2000 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
| 2000 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament |
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2000 Final Four logo
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| Season | 1999–00 | ||||
| Teams | 64 | ||||
| Finals site |
RCA Dome Indianapolis, Indiana |
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| Champions | Michigan State (2nd title, 2nd title game) | ||||
| Runner-up |
Florida (1st title game, 2nd Final Four) |
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| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Tom Izzo (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Mateen Cleaves Michigan State | ||||
| Attendance | 624,777 | ||||
| Top scorer |
Morris Peterson Michigan State ({{{Points}}} points) |
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The 2000 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16, 2000, and ended with the championship game on April 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana at the RCA Dome. A total of 63 games were played.
Due to a string of upsets throughout the tournament, only one top-four seed advanced to the Final Four. That was Michigan State, who finished the season as the #1 team in the nation and was given the top seed in the Midwest Region and the top overall seed. The highest seeded of the other three Final Four teams was Florida, who won the East Region as the fifth seed. Two eight-seeds made the Final Four, with Wisconsin and North Carolina rounding the bracket out. Wisconsin won the West Region while North Carolina won the South Region, with both regions seeing their top three seeds eliminated during the first weekend of play.
Michigan State won their first national championship since 1979 by defeating Florida 89-76 in the final game. Mateen Cleaves of Michigan State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while Morris Peterson was its leading scorer.
Despite the string of upsets, no seed lower than 11 won a game in the tournament. The only 11 seed to win was Pepperdine, which defeated Indiana in the East Region's first round in what turned out to be Bob Knight's last game coaching the Hoosiers before his firing that offseason. Also, two teams that qualified as 10 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen as Seton Hall in the East and Gonzaga in the West both advanced.
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