 | |||||
| Season | 2008–09 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 65 | ||||
| Finals site | Ford Field Detroit, Michigan | ||||
| Champions | North Carolina Tar Heels (5th title, 9th title game, 18th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Michigan State Spartans (3rd title game, 7th Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| Winning coach | Roy Williams (2nd title) | ||||
| MOP | Wayne Ellington (North Carolina) | ||||
| Attendance | 708,296 | ||||
| Top scorer | Wayne Ellington (North Carolina) (115 points) | ||||
| |||||
The 2009 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 2008–09 season. The 71st annual edition of the tournament began on March 17, 2009, and concluded with the championship game on April 6 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
The University of North Carolina defeated Michigan State to become the champion. It was the Tar Heels 5th title, and 2nd under Roy Williams. The 2009 tournament was the first time the Final Four had a minimum seating capacity of 70,000, and by having most of the tournament in the February Sweeps of the Nielsen Ratings due to the digital television transition in the United States on June 12, 2009, this was the last NCAA basketball tournament, in all three divisions, to air on analog television.
Prior to the start of the tournament, the top ranked team was Louisville in both the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Polls, followed by North Carolina, Memphis, and Pittsburgh.[1] Only the Tar Heels of North Carolina were the regional winners and played in the Final Four. The Tar Heels completed one of the most dominant runs in the tournament's history by winning each of their games by at least twelve points.
For the first time since seeding began, all #1–#3 seeds made it into the Sweet 16, and for the third consecutive time, all #1 seeds made the Elite Eight.
Four schools made their NCAA tournament debut, all respective conference champions: Binghamton (America East), Morgan State (MEAC), Stephen F. Austin (Southland), and North Dakota State (Summit), a school in its first season of Division I eligibility.