, sending Duke out for the first time in the first round since 1996. Winthrop's highly touted offense built a 21-point second-half lead before surviving a late Notre Dame rally to win, 74–64, earning their first tournament victory in school history. The only overtime game of the first round was in the South Regional, between #7 Nevada and #10 Creighton, ending 77–71 in favor of the Nevada Wolf Pack. Other close games included #3 Oregon squeaking by #14 Miami, 58-56, #5 Virginia Tech's win over #12 Illinois 54-52, and #9 Xavier's win over #8 BYU, 79-77. The highest score accumulated by a team in the 2007 tournament went to Tennessee's 121 points over Long Beach State, which set a school record. This was the first year since 1993 that a #10 seed did not advance to the second round. It was also only the second time in the last 17 years that a #12 seed failed to advance against a #5 seed. #15 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had leads of 10-0 and 25–7 in the first half against the #2 Wisconsin Badgers but Wisconsin prevailed 76–63.

Second round upsets, close games, and other facts

The two biggest upsets of the second round were #6 Vanderbilt's win over #3 Washington State and #7 UNLV's win over #2 Wisconsin. Vanderbilt won a heart-stopper, 78–74, in double overtime. UNLV won by six points, 74–68, in their biggest win since the 1990s. Other overtime games included #1 Ohio State's 78–71 win over #9 Xavier and #3 Pittsburgh's 84–79 overtime victory over #11 Virginia Commonwealth. Ohio State's Ron Lewis hit a three-pointer with two seconds remaining to force overtime against Xavier, and Pittsburgh fought Virginia Commonwealth's comeback from 19 points down to come up with the victory. The Ohio State win over Xavier had a controversial ending as prior to Lewis's game-tying shot, Buckeye Greg Oden shoved a Xavier player, Justin Cage, in the back and onto the floor. Had an intentional foul been called, Xavier would have been awarded two foul shots and ball possession. Instead, a regular personal foul was called. Subsequently, Xavier missed the second free throw, allowing Lewis to shoot the game-tying 3. Other close games were #3 Texas A&M winning over #6 Louisville, 72-69 ; #5 Butler's victory over #4 Maryland, 62-59 ; and #5 Tennessee defeating #4 Virginia, 77-74. This tournament marked the first time since 1995 that a double-digit seeded team did not advance to the Sweet 16.