The 1993 NCAA Men's Division I 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 18, 1993, and ended with the championship game on April 5 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 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 Jason Kidd and Bobby Hurley, and the other between Lamond Murray and Grant Hill), 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 University was the only top seed not to make it out of its regional; it was defeated by the 2-seed, the University of 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), 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 2012 tournament, is one of only six times that a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams.
Read more about 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament: Teams, Announcers
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