The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA or UT San Antonio) is a Public university, public research university in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Established in 1969,[HP Pavilion at San Jose, ]San Jose, California
San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
(Host: San José State University)
*March 23 and 25
**East Regional, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is an inner suburb, inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2020 Unit ...
(Host: Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
)
**Midwest Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
(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 31 and April 2
**Georgia Dome
The Georgia Dome was a Stadium#Types, domed stadium in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta between downtown Atlanta, downtown to the east and Vine City to the west, it was owned and operated by the State of Georgia as part of th ...
, Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
(Host: Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...
)
Qualifying teams
Automatic bids
The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2007 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament (except for the Ivy League, whose regular-season champion received the automatic bid).
Here are the top seeded teams in each regional and their overall seeds.
*Midwest Regional (St. Louis) (top seed: Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
; top overall seed)
*West Regional (San Jose) (top seed: Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
; fourth overall seed)
*East Regional (East Rutherford) (top seed: North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
; second overall seed)
*South Regional (San Antonio) (top seed: Ohio State; third overall seed)
Listed by region and seeding
Bracket
Opening Round game – Dayton, Ohio
Winner advances to West Regional vs. No. (1) Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
.
Midwest Regional – St. Louis, Missouri
West Regional – San Jose, California
East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey
South Regional – San Antonio, Texas
Final Four – Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
Game summaries
''Unless otherwise specified, all games were on CBS, except for the play-in game, which aired on ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
and two additional games. Those games were broadcast on CSTV
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
except in the natural areas of the teams involved, as those were broadcast on CBS. Times listed are US EDT ( UTC−4).''
''Team names are those listed on the NCAA's scoreboard for the play-in game and first-round matchups. Only UNLV and UCLA use abbreviations; all other names are unabbreviated except for the common abbreviation "A&M".''
Opening rounds
First round upsets, close games, and other facts
The two major upsets of the first round were #11 Virginia Commonwealth's win over #6 Duke (West Regional), and #11 Winthrop's win over #6 Notre Dame (Midwest Regional). VCU beat Duke, 79–77, on a shot by Eric Maynor with 1.8 seconds left, sending Duke out for the first time in the first round since 1996. Winthrop's highly touted offense built a 21-point second-half lead before surviving a late Notre Dame rally to win, 74–64, earning their first tournament victory in school history. The only overtime game of the first round was in the South Regional, between #7 Nevada and #10 Creighton, ending 77–71 in favor of the Nevada Wolf Pack. Other close games included #3 Oregon squeaking by #14 Miami (Ohio), 58-56 (Midwest Regional), #5 Virginia Tech's win over #12 Illinois 54-52 (West Regional), and #9 Xavier's win over #8 BYU, 79-77 (South Regional). The highest score accumulated by a team in the 2007 tournament went to Tennessee's 121 points over Long Beach State (South Regional), which set a school record. This was the first year since 1993 that a #10 seed did not advance to the second round. It was also only the second time in the last 17 years that a #12 seed failed to advance against a #5 seed. #15 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had leads of 10-0 and 25–7 in the first half against the #2 Wisconsin Badgers but Wisconsin prevailed 76–63.
Second round upsets, close games, and other facts
The two biggest upsets of the second round were #6 Vanderbilt's win over #3 Washington State (East Regional) and #7 UNLV's win over #2 Wisconsin (Midwest Regional). Vanderbilt won a heart-stopper, 78–74, in double overtime. UNLV won by six points, 74–68, in their biggest win since the 1990s. Other overtime games included #1 Ohio State's 78–71 win over #9 Xavier (South Regional) and #3 Pittsburgh's 84–79 overtime victory over #11 Virginia Commonwealth (West Regional). Ohio State's Ron Lewis hit a three-pointer with two seconds remaining to force overtime against Xavier, and Pittsburgh fought Virginia Commonwealth's comeback from 19 points down to come up with the victory. The Ohio State win over Xavier had a controversial ending as prior to Lewis's game-tying shot, Buckeye Greg Oden shoved a Xavier player, Justin Cage, in the back and onto the floor. Had an intentional foul been called, Xavier would have been awarded two foul shots and ball possession. Instead, a regular personal foul was called. Subsequently, Xavier missed the second free throw, allowing Lewis to shoot the game-tying 3. Other close games were #3 Texas A&M winning over #6 Louisville, 72-69 (South Regional); #5 Butler's victory over #4 Maryland, 62-59 (Midwest Regional); and #5 Tennessee defeating #4 Virginia, 77-74 (South Regional). This tournament marked the first time since 1995 that a double-digit seeded team did not advance to the Sweet 16 (Midwest #7 seed UNLV was the lowest team in the Sweet 16).
Regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen) upsets, close games, other facts
No upsets or overtime games occurred in this round of the tournament, although there were several very close games. In the South Region, #2 Memphis barely defeated #3 Texas A&M as Aggie senior Acie Law, after a solid performance for most of the game, missed an open layup with under a minute left. A controversial clock situation with 3.1 seconds left added to the emotion. #1 Ohio State sneaked past #5 Tennessee, coming back from 20 points down to win, 85–84, with a blocked shot by Buckeye Greg Oden with 0.2 seconds left. In the East Region, #2 Georgetown won possibly the most controversial game of the tournament, beating #6 Vanderbilt, 66–65, on a shot by Jeff Green with 2.5 seconds left. The play was controversial as Green appeared to travel, despite fans and analysts claiming it was a clean drop step.
Regional Finals (Elite Eight)
The seeds of the Elite Eight teams were four #1s, three #2s, and one #3. This was the lowest combination of seeds in an Elite Eight since seeding began in the NCAA tournament.
;South Regional Final
Although Ohio State star freshman Greg Oden got into early foul trouble, a close game at the half turned into a blowout as the Buckeyes went on a 20–8 run to win. Game leaders were Memphis' Jeremy Hunt with 26 points, and Robert Dozier with 11 rebounds. This ended Memphis' 25-game win streak, previously the longest in the nation.
;West Regional Final
After a tight first-half, the Bruins slowly put away the top-seeded Jayhawks in the second-half using their 2006 national championship game experience, along with a strong defense. Shooting percentage was a key factor in the game as UCLA shot 53% to Kansas's 41%. UCLA's Arron Afflalo led all scorers with 24 points while Brandon Rush of Kansas led the Jayhawks with 18. UCLA and Kansas combined for 35 steals, breaking the previous tournament record of 28.
;East Regional Final
North Carolina led for most of the game and the entire second half, but Georgetown rallied from ten points down with six minutes remaining to force overtime. The Tar Heels were outscored 15–3 in the extra session, missing 22 of their final 23 field goal attempts. Georgetown reached its first Final Four since 1985, when John Thompson III's father John Thompson (Jr.) was coach—and Thompson III became the first coach to succeed his father in coaching a team to the Final Four. With North Carolina's loss in the regional final, this marked the first time since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams that no ACC team made it to the Final Four for two consecutive years. The last time that no ACC team made it to the Final Four in consecutive years was in 1979 and 1980.
;Midwest Regional Final
In what was actually a close game for most of regulation, Florida's three-point shots, along with a 20–9 run in the second half, amounted to a Gator win. Florida player Lee Humphrey led his team with seven three-pointers, and added up a total of 23 points. In one of the more odd moments of the tournament, Humphrey shot a three-pointer through the side of the net, causing a 10-minute delay as the net was repaired.
Final Four
All of the 2007 Final Four teams had participated in the 2006 tournament. Ohio State was knocked out in the second round by Georgetown, who would lose to Florida in the Minneapolis Regional semifinals. Florida would go on to defeat UCLA in the championship game. The four teams were all previous champions as well—Ohio State (1960), Georgetown (1984), UCLA (several), and Florida (2006)—marking the fourth time that all of the Final Four teams were past champions (joining 1993
The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as:
* International Year for the World's Indigenous People
The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
, 1995
1995 was designated as:
* United Nations Year for Tolerance
* World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War
This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...
and 1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
Final Fours). Also, it was the first time in nine years that no two Final Four teams were from the same conference.
;South-East National semifinal
Ohio State proved to be too much for the Hoyas, even with Ohio State's phenom center Greg Oden sitting most of the game due to foul trouble.
;Midwest-West National semifinal
In the beginning, Florida struggled with UCLA's swarming defense, but ten minutes into the game they took a double-digit lead, and Lee Humphrey, in a performance reminiscent of the previous year's national title game, blew the game open in the second half hitting three consecutive three-pointers. Humphrey's shots proved too much to overcome and UCLA never threatened in the second half.
National Championship
A rematch of a regular season meeting, won 86–60 by Florida in Gainesville, The Gators survived 25 points and 12 rebounds from Buckeyes center Greg Oden with stellar play from guards Lee Humphrey and Taurean Green with inside contributions coming from Al Horford (18 points) and tourney Most Outstanding Player Corey Brewer. Billy Donovan became the third-youngest coach (at age 41) to win two titles. Only Bob Knight (at Indiana) and San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
's Phil Woolpert
Philipp D. Woolpert (December 15, 1915 – May 5, 1987) was an American basketball coach, best known as the head coach of the University of San Francisco Dons in the 1950s. He led them to consecutive national championships in 1955
Biograph ...
both won two titles at the age of 40.
The Gators are the first team ever to hold the NCAA Division I college football and basketball titles in the same academic year (2006–07) and calendar year (2006 and 2007). Coincidentally, Florida also beat Ohio State (by a score of 41–14) in the College Football Championship, the first time in college sports history that identical matchups and results have occurred in both football and basketball championships. This was also the first time in NCAA D-I men's basketball history that exactly the same starting five were able to win back-to-back titles ( Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Lee Humphrey, Al Horford, Taurean Green). Florida's Lee Humphrey also set the all-time NCAA Tournament record for three-point field goals made with 47. Humphrey surpassed Bobby Hurley's record of 42.
