 | |||||
| Season | 2002–03 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 65 | ||||
| Finals site | Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||
| Champions | Syracuse Orangemen (1st title, 3rd title game, 4th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Kansas Jayhawks (7th title game, 12th Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Jim Boeheim (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse) | ||||
| Attendance | 54,524 | ||||
| Top scorer | Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse) (121 points) | ||||
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The 2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 18, 2003, and ended with the championship game on April 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Superdome. A total of 64 games were played.
The Final Four consisted of Kansas, making its second straight appearance; Marquette, making its first appearance since they won the national championship in 1977; Syracuse, making its first appearance since 1996; and Texas, making its first appearance since 1947. Texas was the only top seed to advance to the Final Four; the other three (Arizona, Kentucky, and Oklahoma) advanced as far as the Elite Eight but fell.
Syracuse won its first national championship in three tries under 27th-year head coach Jim Boeheim, who would ultimately retire after the 2022–2023 season. This was also Roy Williams’s final game as Kansas head coach; he would depart after the season to become the head coach at North Carolina.
Carmelo Anthony of Syracuse was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Syracuse beat four Big 12 teams on its way to the title: Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.