 | |||||
| Season | 2006–07 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 65 | ||||
| Finals site | Georgia Dome Atlanta, Georgia | ||||
| Champions | Florida Gators (2nd title, 3rd title game, 4th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Ohio State Buckeyes (5th title game, 10th Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| Winning coach | Billy Donovan (2nd title) | ||||
| MOP | Corey Brewer (Florida) | ||||
| Attendance | 696,992 | ||||
| Top scorer | Ron Lewis (Ohio State) (108 points) | ||||
| |||||
The 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2006-07 season. The 69th annual edition of the tournament began on March 13, 2007, with the opening round game and concluded with the championship game on April 2, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.[1]
Both of the finalists from the year before returned to the Final Four as Florida, who returned its entire starting lineup from the year before, and UCLA advanced. They were joined in the Final Four by Ohio State, who was making its first appearance since their 1999 appearance (later vacated), and Georgetown, appearing for the first time since their national runner-up finish in 1985.
Florida successfully defended their title by defeating Ohio State in the championship 84–75. This marked the second time in 2007 that a Florida team beat an Ohio State team to win a national championship, as Florida's football team won the BCS National Championship Game over Ohio State in January. Florida's Corey Brewer was named the Most Outstanding Player.[2] Florida became the first team to repeat since Duke in 1992, and were the seventh school to repeat overall.[2] The 2007 Gators were the last team to repeat as national champions until the UConn Huskies repeated as national champions in 2024.
This tournament was notable because it featured significantly fewer upsets than prior years. There were only 12 games in which a lower-seeded team defeated a higher-seeded team, and eight of these "upsets" were by teams ranked only one seed lower than their opponent. As of 2024, this is the last tournament in which no team seeded 12 or lower won a round of 64 game, while No. 7-seed UNLV was the lowest-seeded team to make it to the Sweet Sixteen. This marked the second time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams that no team seeded No. 8 or lower played in the Sweet Sixteen; the other instance was in 1995. Southland Conference champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi made their first NCAA appearance.
This was the first Tournament since 2003 that regional sites were designated as "East", "West", "South", and "Midwest", rather than by the names of the host cities.