NCAA_Division_I_Men's_Final_Four_appearances_by_school

List of NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants

List of NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants

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This is a list of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants.

Final Four by year

From the first tournament in 1939 to 1951, the National Semifinals were also considered the Regional Championships, with the National Championship was held separately a week later. During this period, the tournament was divided into the East and West Regions. From 1952 to 1955, the Regional Championships were held at four sites, with two designated for the East and two for the West. In 1956, the four regions were given unique names for the first time.

From 1946 to 1981, a consolation game was conducted before the Championship for the losing teams of the National Semifinals; the winning team was awarded third place and the losing team was awarded fourth place. In 1982, the NCAA eliminated the game and the two losing teams of the semifinal games are considered tied for third place in the official record book.

At the conclusion of the championship game, one player is awarded the Most Outstanding Player award. Eleven times a player was awarded the MOP without being on the championship team. Five players have won the award twice, one player, Lew Alcindor, won the award three times.

More information Year, Team ...

Final Four appearances by school

Since 1939, 95 schools have appeared in the Final Four. Four additional schools, Minnesota, Saint Joseph's, UMass, and Western Kentucky, had their only appearance vacated. This table shows non-vacated Final Four appearances and victories by school; vacated records are shown in parentheses. The Third Place column is blank for schools whose Final Four appearances were before 1946 or after 1981.

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Teams appearing in consecutive Final Fours

Eleven teams have appeared three or more times in the Final Four in consecutive tournaments. In the following table, National Champions are indicated by bold years, runners-up by underlined years, and third place by italics.

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Final Four appearances by coach

Since 1939, 158 head coaches have appeared in the Final Four. Six additional coaches have had their only Final Four appearance vacated. This table shows non-vacated Final Four appearances and victories by coach; vacated records are shown in parentheses. The Third Place column is blank for coaches whose Final Four appearances were before 1946 or after 1981.

Coaches still active in Division I are highlighted in green.

More information Head Coach, School(s) ...

Multiple Schools

Fifteen coaches have non-vacated Final Four appearances with multiple schools. Of these, 14 have coached two schools and only one, Rick Pitino, has coached three schools. Two additional coaches appeared with multiple schools but had all appearances with one of those schools vacated. Larry Brown appeared with UCLA and Kansas but his only appearance with UCLA school were vacated. John Calipari appeared with UMass, Memphis, and Kentucky, but his only appearances at UMass and Memphis were vacated. Five coaches are still active, with Calipari, Huggins, Larrañaga, and Sampson coaching at a school they have already taken to the Final Four. Pitino is the only coach on this list currently active at a school he has not taken to the Final Four.

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Coaches who also played in the Final Four

Seven coaches have both played and coached in the Final Four. Hubert Davis at North Carolina and Dick Harp at Kansas did so at the same school. Bob Knight and Dean Smith are the only two coaches to win a championship as player and coach.

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Final Four appearances by conference

The following table shows Final Four appearance statistics based on teams' conference affiliations contemporaneous to their appearance. Therefore some schools are included across multiple conferences. Conferences are listed by their current or final name as found in the official NCAA record book.

There have been 26 unique conferences appearing in the Final Four, of which 19 are still in existence.

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Final Fours with multiple schools from the same conference

There have been 25 Final Fours with multiple teams from the same conference. In two of these Final Fours, one of the conference team's appearance was later vacated later by the NCAA. The Big Ten has achieved this nine times, with one appearance later vacated, tying them with the Atlantic Coast Conference for non-vacated multi-team Final Four appearances. The Big East is the only conference to have three teams in the Final Four, which was in 1985.

Teams from the same conference have played against each other in nine National Semifinal games. Only three times have teams from the same conference played each other in the National Championship.

