The 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It 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.
This was the first year in which the regional sites were referred to by the cities in which the games were held in 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. Only Duke advanced to the Final Four, where it played and lost to Connecticut in the semifinals.
Connecticut, coached by Jim Calhoun, won the national title with an 82–73 victory in the final game over Georgia Tech, coached by Paul Hewitt. Emeka Okafor of Connecticut was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Read more about 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament: Qualifying Teams, Bids By Conference, Record By Conference, Announcers
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