The 1982 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 48 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's

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Division I

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. It began on March 11, 1982, and ended with the championship game on March 29 in the

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New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. A total of 47 games were played.

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, coached by Dean Smith, won the national title with a 63–62 victory in the final game over Georgetown, coached by John Thompson. James Worthy of

was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player. This tournament was the first to eliminate the national third-place game, which had been held every year since the 1946 tournament. It was also the first tournament to be televised by CBS after it acquired the broadcasting rights from NBC. Gary Bender and Billy Packer (also from NBC Sports) called the Final Four and National Championship games. In addition, it was the first tournament to include the word "Men's" in its official title, as the NCAA began sponsoring national championships in women's sports (including

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) in the 1981–82 school year. This was the last NCAA tournament to grant automatic bids to the winners of ECAC regional tournaments for Northeastern Division I independents organized by the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a loose sports federation of Northeastern colleges and universities. The practice had begun with the 1975 tournament to ensure that Northeastern independents would not be excluded, but was discontinued when all remaining Northeastern independents formed new conferences or joined existing ones after this season. For the first time since

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, the tournament field did not include

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Championship game

The 1982 NCAA Division I Men's Championship Game was between the Georgetown Hoyas and the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

. Both teams had Hall of Fame coaches, Dean Smith for the Tar Heels and John Thompson for the Hoyas. As for players, five future NBA All-Stars were included between the two sides—the Hoyas featured center Patrick Ewing and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, while the Tar Heels answered with forward James Worthy, forward and center Sam Perkins, and young guard

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

. This also marked the only NCAA championship game to feature three of the NBA 50 Greatest Players (Jordan, Ewing and Worthy) chosen in 1996 on the occasion of the NBA's 50th anniversary. The championship matchup was tightly contested throughout, with no team ever leading by more than a few points, and 15 lead changes in the game overall. With slightly over a minute to go, Floyd scored to put Georgetown on top, 62–61. During the ensuing timeout, Smith predicted that Georgetown would heavily guard Worthy and Perkins and drew up a play that would work the ball around to Jordan and then met Jordan's eyes and told him to not be afraid to shoot if he was open. When the ball was worked around, Jimmy Black found Jordan on the left wing, and he rose and hit a jumper with 17 seconds to go to put Carolina back on top, 63–62. Georgetown did not call timeout but immediately pushed the ball up the court. However, guard Fred Brown mistook Carolina's James Worthy for a teammate and passed the ball right to his opponent. Worthy was fouled by Eric Smith with two seconds to go. He missed both free throws, but with no timeouts left (Georgetown coach John Thompson, in a questionable move, used his last one before Worthy's free throws rather than save it to set up a final play) the Hoyas' last desperation shot fell short. On the other hand, Dean Smith's decision to draw up a play for Jordan, rather than Worthy or Perkins, is often regarded as a brilliant coaching move. Aside from the dramatic finish in the final minute, the 1982 NCAA championship game is today primarily remembered as being the stage on which several eventual basketball legends were introduced to a national audience, particularly North Carolina's Jordan and Georgetown's Ewing, both 19-year-old freshmen at the time of this game. Both had outstanding games - Jordan with 16 points including the game-winner, and Ewing with 23 points and 10 rebounds (but also a few goaltends on blocks that John Thompson supported for intimidation purposes). Jordan and Ewing would go on to have more memorable clashes in the National Basketball Association with the

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and

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respectively, and both would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. For Jordan's part, his game-winner is often seen as the launching point of his career - the moment that gave him the confidence to become one of the greatest basketball players of all time, in no small part due to his clutch performance. Jordan has said multiple times that before he would take game-winning shots with the Bulls, he would sometimes think back to his shot in the 1982 game that propelled North Carolina past Georgetown. The real star of the 1982 title game, and a third player in this game who would eventually be inducted to the pro basketball Hall of Fame, was Carolina's James Worthy. Worthy scored a game-high 28 points, showing the blazing speed and some of the same authoritative drives to the basket that later became familiar sights during his career with the powerful

