1994 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament


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, making their second ever trip and first since 1988, 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.
Corliss Williamson of Arkansas was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Bill Clinton, former governor of Arkansas and the then President, was in attendance for the Final Four, as well as the regionals that were held in Dallas the previous week.

Locations

First & Second Rounds

Regional Sites and Final Four

The 1994 tournament included five new venues and four new cities. In Florida, Miami and St. Petersburg, were used for the first time. St. Petersburg would go on to host the Final Four in 1999, while this would be the only games held at Miami Arena; in 2009, the only other year that the city has hosted the tournament, the games were played at American Airlines Arena. Landover, an eastern suburb of Washington, D.C., was used for the only time; games in Washington D.C. have since been at Capital One Arena, which replaced USAir Arena as home to the city's indoor sports teams. Sacramento became the sixth metropolitan area in California to host games. The Kansas Coliseum was used instead of Levitt Arena in Wichita for the only time. This also marked the last tournament for the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and the Dee Events Center. Games in the Los Angeles area have since been held at the Staples Center or the Honda Center in Anaheim. In all, of the thirteen venues used in the 1994 tournament, seven have closed and been replaced, with all but the Kansas Coliseum and Sacramento's Sleep Train Arena being demolished, its future still not determined since the opening of the Golden 1 Center downtown. Additionally, the Nassau Coliseum has been renovated into a smaller-capacity building, placing its future use as a tournament site in doubt.
In 1994 Charlotte became the 24th city, and the Charlotte Coliseum the 29th venue, to host the Final Four. It is the last of four arenas - including Market Square Arena in 1980, Reunion Arena in 1986, and McNichols Sports Arena in 1990 - whose primary tenant was an NBA franchise. The tournament was the only one between 1985 and 2018 to not include an NFL stadium; the only domed stadium used for the tournament, the Thunderdome, was at the time an NHL arena and is now an MLB stadium.
Amusingly, the site of the Southeast regional finals — Knoxville, TN — was farther north than any of the other regional sites in 1994.
Any future games to be played would be at these sites: in Tampa, the Amalie Arena; in Wichita, the Intrust Bank Arena; and in Charlotte, the Spectrum Center.

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East Regional – Miami, Florida

Southeast Regional – Knoxville, Tennessee

Midwest Regional – Dallas, Texas

West Regional – Los Angeles, California

West Region First Round

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