1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament explained

See also: 1994 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game.

Year:	1994
Teams:	64
Finalfourarena:	Charlotte Coliseum
Finalfourcity:	Charlotte, North Carolina
Champions:	Arkansas Razorbacks
Titlecount:	1st
Champgamecount:	1st
Champffcount:	5th
Runnerup:	Duke Blue Devils
Gamecount:	7th
Runnerffcount:	11th
Semifinal1:	Arizona Wildcats
Finalfourcount:	2nd
Semifinal2:	Florida Gators
Finalfourcount2:	1st
Coach:	Nolan Richardson
Coachcount:	1st
Mop:	Corliss Williamson
Mopteam:	Arkansas
Attendance:	578,007
Topscorer:	Khalid Reeves

The 1994 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 17, 1994, and ended with the championship game on April 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina, played at Charlotte Coliseum. A total of 63 games were played.

The Final Four consisted of Arkansas, making their fifth trip and first since 1990, Arizona, Florida, making their first ever trip, and Duke, making their sixth trip in the last seven tournaments.

In the national championship game, Arkansas defeated Duke by a score of 76–72 and won their first ever national championship.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1994 tournament:

First and Second Rounds

• March 17 and 19
  • East Region
    • Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York (Hosts: St. John's University, Big East Conference)
  • Midwest Region
    • Kansas Coliseum, Wichita, Kansas (Host: Wichita State University)
  • Southeast Region
    • Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky (Host: University of Kentucky)
  • West Region
    • Dee Events Center, Ogden, Utah (Host: Weber State University)
• March 18 and 20
  • East Region
    • USAir Arena, Landover, Maryland (Host: George Mason University)
  • Midwest Region
    • Myriad Convention Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Host: University of Oklahoma)
  • Southeast Region
    • Thunderdome, St. Petersburg, Florida (Host: University of South Florida)
  • West Region
    • ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California (Hosts: University of the Pacific, Big West Conference)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 24 and 26
  • Southeast Regional, Thompson–Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee (Hosts: University of Tennessee, Southeastern Conference)
  • West Regional, Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California (Hosts: University of Southern California, Pacific-10 Conference)
• March 25 and 27
  • East Regional, Miami Arena, Miami, Florida (Host: University of Miami)
  • Midwest Regional, Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas (Host: Southwest Conference)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)

• April 2 and 4
  • Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

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).

Three conferences, the East Coast Conference,^[1] Great Midwest Conference,^[2] and Midwestern Collegiate Conference,^[3] did not receive automatic bids to the tournament.

Four conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: Liberty (Big South), Loyola (MD) (MAAC), Southwest Texas State (Southland), and UCF (TAAC). Additionally, College of Charleston received an at-large bid for its first appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Automatic qualifiers

Automatic qualifiers

Conference	Team	Appearance	Last bid
ACC	North Carolina	28th	1993
Atlantic 10	UMass	4th	1993
Big East	Providence	12th	1990
Big Eight	Nebraska	5th	1993
Big Sky	Boise State	4th	1993
Big South	Liberty	1st
Big Ten	Purdue	13th	1993
Big West	New Mexico State (vacated)	–	1991
CAA	James Madison	4th	1983
Ivy League	Penn	15th	1993
MAAC	Loyola (MD)	1st
MAC	Ohio	10th	1985
MEAC	North Carolina A&T	8th	1988
Metro	Louisville	24th	1993
Mid-Continent	Green Bay	2nd	1991
Missouri Valley	Southern Illinois	3rd	1993
NAC	Drexel	2nd	1986
NEC	Rider	3rd	1993
Ohio Valley	Tennessee State	2nd	1993
Pac-10	Arizona	13th	1993
Patriot	Navy	9th	1987
SEC	Kentucky	35th	1993
Southern	Chattanooga	6th	1993
Southland	Southwest Texas State	1st
Sun Belt	Southwestern Louisiana	3rd	1992
SWAC	Texas Southern	2nd	1990
SWC	Texas	13th	1992
TAAC	UCF	1st
WAC	Hawaii	2nd	1972
West Coast	Pepperdine	11th	1992

