2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The 2008 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 2007–08 season. The 70th annual edition of the tournament began on March 18, 2008, and concluded with the championship game on April 7, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
For the first time since seeding began in 1979, all four of the top seeds advanced to the Final Four. These were Memphis, the winner of the South region, UCLA, the winner of the West region making their third consecutive Final Four appearance, Kansas, the winner of the Midwest region, and overall number one seed and East region winner North Carolina, back in the Final Four for the first time since their 2005 national championship.
Memphis and Kansas advanced to the national championship game, with Memphis's victory in the semifinals giving them a record-setting 38 for the season, beating the mark set by Duke in 1999. Kansas, however, spoiled their national championship hopes by handing the Tigers their second loss of the season, winning the game in overtime, 75–68. Memphis's entire season was later vacated by the NCAA due to eligibility concerns surrounding freshman guard Derrick Rose.
Entering the tournament on March 18, the top ranked team was North Carolina in both the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Polls, followed by Memphis, UCLA and Kansas.
American University, UMBC, Texas–Arlington, and Portland State all entered the tournament for the first time in their school's history. Another school, Coppin State, won the MEAC Tournament to become the first 20-loss school to make the field. Georgia, a team that otherwise would not have advanced to the tournament, won the SEC tournament to qualify, and were awarded a #14 seed, the lowest by a major conference team in the tournament.
Whereas the 2007 tournament did not see many upsets, the 2008 tournament was full of them. The sub-regional pod played at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, featured four games where a double digit seed won. #5 seeds Drake and Clemson fell to #12 seeds Western Kentucky and Villanova while the #4 seeds in that same pod, Vanderbilt and Connecticut, were defeated by #13 seeds Siena and San Diego. Western Kentucky advanced to the West regional in Phoenix, where they lost to UCLA while Villanova was one of two double digit seeds to advance to the Midwest regional. The other was #10 seed Davidson, who rode the hot shooting of Stephen Curry to defeat Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin before nearly upsetting Kansas in the regional final. The Midwest region alone saw four of its double digit seeds advance, as in addition to Villanova, Siena, and Davidson, #11 seed Kansas State knocked off #6 seed USC.
The total tournament attendance of 763,607 set a record for highest total tournament attendance, breaking the record set during the 1999 tournament.

Tournament procedure

The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship is an annual single-elimination tournament featuring 65 teams representing all Division I Conferences in the nation. A "play-in" game determined which of the two lowest seeds would play in the first round of 64 against a top seed team. The Selection Committee seeded the entire field from 1 to 65 within four regionals of 16 teams; Mount St. Mary's, as the winner of the play-in game, automatically received a 16 seed.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2008 tournament:
Opening round

March 18
*University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio

First and second rounds

March 20 and 22
* Honda Center, Anaheim, California
* Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
* Qwest Center Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska
* Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
March 21 and 23
* BJCC Arena, Birmingham, Alabama
* Alltel Arena, North Little Rock, Arkansas
* RBC Center, Raleigh, North Carolina
* St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida

Regional semifinals and finals

March 27 and 29
*East Regional, Charlotte Bobcats Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina
*West Regional, US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona
March 28 and 30
*Midwest Regional, Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan
*South Regional, Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas

National Semifinals and Championship

April 5 and 7
*Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas
Qualifying teams

Automatic bids

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2008 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.

