The 1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 52 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 2, 1983, and ended with the championship game on April 4 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A total of 51 games were played.

North Carolina State, coached by Jim Valvano, won the national title with a 54-52 victory in the final game over Houston, coached by Guy Lewis. The ending of the final is one of the most famous in college basketball history, with Lorenzo Charles' dunk at the buzzer off a high, arching air ball from 30 feet out by Dereck Whittenburg providing the final margin. This contributed to the nickname given to North Carolina State, the "Cardiac Pack", a reference to their often close games that came down to the wire — in fact, the team won 7 of its last 9 games after trailing with a minute left in the game. Both Charles' dunk and Valvano's running around the court in celebration immediately after the game have been staples of NCAA tournament coverage ever since. North Carolina State's victory has often been considered one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history.

Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, becoming the last player to date to earn this award while playing for a team that failed to win the national title.

Locations

Region	Site	Other Locations
East	Syracuse, New York	Greensboro, North Carolina, Hartford, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mideast	Knoxville, Tennessee	Dayton, Ohio, Evansville, Indiana, Tampa, Florida
Midwest	Kansas City, Missouri	Dayton, Ohio, Houston, Texas, Louisville, Kentucky
West	Ogden, Utah	Boise, Idaho, Corvallis, Oregon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Finals	Albuquerque, New Mexico