Record by conference
The America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big West, Ivy, MEAC, Mid-American, Mid-Continent, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Sun Belt
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered stretching across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the Parallel 36°30′ north. Several climates can be found in the re ...
, SWAC, and WCC all went 0–1.
* The MAAC went 1-1 since Niagara won the Play-in Game.
Media
Television
CBS Sports
For the 26th consecutive year, CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...
telecast the tournament, and for the 17th consecutive year, broadcast every game from the first round to the championship, with Jim Nantz and Billy Packer calling the Final Four. Nantz was in a stretch in which he would broadcast Super Bowl XLI, the Final Four, and The Masters
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major golf championships, men's major championships in Professional golf tours, professional golf. Schedul ...
golf tournament all in a 10-week period.
The complete list of announcing teams follows:
* Jim Nantz, Billy Packer and Sam Ryan (she was only used as Sideline Reporter for the Final Four and NCAA Championship game) – First & Second Round at Chicago, Illinois; East Regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey; Final Four at Atlanta, Georgia
* Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas – First & Second Round at Winston-Salem, North Carolina; West Regional at San Jose, California
* Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery – First & Second Round at New Orleans, Louisiana; South Regional at San Antonio, Texas
*James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
and Len Elmore – First & Second Round at Sacramento, California; Midwest Regional at St. Louis, Missouri
* Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner – First & Second Round at Lexington, Kentucky
* Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel – First & Second Round at Spokane, Washington
* Kevin Harlan and Bob Wenzel – First & Second Round at Buffalo, New York
* Tim Brando and Mike Gminski
Michael Thomas Gminski (born August 3, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player and a college basketball TV analyst for the CW Courtside Saturday, ACC on The CW and CBS Sports. In 2003, Gminski, of Polish descent, was inducted i ...
– First & Second Round at Columbus, Ohio
Greg Gumbel once again served as the studio host, joined by analysts Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis
Seth Davis is an American sportswriter and broadcaster. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Hoops HQ and is a host on Campus Insiders, an in-studio analyst for CBS men's college basketball coverage and an analyst for the NBA ...
.
Other television
CSTV
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
, owned by CBS, telecast the George Washington-Vanderbilt and the Virginia-Albany contests (in addition to the local CBS affiliates nearest to the participating teams in those games, and those using their digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s for simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
ing). Those games served as the first-ever live tourney telecasts on CSTV, which also provided a highlights show after each day of competition.
For the first three rounds of the tournament, games were also shown on DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
through the Mega March Madness pay-per-view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...
service and o
March Madness on Demand
a broadband
In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
video streaming service that was a joint venture between CBS SportsLine
CBSSports.com (formerly CBS SportsLine.com and SportsLine USA) is an American sports news website operated by Paramount Streaming, a division of Paramount Global. It is the website for CBS' CBS Sports, Sports division featuring news, highlight ...
(now known as CBSSports.com) and the NCAA.
The opening round game was broadcast on ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
for the sixth consecutive year.
Radio
Westwood One once again had the live radio coverage. Kevin Harlan once again served as the play-by-play man at the Final Four with Bill Raftery and John Thompson on color. Thompson the elder is the father of current Georgetown coach John Thompson III.
Basketball courts
During the first- and second-round games in New Orleans, as part of the continuing recovery process from Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
, the NCAA allowed an additional floor decal recognizing the work of Habitat for Humanity's Collegiate Challenge and the NCAA Home Team program through the subregional's host institution, Tulane University
The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...
. This marked the first time that a logo other than that of the NCAA or an NCAA member school has been allowed at an NCAA-sanctioned championship event. In addition, Tulane student athletes and athletic department personnel built a new house, valued at $75,000 ( US), which was paid for by the NCAA and their corporate partner Lowe's
Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...
, on Girod Street between the New Orleans Arena, site of the games, and the Louisiana Superdome
Caesars Superdome (originally Louisiana Superdome and formerly Mercedes-Benz Superdome), commonly known as the Superdome, is a domed multi-purpose stadium in the Southern United States, southern United States, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
, which has hosted four Final Fours.[http://www.ncaasports.com/story/10062095 Tulane teams with Habitat with Humanity March 15, 2007]
Also, for the first time, custom-made, identical courts were used at all four regional sites in San Jose, St. Louis, San Antonio and East Rutherford. Starting in 2010, all tournament games would have the same identical courts.
See also
* 2007 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament
* 2007 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament
* 2007 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
* 2007 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament
* 2007 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament
* 2007 National Invitation Tournament
* 2007 Women's National Invitation Tournament
* 2007 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament
* 2007 NAIA Division II men's basketball tournament
* 2007 NAIA Division I women's basketball tournament
* 2007 NAIA Division II women's basketball tournament
* Bracketology
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
Ncaa
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
Basketball competitions in Atlanta
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
College basketball tournaments in Georgia (U.S. state)