Conference	School	Appearance	Last bid
ACC	North Carolina	40th	2007
America East	UMBC	1st	Never
Atlantic 10	Temple	26th	2001
Atlantic Sun	Belmont	3rd	2007
Big 12	Kansas	37th	2007
Big East	Pittsburgh	20th	2007
Big Sky	Portland State	1st	Never
Big South	Winthrop	8th	2007
Big Ten	Wisconsin	14th	2007
Big West	Cal State Fullerton	2nd	1978
Colonial	George Mason	5th	2006
C-USA	Memphis	21st	2007
Horizon	Butler	8th	2007
Ivy League	Cornell	3rd	1988
MAAC	Siena	4th	2002
MAC	Kent State	5th	2006
MEAC	Coppin State	4th	1997
Missouri Valley	Drake	4th	1971
Mountain West	UNLV	16th	2007
Northeast	Mount St. Mary's	3rd	1999
Ohio Valley	Austin Peay	6th	2003
Pac-10	UCLA	42nd	2007
Patriot	American	1st	Never
SEC	Georgia	10th	2002
Southern	Davidson	10th	2007
Southland	Texas–Arlington	1st	Never
Summit	Oral Roberts	5th	2007
Sun Belt	Western Kentucky	20th	2007
SWAC	Mississippi Valley State	4th	1996
WAC	Boise State	5th	1994
West Coast	San Diego	4th	2003

Listed by region and seeding

A total of 31 teams received automatic bids for winning their conference tournament championship. Since the Ivy League does not hold a tournament, its regular season champion received the automatic bid. This left 34 at-large bids to be decided from the rest of the field by the NCAA Selection Committee. The at-large bids, along with the seeding for each team in the tournament, were announced on Sunday, March 16. Coppin State was the first team to make the tournament with 20 losses. Maryland-Baltimore County, American, Texas–Arlington, and Portland State all received their first tournament bids in school history. Four teams returned after absences from the NCAA Tournament of 20 years or more—Drake, Cal State Fullerton, Cornell, and Baylor.
Both USC and Memphis later vacated all wins from the season, leaving their official records at 0–11 and 0–1, respectively.

Bracket

Opening Round game – Dayton, Ohio

Winner advances to 16th seed in East Regional vs. North Carolina.

East Regional – Charlotte, North Carolina

Midwest Regional – Detroit, Michigan

USC vacated all 21 of its wins and its appearance in the 2008 NCAA tournament due to sanctions from the University of Southern California athletics scandal. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with USC removing the wins from its own record.

South Regional – Houston, Texas

West Regional – Phoenix, Arizona

Final Four – Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas

Memphis' entire 2007–08 schedule results were vacated due to NCAA sanctions involving the eligibility of Derrick Rose. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Memphis removing the wins from its own record.

Game summaries

East Region

First round

Top seed North Carolina defeated the play-in game winner Mount St. Mary's 113–74. Their high scoring tied the mark for second most in North Carolina tournament history, aided by Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson's 21 points each. They met Arkansas in the second round, a ninth seed who defeated eighth-seed Indiana 86–72. Indiana had struggled with several tough losses late in the season after a coaching scandal. Sonny Weems had a career-high 31 points despite Indiana having two AP All-Americans, D.J. White and Eric Gordon. Fifth seed Notre Dame advanced to the second round with a 68–50 win over 12th seed George Mason. George Mason had two starters from the 2006 final four team, but were unable to come back after a surge by the Irish early in the first half. In the same pod, fourth seeded Washington State defeated 13th-seed Winthrop 71–40, holding them to 11 points in the second half and leaving them far behind after a 25–1 run. In Birmingham, Alabama, the sixth seed Oklahoma defeated 11-th seeded St. Joseph's 72–64, led by David Godbold, a senior not normally known as a team leader who surprised many with his 25 points. Later in the evening, third seeded Louisville defeated WAC champion and 14th seed Boise State 79–61, sending the Broncos home for the second straight time. They had defeated Boise St. in the 1994 tournament as well, the last time the WAC team came to the tournament. In the afternoon session at Birmingham, seventh seeded Butler defeated tenth seed South Alabama in an 81–61 blowout, setting a school record for 30 wins in one season, and number two seed Tennessee survived a brief scare at the hands of 15th-seeded American, 72–57. American's star player, Garrison Carr, led his team with 26 points, tying the game at 40 with 11 minutes to go before Tennessee went on a 10–0 run to score the win.