The 2015 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2014–15 season. The 77th edition of the tournament began on March 17, 2015, and concluded with the championship game on April 6, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Final Four consisted of Kentucky (who went in undefeated at 38–0), Wisconsin, making their second consecutive trip to the Final Four, Michigan State, making their first Final Four since 2010 (also held in Indianapolis) and the 7th under head coach Tom Izzo, and Duke, making their first appearance since their 2010 national championship. Duke defeated Wisconsin in the championship game, 68–63, clinching their 5th national championship under Mike Krzyzewski. Tyus Jones of Duke was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Unlike the past three tournaments, this tournament featured less upsets, with 7. However, for the first time since the 1995 tournament, two of the No. 14 seeds won in the same tournament. In the West Region, #14 Georgia State of the Sun Belt Conference defeated #3 Baylor. In the South Region, #14 UAB of Conference USA defeated #3 Iowa State.
Three teams made their NCAA tournament debuts, North Florida from the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), UC Irvine from the Big West Conference (BWC), and Buffalo from the Mid-American Conference (MAC).
The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 2015 tournament:[1]
First Four
First and Second rounds (round of 64 and round of 32)
Regional semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)
Indianapolis hosted the Final Four for the seventh time, having previously hosted in 2010, and also the second Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Out of 333 eligible Division I teams, 68 participated in the tournament. Eighteen Division I teams were ineligible due to failing to meet APR requirements, self-imposed postseason bans, or reclassification from a lower division.[4]
Of the 32 automatic bids, 31 were given to programs that won their conference tournaments. The Ivy League did not hold a tournament, but held a one-game playoff to break a tie in the regular season conference standings, with the winner receiving the automatic bid.[5] The remaining 36 bids were granted on an "at-large" basis, which were extended by the NCAA Selection Committee to the teams it deemed to be the best 36 teams that did not receive automatic bids.
Eight teams—the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams—played in the First Four (the successor to what had been popularly known as "play-in games" through the 2010 tournament). The winners of these games advanced to the main tournament bracket.
The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 68.
The following teams are automatic qualifiers for the 2015 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's automatic bid.
*See First Four
Since the 2004 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the four 1 seeds have been seeded overall. This was the third time Kentucky was the overall top seed. The previous time was in the 2012 tournament. Duke was the overall 3 seed for the fourth time, previously advancing to the Final Four in two of those years: 2004 and 2010. Villanova was a 1 seed for the second time in school history; 2006 was the other time. This was the first 1 seed for Wisconsin.
The First Four games involved eight teams: the four overall lowest-ranked teams, and the four lowest-ranked at-large teams.
Regional all-tournament team: Pat Connaughton, Notre Dame; Zach Auguste, Notre Dame; Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky; Andrew Harrison, Kentucky[6]
Regional most outstanding player: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky[7]
Regional all-tournament team: Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin; Josh Gasser, Wisconsin;[8] T. J. McConnell, Arizona; Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Arizona[9]
Regional most outstanding player: Sam Dekker, Wisconsin[10]
# — On February 20, 2018, the NCAA announced that the wins and records for Louisville's 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, and 2014–15 seasons were vacated due to the sex scandal at Louisville.[11] Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Louisville removing the wins from its own record.
Regional all-tournament team: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State; Terry Rozier, Louisville; Montrezl Harrell, Louisville; Wayne Blackshear, Louisville[12]
Regional most outstanding player: Travis Trice, Michigan State.[13]
Regional all-tournament team: Matt Jones, Duke; Justise Winslow, Duke; Kyle Wiltjer, Gonzaga; Domantas Sabonis, Gonzaga[14]
Regional most outstanding player: Tyus Jones, Duke[15]
During the Final Four round, regardless of the seeds of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region plays (Kentucky's Midwest Region) against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region (Wisconsin's West Region), and the champion of the second overall top seed's region plays (Michigan State's East Region) against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region (Duke's South Region).
[16]
Kentucky entered the tournament unbeaten. After 22 years without an unbeaten team in the tournament, following UNLV in 1991, this is the second consecutive tournament with an unbeaten team (after Wichita State in the previous). The Wildcats, by beating Cincinnati in the third round, set an NCAA men's record with 36 straight wins to start a season. They would win two more before Wisconsin upset them in the Final Four.
Defending national champion UConn did not qualify.