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†National Champion; ‡Runner Up; §Teams played in National Semifinals

†‡Teams played in National Championship game

Final Four appearances by state

Schools from 38 states, including the District of Columbia, have appeared in the Final Four. An additional state, Minnesota, had its only appearance vacated. This table shows non-vacated Final Four appearances and victories by state; vacated records are shown in parentheses. The Third Place column is blank for states whose Final Four appearances were before 1946 or after 1981. Schools noted as vacated had all their Final Four appearances vacated.

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Final Fours with multiple schools from the same state

Eleven Final Fours have had two teams from the same state. North Carolina and Ohio both have three Final Fours with two teams, the most, and Kentucky is the only other state to do it more than once. Teams from the same state have played each other four times in a National Semifinal and teams from the same state have played each other twice in the National Championship, both times Cincinnati and Ohio State in 1960 and 1961.

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† National Champion; ‡ Runner-Up; § Third Place

Vacated appearances

Thirteen Final Four appearances have been vacated by ten schools. Two of these schools won the Third Place Game and five schools were the National Runners Up. Only one school, the University of Louisville, has had its National Championship vacated.

Notes

  1. The Pac-12 Conference was previously named the Pacific Coast Conference, Athletic Association of Western Universities, Pacific-8 Conference, and Pacific-10 Conference. Although the Pacific Coast Conference operated under a separate charter from the current Pac-12, both the Pac-12 and NCAA consider the PCC and Pac-12 to be the same conference.
  2. The Big Eight Conference was previously named the Big Seven Conference and Big Six Conference.
  3. The Ivy League succeeded the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League.
  4. The Mountain States Athletic Conference was more popularly known as the Skyline Six and Skyline Eight at various points in its history.
  5. Oklahoma State University was named Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and known as Oklahoma A&M before 1957.
  6. The Big Ten Conference was known as the Big Nine from the 1946–47 season to 1953–54 season.
  7. The West Coast Conference was previously named the California Basketball Association and West Coast Athletic Conference.
  8. The East Coast Conference was previously named the Middle Atlantic Conference.
  9. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was named Texas Western College before 1967.
  10. The University of Memphis was named Memphis State University before 1995.
  11. Syracuse qualified for the tournament via the ECAC Upstate tournament.
  12. Rutgers qualified for the tournament via the ECAC Metro tournament.
  13. Charlotte was branded as UNC Charlotte during its 1977 appearance.
  14. In the 1978 tournament teams were seeded in two pools of automatic qualifiers (Q) and at-large teams (L). Each region had seeds 1Q–4Q and 1L–4L.
  15. UConn was officially known as Connecticut before 2013, when it adopted the short form as its official athletic brand name.
  16. The NCAA allowed Luke Hancock to retain his Most Outstanding Player award as part of a settlement.
  17. The official NCAA records book considers both iterations of the Big East the same conference despite the original Big East legally being succeeded by the American Athletic Conference in 2013 and the current Big East Conference being a completely new entity.

References

General

Men's Final Four 2023 Records Book(PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2009. Retrieved March 31, 2023.

Specific

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    Wolfson, Andrew. "What led to vacated Final Fours in the past?". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    Archives, L. A. Times (1987-11-23). "Sam Gilbert Is Dead at Age 74 : Controversial UCLA Booster Succumbs After Long Illness". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    Alfano, Peter (1985-05-26). "ANXIETY AND HOPE AT MEMPHIS STATE ON BETTING INQUIRY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    Hakim, Danny (2002-11-08). "Michigan Punishes Basketball Program". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    Cavanaugh, Jack (1997-05-09). "UMass and UConn Lose '96 Honors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    Drape, Joe (2000-10-25). "COLLEGE BASKETBALL; Minnesota Penalized by N.C.A.A." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    "OSU gets probation". ESPN.com. 2006-03-10. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
  11. [11]
    Zinser, Lynn (2009-08-20). "Memphis Stripped of 2008 Final Four by N.C.A.A." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    "Its NCAA appeal denied, Louisville is stripped of 2013 national championship". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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    Cash, Rana L. "U of L basketball's 2013 title isn't restored, but players' lawsuit against NCAA is settled". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
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