 | |||||
| Season | 1985–86 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 64 | ||||
| Finals site | Reunion Arena Dallas, Texas | ||||
| Champions | Louisville Cardinals (2nd title, 2nd title game, 7th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Duke Blue Devils (3rd title game, 5th Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| Winning coach | Denny Crum (2nd title) | ||||
| MOP | Pervis Ellison (Louisville) | ||||
| Attendance | 499,704 | ||||
| Top scorer | Johnny Dawkins (Duke) (153 points) | ||||
| |||||
The 1986 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 13, 1986, and ended with the championship game on March 31 in Dallas, Texas. A total of 63 games were played.
Louisville, coached by Denny Crum, won the national title with a 72–69 victory in the final game over Duke, coached by Mike Krzyzewski. Pervis Ellison of Louisville was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.[1] Louisville became the first team from outside a power conference to win the championship since the expansion to 64 teams, and remains one of only two teams to do so (the other team was UNLV in 1990).
The 1986 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament was the first tournament to use a shot clock limiting the amount of time for any one offensive possession by a team prior to taking a shot at the basket. Beginning with the 1986 tournament, the shot clock was set at 45 seconds, which it would remain until being shortened to 35 seconds beginning in the 1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, and further shortened to 30 seconds (the same as NCAA women's basketball) starting with the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The 1986 tournament was also the last to not feature the three-point shot as of 2023.
LSU's 1985–86 team is tied for the lowest-seeded team (#11) to ever make the Final Four with the 2005–06 George Mason Patriots, the 2010–11 VCU Rams, the 2017–18 Loyola-Chicago Ramblers, the 2020–21 UCLA Bruins, and the 2023-24 NC State Wolfpack. As of 2018, they are the only team in tournament history to beat the top 3 seeds from their region. LSU began its run to the Final Four by winning two games on its home court, the LSU Assembly Center, leading to a change two years later which prohibited teams from playing NCAA tournament games on a court which they have played four or more games in the regular season. Cleveland State University became the first #14 seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen, losing to their fellow underdog, Navy, by a single point. This was also the first year in which two #14 seeds reached the second round in the same year, as Arkansas-Little Rock beat #3-seed Notre Dame; however, they lost their second-round game in overtime. Both feats have only occurred one other time. Chattanooga reached the Sweet Sixteen as a 14-seed in 1997, and Old Dominion and Weber State both reached the second round as 14-seeds in 1995.
Every regional final featured a #1 or #2 seed playing a team seeded #6 or lower. The lone #1 seed to not reach the Elite Eight, St. John's (West), was knocked out in the second round by #8 Auburn, which lost to #2 Louisville in the regional final.
It can be argued that these upsets by the 14-seeds launched the NCAA tournament's reputation for having unknown teams surprise well-known basketball powers, and both happened on the same day.[citation needed] Indiana's stunning loss to Cleveland State would be part of the climax in the best-selling book A Season On The Brink.[2]
Another story of the tournament was when Navy reached the Elite 8 thanks to stunning performances by David Robinson. This tournament had no Pac 10 teams advance beyond the round of 64. This did not occur again until 2018.
- ^ Wittry, Andy (May 8, 2020). "1986 NCAA tournament: Bracket, scores, stats, rounds". NCAA official website. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ Fagan, Ryan (March 15, 2019). "Ranking the top 80 upsets in March Madness history". Sporting News. Archived from the original on March 17, 2019. Retrieved March 10, 2022.