1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
| 1983 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 52 | ||||
| Finals site |
The Pit Albuquerque, New Mexico |
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| Champions |
NC State (2nd title, 2nd title game, 3rd Final Four) |
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| Runner-up |
Houston (1st title game, 4th Final Four) |
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| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Jim Valvano (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Akeem Olajuwon Houston | ||||
| Attendance | 364,356 | ||||
| Top scorer |
Dereck Whittenburg NC State (120 points) |
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The 1983 NCAA Division I Men's 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 at The Pit, then officially known as University Arena, on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. 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 a buzzer-beating dunk by Lorenzo Charles, off an air ball from 30 feet out by Dereck Whittenburg.
Both Charles's 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, and is the fourth biggest point-spread upset in Championship Game history.
Akeem Olajuwon of Houston (who later changed his name to Hakeem) 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.
In the final game, played in Albuquerque, New Mexico, NC State led at halftime by a score of 33-25. Houston was hampered by foul trouble that plagued star Clyde Drexler, who picked up four first half fouls. The last of these was a questionable offensive foul; the officials ruled that Drexler had run into sophomore guard Terry Gannon, but television replays seemed to show that Gannon had initiated the contact and that he grabbed Drexler's legs as he fell to the court. In the second half, the Cougars came out with a second wind and established control of the game, eventually taking a seven-point lead.
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