Tournament seeds

valign=top	East Regional – Miami Arena, Miami, Florida Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 North Carolina ACC 27–6 Automatic 2 Connecticut Big East 27–4 At-Large 3 Florida SEC 25–7 At-Large 4 Temple Atlantic 10 22–7 At-Large 5 Indiana Big Ten 19–8 At-Large 6 Nebraska Big Eight 20–9 Automatic 7 UAB Great Midwest 22–7 At-Large 8 Washington State Pac-10 20–10 At-Large 9 Boston College Big East 20–10 At-Large 10 George Washington Atlantic 10 17–11 At-Large 11 Penn Ivy League 24–2 Automatic 12 Ohio MAC 25–7 Automatic 13 Drexel NAC 25–4 Automatic 14 James Madison CAA 20–9 Automatic 15 Rider NEC 21–8 Automatic 16 Liberty Big South 18–11 Automatic	valign=top	Midwest Regional – Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Arkansas SEC 25–3 At-Large 2 UMass Atlantic 10 27–6 Automatic 3 Michigan Big Ten 21–7 At-Large 4 Oklahoma State Big Eight 23–9 At-Large 5 UCLA Pac-10 21–6 At-Large 6 Texas SWC 25–7 Automatic 7 Saint Louis Great Midwest 23–5 At-Large 8 Illinois Big Ten 17–10 At-Large 9 Georgetown Big East 18–11 At-Large 10 Maryland ACC 16–11 At-Large 11 Western Kentucky Sun Belt 20–10 At-Large 12 Tulsa Missouri Valley 21–7 At-Large 13 New Mexico State (vacated) Big West 23–7 Automatic 14 Pepperdine WCC 19–10 Automatic 15 Southwest Texas State Southland 25–6 Automatic 16 North Carolina A&T MEAC 16–13 Automatic
valign=top	Southeast Regional – Thompson–Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Purdue Big Ten 26–4 Automatic 2 Duke ACC 23–5 At-Large 3 Kentucky SEC 26–6 Automatic 4 Kansas Big Eight 25–7 At-Large 5 Wake Forest ACC 20–11 At-Large 6 Marquette Great Midwest 22–8 At-Large 7 Michigan State Big Ten 19–11 At-Large 8 Providence Big East 20–9 Automatic 9 Alabama SEC 19–9 At-Large 10 Seton Hall Big East 17–12 At-Large 11 Southwestern Louisiana Sun Belt 22–7 Automatic 12 College of Charleston TAAC 24–3 At-Large 13 Chattanooga Southern 23–6 Automatic 14 Tennessee State Ohio Valley 19–11 Automatic 15 Texas Southern SWAC 19–10 Automatic 16 UCF TAAC 21–8 Automatic	valign=top	West Regional – Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California Seed School Conference Record Berth type 1 Missouri (vacated) Big Eight 25–3 At-Large 2 Arizona Pac-10 25–5 Automatic 3 Louisville Metro 26–5 Automatic 4 Syracuse Big East 21–6 At-Large 5 California Pac-10 22–7 At-Large 6 Minnesota (vacated) Big Ten 20–11 At-Large 7 Virginia ACC 17–12 At-Large 8 Cincinnati Great Midwest 22–9 At-Large 9 Wisconsin Big Ten 17–10 At-Large 10 New Mexico WAC 23–7 At-Large 11 Southern Illinois Missouri Valley 23–6 Automatic 12 UW–Green Bay Mid-Continent 22–6 Automatic 13 Hawaii WAC 18–14 Automatic 14 Boise State Big Sky 17–12 Automatic 15 Loyola (MD) MAAC 17–12 Automatic 16 Navy Patriot 17–12 Automatic

Bracket

West Regional – Los Angeles, California

1. Minnesota vacated its NCAA Tournament appearance from the 1993–94 season due to an academic fraud scandal. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Minnesota removing the wins from its own record.

West Region Second Round

Final Four – Charlotte, North Carolina

Broadcast information

On television, CBS Sports covered all 63 games of the tournament, with regional splits until the Regional Finals followed by national telecasts.

Exclusive national radio coverage was provided by CBS Radio Sports.

CBS announcers

• James Brown or Jim Nantz and Billy Packer – Brown/Packer, First & Second Round at Uniondale, New York; Nantz/Packer, Midwest Regional at Dallas, Texas; Final Four at Charlotte, North Carolina
• Dick Stockton and Al McGuire – First & Second Round at Lexington, Kentucky; West Regional at Los Angeles
• Greg Gumbel/Bill Raftery/Lesley Visser – First & Second Round at Landover, Maryland; Southeast Regional at Knoxville, Tennessee
• Verne Lundquist and Dan Bonner or Clark Kellogg – Lundquist/Bonner, First & Second Round at St. Petersburg, Florida; Lundquist/Kellogg, East Regional at Miami
• Sean McDonough and Derrek Dickey – First & Second Round at Wichita, Kansas
• Ted Robinson and Greg Kelser – First & Second Round at Oklahoma City
• Tim Ryan and Ann Meyers – First & Second Round at Ogden, Utah
• Dave Sims and Larry Farmer – First & Second Round at Sacramento, California

Local radio

Region	Seed	Teams	Flagship station	Play-by-play announcer	Color analyst(s)
West	1
	2
	3
	4	Syracuse	WSYR–AM 570 (Syracuse, NY)
	5	California	KSFO–AM 560 (Berkeley, CA)
	6
	7
	8
	9
	10
	11
	12	UW–Green Bay	WDUZ–AM 1400 (Green Bay, WI)
	13
	14
	15
	16

See also

• 1994 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament
• 1994 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament
• 1994 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
• 1994 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament
• 1994 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament
• 1994 National Invitation Tournament
• 1994 National Women's Invitation Tournament
• 1994 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 1994 NAIA Division II men's basketball tournament
• 1994 NAIA Division I women's basketball tournament
• NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Championship

Notes and References

1. Web site: 'Island Of Misfit Toys': East Coast Conference Curiosity & The Big Dance . Beach . Jerry . . March 9, 2021 . May 21, 2023.
2. Web site: TEXAS CLAIMS ITS FIRST SWC TITLE; CINCINNATI WINS GREAT MIDWEST . Associated Press . . March 13, 1994 . May 21, 2023.
3. Web site: MCC LOSES AUTOMATIC NCAA BID . . December 11, 1992 . May 21, 2023.

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