Kansas extended its streak of consecutive tournament appearances to 26 in a row. They have made each NCAA Tournament dating back to 1990. Kansas would qualify again the next two seasons to set the record for consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances formerly held by North Carolina (1975–2001).
With both Buffalo and Albany winning their respective conferences and reaching the tournament, this is the first time two schools in the State University of New York system have reached the Division I tournament in the same year.[17]
Two teams broke appearance droughts of over 20 years with their bids: Colonial Athletic Association champion Northeastern made its first NCAA appearance since 1991, and American champion Southern Methodist made its first NCAA appearance since 1993.
Harvard and Yale played a one-game playoff at the Palestra. Harvard won in dramatic fashion.[5]
Dayton played a First Four game at their home arena, which is usually not allowed during the men's tournament. The NCAA selection committee indicated that putting Dayton in its home arena "falls within the context" of the committee's procedures.[18]
Of the sixteen games played on March 19, five were decided by one point, a single-day record.
For the first time since 2007 and the fourth time since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, all four 5 seeds won their Second Round games. This was also the first time since 2007 that there were four 4 vs. 5 matchups in the third round.
On March 20, all but one "chalk" team won their game (there was only one upset), compared to the four upsets the previous day.
Michigan State reached its seventh Final Four in the last 18 seasons—the best mark in the nation during that time span.[19]
For the first time since 2009, multiple 1 seeds reached the Final Four.
For the first time since 2008, two 1 seeds reached the Championship, between Kansas and Memphis (later vacated by Memphis).
Wisconsin was in its first final since 1941, and lost; and Duke in its first final since 2010, and won.
The Wisconsin loss extended the Big Ten Conference's losing streak in national championship games to six. As of 2015, Michigan State is the last Big Ten team to win a National Championship, having done so in 2000.
Per the NCAA, "Upsets are defined as when the winner of the game was seeded five or more places lower than the team it defeated." The 2015 tournament saw a total of 7 upsets; 4 of them were in the first round and 3 of them were in the second round.
The round of 64 started off with multiple upsets with majority of the upsets coming out of the Big 12 conference. The television coverages of CBS and Turner had one of the best overall ratings on March 20, 2015. According to Nielsen estimates, exclusive coverage of the opening full round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a 6.6 overnight household rating/14 share — up 10% from last year and the highest since the tournament expanded to four telecast windows for the entire day.[20]
One of the upsets that happened was UAB upsetting No. 3 seed Iowa State 60–59. The 19-15 UAB Blazers qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011 by winning three-straight to earn the Conference USA tournament title and an automatic bid.[21]
Baylor, a No. 3 seed, took on No. 14 seed Georgia State and with less than three minutes to go, Georgia State staged a 13–0 run to beat Baylor. "The comeback was punctuated with a three by R. J. Hunter, son of stool-bound coach Ron Hunter, that has already produced a moment sure to go down in history – the elder Hunter, who already tore his Achilles celebrating the team's Sun Belt conference tourney victory, fell off that stool in ecstasy after his son's three dropped to give the Panthers the 57-56 lead that would be the final margin,"[22] according to Andy Hutchins.
However, the most talked about headline was UCLA not only making the tournament despite a poor performance in the Pac-12, but also with a call with 13 seconds left when UCLA took on SMU and coach Larry Brown. A late second goaltending that cost SMU the game sparked a lot of attention in sports media and social media. The Bruins moved on to play UAB in the round of 32. Both teams played each other earlier in the season, when UCLA beat the Blazers 88–76 in the Bahamas back in November. Sam Vecenie a CBS writer, was quoted saying, "Funny part of that story? It was the last-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Cool to see how these two teams have turned around their season."[23]
The year 2015 marked the fifth year of a 14-year partnership between CBS and Turner cable networks TBS, TNT, and truTV to cover the entire tournament under the NCAA March Madness banner. TBS aired the Final Four for the second consecutive year.
Sources:[25][26]
For the second consecutive year, the semifinals were exclusive to cable, with TBS airing the standard broadcast with Nantz, Raftery, Hill, and Wolfson. TNT and TruTV aired Team Stream by Bleacher Report broadcasts (known as Teamcasts during the 2014 tournament), which featured localized commentary and features with specific focuses on each participating team.[27][28][29]
Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.[30]
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