The 1993 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. The 55th annual edition of the tournament began on March 18, 1993, and ended with the championship game on April 5 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. A total of 63 games were played.

North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith, won the national title with a 77–71 victory in the final game over Michigan, coached by Steve Fisher. Donald Williams of North Carolina was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The most memorable play in the championship game came in the last seconds as Michigan's Chris Webber tried to call a timeout with his team down by 2 points when double-teamed by North Carolina. Michigan had already used all of its timeouts, so Webber's gaffe resulted in a technical foul. Michigan subsequently vacated its entire 1992–93 schedule, including its six NCAA Tournament games, after it emerged that Webber had received under-the-table payments from a booster.

In a game that featured two great individual battles (one between Bobby Hurley and Jason Kidd, and the other between Grant Hill and Lamond Murray), two-time defending champion Duke was upset in the second round by California.

This year's Final Four was the closest the tournament came to having all four top seeds advance to the semifinals until all four did advance in the 2008 tournament. Indiana was the only top seed not to make it out of its regional; it was defeated by the 2-seed Kansas, in the Midwest regional finals. This tournament is also notable for the uneven distribution of first-round upsets. While there were no upsets in the East, one 'minor' upset in the Midwest (9th seed Xavier defeated 8th seed New Orleans; Xavier was the betting favorite at all sports books in Las Vegas), and one 'medium' upset in the Southeast (11th seed Tulane beat 6th seed Kansas State), the West featured three remarkable upsets amongst the top 5 seeds, with a 12, a 13, and a 15-seed advancing to the second round in that region. At the time, 15-seed Santa Clara's victory over 2-seed Arizona was only the second such upset, and following the 2024 tournament, is one of only eleven times that a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams (In 2018, UMBC became one of only two 16-seeds to defeat a 1-seed, ousting Virginia 74–54, with Fairleigh Dickinson's upset of Purdue occurring five years later.).

In this tournament, the Louisiana Superdome was the only site in which the game clock counted down in whole seconds, not tenths of seconds, in the final minute of each period.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1993 tournament:

First and Second Rounds March 18 and 20 East Region Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Host: Wake Forest University) Midwest Region Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, Illinois (Hosts: DePaul University, Great Midwest Conference) Southeast Region Orlando Arena, Orlando, Florida (Host: Stetson University) West Region Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (Host: University of Utah) March 19 and 21 East Region Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York (Host: Syracuse University) Midwest Region Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana (Hosts: Butler University, Midwestern Collegiate Conference) Southeast Region Memorial Gymnasium, Nashville, Tennessee (Host: Vanderbilt University) West Region McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona (Host: University of Arizona)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) March 25 and 27 Midwest Regional, St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference) Southeast Regional, Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Charlotte) March 26 and 28 East Regional, Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey (Hosts: Seton Hall University, Big East Conference) West Regional, Kingdome, Seattle, Washington (Host: University of Washington)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship) April 3 and 5 Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana (Hosts: Tulane University, University of New Orleans)

Teams There were 30 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 27 were given to the winners of their conference's tournament, while three were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference (Big Ten, Ivy League and Pac-10).

Two conferences, the Great Midwest Conference and Trans America Athletic Conference, did not receive automatic bids to the tournament.

Two conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: Tennessee State (Ohio Valley) and Wright State (Mid-Continent).

Automatic qualifiers +Automatic qualifiersConferenceTeamAppearanceLast bidACCGeorgia Tech10th1992Atlantic 10UMass3rd1992Big EastSeton Hall5th1992Big EightMissouri14th1992Big SkyBoise State3rd1988Big SouthCoastal Carolina2nd1991Big TenIndiana22nd1992Big WestLong Beach State3rd1977CAAEast Carolina2nd1972Ivy LeaguePenn14th1987MAACManhattan3rd1958MACBall State5th1988MCCEvansville4th1992MEACCoppin State2nd1990MetroLouisville23rd1992Mid-ContinentWright State1stMissouri ValleySouthern Illinois2nd1977NACDelaware2nd1992NECRider2nd1984Ohio ValleyTennessee State1stPac-10Arizona12th1992PatriotHoly Cross3rd1980SECKentucky34th1992SouthernChattanooga5th1988SouthlandNortheast Louisiana6th1992Sun BeltWestern Kentucky13th1987SWACSouthern6th1989SWCTexas Tech9th1986WACNew Mexico5th1991West CoastSanta Clara9th1987