Teams

Region	Seed	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	1	St. John's	Lou Carnesecca	Sweet Sixteen	4 Georgia	L 70-67
East	2	North Carolina	Dean Smith	Elite Eight	4 Georgia	L 82-77
East	3	Ohio State	Eldon Miller	Sweet Sixteen	2 North Carolina	L 64-51
East	4	Georgia	Hugh Durham	National Semifinals	6 North Carolina State	L 67-60
East	5	Virginia Commonwealth	J.D. Barnett	Round of 32	4 Georgia	L 56-54
East	6	Syracuse	Jim Boeheim	Round of 32	3 Ohio State	L 79-74
East	7	West Virginia	Gale Catlett	Round of 64	10 James Madison	L 57-50
East	8	Southwestern Louisiana	Bobby Paschal	Round of 64	9 Rutgers	L 60-53
East	9	Rutgers	Tom Young	Round of 32	1 St. John's	L 66-55
East	10	James Madison	Lou Campanelli	Round of 32	2 North Carolina	L 68-49
East	11	Morehead State	Wayne Martin	Round of 64	6 Syracuse	L 74-59
East	12	Boston University	Rick Pitino	Preliminary Round	12 La Salle	L 70-58
East	12	La Salle	Lefty Ervin	Round of 64	5 Virginia Commonwealth	L 76-67
Mideast
Mideast	1	Louisville	Denny Crum	National Semifinals	1 Houston	L 94-81
Mideast	2	Indiana	Bob Knight	Sweet Sixteen	3 Kentucky	L 64-59
Mideast	3	Kentucky	Joe B. Hall	Elite Eight	1 Louisville	L 80-68
Mideast	4	Arkansas	Eddie Sutton	Sweet Sixteen	1 Louisville	L 65-63
Mideast	5	Purdue	Gene Keady	Round of 32	4 Arkansas	L 78-68
Mideast	6	Illinois State	Bob Donewald	Round of 64	11 Ohio	L 51-49
Mideast	7	Oklahoma	Billy Tubbs	Round of 32	2 Indiana	L 63-49
Mideast	8	Tennessee	Don DeVoe	Round of 32	1 Louisville	L 70-57
Mideast	9	Marquette	Hank Raymonds	Round of 64	8 Tennessee	L 57-56
Mideast	10	UAB	Gene Bartow	Round of 64	7 Oklahoma	L 71-63
Mideast	11	Ohio	Danny Nee	Round of 32	3 Kentucky	L 57-40
Mideast	12	Georgia Southern	Frank Kerns	Preliminary Round	12 Robert Morris	L 64-54
Mideast	12	Robert Morris	Matt Furjanic	Round of 64	5 Purdue	L 55-53
Midwest
Midwest	1	Houston	Guy Lewis	Runner Up	6 North Carolina State	L 54-52
Midwest	2	Missouri	Norm Stewart	Round of 32	7 Iowa	L 77-63
Midwest	3	Villanova	Rollie Massimino	Elite Eight	1 Houston	L 89-71
Midwest	4	Memphis State	Dana Kirk	Sweet Sixteen	1 Houston	L 70-63
Midwest	5	Georgetown	John Thompson	Round of 32	4 Memphis State	L 66-57
Midwest	6	Alabama	Wimp Sanderson	Round of 64	11 Lamar	L 73-50
Midwest	7	Iowa	Lute Olson	Sweet Sixteen	3 Villanova	L 55-54
Midwest	8	Maryland	Lefty Driesell	Round of 32	1 Houston	L 60-50
Midwest	9	Tennessee-Chattanooga	Murray Arnold	Round of 64	8 Maryland	L 52-51
Midwest	10	Utah State	Rod Tueller	Round of 64	7 Iowa	L 64-59
Midwest	11	Lamar	Pat Foster	Round of 32	3 Villanova	L 60-58
Midwest	12	Alcorn State	Davey Whitney	Round of 64	5 Georgetown	L 68-63
Midwest	12	Xavier	Bob Staak	Preliminary Round	12 Alcorn State	L 81-75
West
West	1	Virginia	Terry Holland	Elite Eight	6 North Carolina State	L 63-62
West	2	UCLA	Larry Farmer	Round of 32	10 Utah	L 67-61
West	3	UNLV	Jerry Tarkanian	Round of 32	6 North Carolina State	L 71-70
West	4	Boston College	Gary Williams	Sweet Sixteen	1 Virginia	L 95-92
West	5	Oklahoma State	Paul Hansen	Round of 64	12 Princeton	L 56-53
West	6	North Carolina State	Jim Valvano	Champion	1 Houston	W 54-52
West	7	Illinois	Lou Henson	Round of 64	10 Utah	L 52-49
West	8	Washington State	George Raveling	Round of 32	1 Virginia	L 54-49
West	9	Weber State	Neil McCarthy	Round of 64	8 Washington State	L 62-52
West	10	Utah	Jerry Pimm	Sweet Sixteen	6 North Carolina State	L 75-56
West	11	Pepperdine	Jim Harrick	Round of 64	6 North Carolina State	L 69-67
West	12	North Carolina A&T	Don Corbett	Preliminary Round	12 Princeton	L 53-41
West	12	Princeton	Pete Carril	Round of 32	4 Boston College	L 51-42

Bracket

East region

West region

Mideast region

Midwest region

Final Four

Tournament notes

The Louisville vs Houston semi-final was a matchup of the #1 vs. #2 team. The #1 ranked Houston Cougars (nicknamed Phi Slama Jama) vs. #2 the Louisville Cardinals (nicknamed "The Doctors of Dunk") was considered likely to produce the national champion. It featured two strong offensive teams that specialized in the slam dunk. Both teams put on a show of offense, with Houston winning out over Louisville 94-81. This would have been the biggest game of the tournament had it not been eclipsed by the North Carolina State win over Houston in the championship game.

Another historically significant game in this tournament was the Mideast Regional final between Kentucky and Louisville, in-state rivals that had not played one another in basketball since the 1959 NCAA tournament, and had not played in the regular season since 1922. After regulation time ended with Kentucky tying the game at the buzzer, Louisville dominated the overtime to advance to the Final Four. This result directly led to the start of the Battle for the Bluegrass annual basketball series between the two schools that November.

A historically significant run in the tournament was that of Georgia, who became the last team to date to advance to the Final Four in its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

External links

• 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament on Shrp Sports (source for the bracket)
• HoopsTournament.Net, source for much of the information on this page.

References