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of the 1980s. Beyond these three legendary players, two other outstanding pro players of the 1980s and early 90s appeared in this 1982 game: Georgetown's Sleepy Floyd, who went on to an All-Star career in the NBA (including a still-standing record for most points in a quarter and in a half for a playoff game) and Carolina's Sam Perkins, who distinguished himself over a durable NBA career lasting 17 seasons.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1982 tournament: First and Second Rounds *March 11 and 13 **East Region *** Charlotte Coliseum,

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(Host: University of North Carolina at Charlotte) **Mideast Region *** Memorial Gymnasium,

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(Host:

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

) **Midwest Region *** Mabee Center,

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(Host:

Oral Roberts University Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a Private university, private Evangelicalism, evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963, the university is named after its founder, Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christian preacher Oral ...

) **West Region *** Dee Glen Smith Spectrum,

Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 census recorded the population at 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Ca ...

(Host:

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...

) *March 12 and 14 **East Region *** Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum,

Uniondale, New York Uniondale is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in central Nassau County, New York, on Long Island, in the Town of Hempstead, within the New York metropolitan area. The population was 32,473 at the time of the 2020 United States census ...

(Host:

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...

) **Mideast Region *** Market Square Arena,

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(Hosts:

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

, Midwestern City Conference) **Midwest Region *** Reunion Arena,

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(Host:

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

) **West Region *** Beasley Coliseum, Pullman, Washington (Host:

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) Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) *March 18 and 20 **Mideast Regional, BJCC Coliseum,

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(Host:

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) **West Regional, Marriott Center,

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

(Host:

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

) *March 19 and 21 **East Regional, Reynolds Coliseum,

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(Host:

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

) **Midwest Regional, The Checkerdome,

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(Host:

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

) National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship) *March 27 and 29 **

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(Host:

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)

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

# - Memphis State was forced to vacate its NCAA tournament appearance after a massive gambling scandal and a criminal investigation into head coach Dana Kirk. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Memphis removing the wins from its own record.

Midwest region

Mideast region

West region

Final Four

Announcers

* Gary Bender and Billy Packer – First round at Logan, Utah (Wyoming–USC); Second Round at Logan, Utah (Georgetown–Wyoming, Fresno State–West Virginia); Second Round at Indianapolis, Indiana (Virginia–Tennessee, Minnesota–Chattanooga); East Regional semifinal (North Carolina–Alabama) at Raleigh, North Carolina; East Regional Final at Raleigh, North Carolina; Mideast Regional Final at Birmingham, Alabama; Final Four at New Orleans, Louisiana * Frank Glieber and Steve Grote – Second Round at Nashville, Tennessee (Louisville–Middle Tennessee State, UAB–Indiana); Second Round at Dallas, Texas (DePaul–Boston College, Arkansas–Kansas State); West Regional semifinal (Georgetown–Fresno State) at Provo, Utah; Midwest Regional Final at St. Louis, Missouri; West Regional Final at Provo, Utah * Jim Thacker and Bill Raftery – East Regional semifinal (Villanova–Memphis State) at Raleigh, North Carolina * Tom Hammond and Larry Conley – Mideast Regional semifinals at Birmingham, Alabama * Fred White and Gary Thompson – Midwest Regional semifinals at St. Louis, Missouri * Larry Zimmer and Irv Brown – West Regional semifinal (Oregon State–Idaho) at Provo, Utah * Jim Thacker and Bill Foster – First round at Charlotte, North Carolina (Ohio State–James Madison, Wake Forest–Old Dominion); Second Round at Charlotte, North Carolina (North Carolina–James Madison, Memphis State–Wake Forest); Second Round at Uniondale, New York (Villanova–Northeastern, Alabama–St. John's) * Verne Lundquist and Dale Brown – Second Round at Tulsa, Oklahoma (Tulsa–Houston, Missouri–Marquette) * Irv Brown and George Raveling – Second Round at Pullman, Washington (Idaho–Iowa, Oregon State–Pepperdine) * Tim Ryan and Irv Brown – First round at Pullman, Washington (Iowa–Northeast Louisiana)

References

{{Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Sports Special NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

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Basketball competitions in New Orleans

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Basketball in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

Championship game

Schedule and venues

Teams

Bracket

East region

Midwest region

Mideast region

West region

Final Four

Announcers

See also

References