Tournament seeds +East Regional – Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, New JerseySeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1North CarolinaACC28–4At-Large2CincinnatiGreat Midwest24–4At-Large3UMassAtlantic 1023–6Automatic4ArkansasSEC20–8At-Large5St. John'sBig East18–10At-Large6VirginiaACC19–9At-Large7New Mexico State (vacated)Big West25–7At-Large8Rhode IslandAtlantic 1018–10At-Large9PurdueBig Ten18–9At-Large10NebraskaBig Eight20–10At-Large11ManhattanMAAC23–6Automatic12Texas TechSouthwest18–11Automatic13Holy CrossPatriot23–6Automatic14PennIvy League22–4Automatic15Coppin StateMEAC22–7Automatic16East CarolinaCAA13–16Automatic+Southeast Regional – Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North CarolinaSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1KentuckySEC26–3Automatic2Seton HallBig East27–6Automatic3Florida StateACC22–9At-Large4IowaBig Ten22–8At-Large5Wake ForestACC19–8At-Large6Kansas StateBig Eight19–10At-Large7Western KentuckySun Belt24–5Automatic8UtahWAC23–6At-Large9PittsburghBig East17–10At-Large10Memphis StateGreat Midwest20–11At-Large11TulaneMetro21–8At-Large12ChattanoogaSouthern26–6Automatic13Northeast LouisianaSouthland26–4Automatic14EvansvilleMCC23–6Automatic15Tennessee StateOhio Valley19–9Automatic16RiderNortheast19–10Automatic+Midwest Regional – St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, MissouriSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1IndianaBig Ten28–3Automatic2KansasBig Eight25–6At-Large3DukeACC23–7At-Large4LouisvilleMetro20–8Automatic5Oklahoma StateBig Eight19–8At-Large6CaliforniaPac-1019–8At-Large7BYUWAC24–8At-Large8New OrleansSun Belt26–3At-Large9XavierMCC23–5At-Large10SMUSouthwest20–7At-Large11LSUSEC22–10At-Large12MarquetteGreat Midwest20–7At-Large13DelawareNAC22–7Automatic14Southern IllinoisMissouri Valley23–9Automatic15Ball StateMAC26–7Automatic16Wright StateMid-Continent20–9Automatic+West Regional – Kingdome, Seattle, WashingtonSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1Michigan (vacated)Big Ten26–4At-Large2ArizonaPac-1024–3Automatic3VanderbiltSEC26–5At-Large4Georgia TechACC19–10Automatic5New MexicoWAC24–6Automatic6IllinoisBig Ten18–12At-Large7TempleAtlantic 1017–12At-Large8Iowa StateBig Eight20–10At-Large9UCLAPac-1021–10At-Large10MissouriBig Eight19–13Automatic11Long Beach StateBig West22–9Automatic12George WashingtonAtlantic 1021–9At-Large13SouthernSWAC20–9Automatic14Boise StateBig Sky21–7Automatic15Santa ClaraWest Coast18–11Automatic16Coastal CarolinaBig South22–9Automatic

Bracket East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey

Midwest Regional – St. Louis, Missouri

Southeast Regional – Charlotte, North Carolina

West Regional – Seattle, Washington

Final Four – New Orleans, Louisiana

Game summaries

National semifinals

National Championship

Michigan's entire 1992–93 schedule results were vacated, on November 7, 2002, as part of the settlement of the University of Michigan basketball scandal due to Chris Webber’s ineligibility. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Michigan removing the wins from its own record.

Announcers James Brown/Jim Nantz and Billy Packer – Brown/Packer, First & Second Round at Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Nantz/Packer, West Regional at Seattle; Final Four at New Orleans, Louisiana Dick Stockton and Al McGuire – First & Second Round at Indianapolis, Indiana; Southeast Regional at Charlotte, North Carolina Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg – First & Second Round at Rosemont, Illinois; East Regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey James Brown/Bill Raftery/Lesley Visser – Midwest Regional at St. Louis, Missouri Greg Gumbel and Digger Phelps – First & Second Round at Tucson, Arizona Sean McDonough and Derrek Dickey – First & Second Round at Orlando, Florida Mike Gorman and Larry Farmer – First & Second Round at Salt Lake City, Utah Mel Proctor and Dan Bonner – First & Second Round at Syracuse, New York Tim Ryan and Ann Meyers – First & Second Round at Nashville, Tennessee

See also 1993 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament 1993 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament 1993 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament 1993 National Invitation Tournament 1993 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament

References