1978 NCAA Division I
basketball tournament

NCAA logo from 1971 to 1979
Season	1977–78
Teams	32
Finals site	The Checkerdome, St. Louis,Missouri
Champions	Kentucky Wildcats (5th title, 7th title game, 8th Final Four)
Runner-up	Duke Blue Devils (2nd title game, 4th Final Four)
Semifinalists	Arkansas Razorbacks (3rd Final Four) Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	Joe B. Hall (1st title)
MOP	Jack Givens (Kentucky)
Attendance	447,234
Top scorer	Mike Gminski (Duke) (109 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments «1977 1979»

The1978 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 32 schools playing insingle-elimination play to determine the national champion of men'sNCAA Division Icollege basketball. The 40th annual edition of the tournament began on March 11, 1978, and ended with thechampionship game on March 27, atThe Checkerdome inSt. Louis,Missouri. A total of 32 games were played, including a national third-place game.

The process of seeding the bracket was first used in this tournament. Sixteen conference winners with automatic bids were seeded 1 through 4 in each region. At-large teams were seeded 1 through 4 in each region separately. There were in fact only eleven true at-large teams in the field, as the remaining five were conference winners with automatic bids and seededas "at-large."^[1] The practice of distinguishing between automatic and at-large teams ended with this edition; the expanded field of forty in the1979 tournament was simply seeded from one to ten in each of the four regions.

Led by head coachJoe B. Hall,Kentucky won its fifth national title with a 94–88 victory overDuke, coached byBill Foster. Wildcat forwardJack Givens scored 41 points in the finale and was named the tournament'smost outstanding player.^[2][3][4][5]

The bracket's biggest upset came in the first round, when little-heraldedMiami (Ohio) defeated defending championMarquette 84–81 in overtime. The victory was even sweeter for Miami Redskins (now RedHawks) fans as former Marquette coachAl McGuire had earlier strongly criticized the NCAA for potentially matching Marquette against Kentucky in the second round, with Marquette being given a first-round opponent in Miami that was supposedly not even worthy of providing an adequate tune-up game.

UnrankedCal State Fullerton (CSUF) pulled off two upsets, first over 4th rankedNew Mexico (coached byNorm Ellenberger and led byMichael Cooper) and then over top-10San Francisco (featuringBill Cartwright). The loss was especially painful for New Mexico as the regional semifinals and finals were held on theLobos' home court in Albuquerque. CSUF then almost upset Arkansas in the West Regional final, losing by 3 points. In each of the three games, the Titans overcame second-half double-digit deficits. In the Arkansas game, they cut a big deficit to 1 and had the ball with 14 seconds left. But Arkansas' Ron Brewer stripped the ball from Keith Anderson and Jim Counce drove down to hit a clinching layup.

In the Mideast regional final, Kentucky knocked offMichigan State, led by freshmanEarvin "Magic" Johnson. This was the only time in a 4-year period (that included his senior year in high school, 2 years of college, andhis rookie NBA season) that Magic's team did not win its final game of the playoffs and hence the championship.

The Final Four games (semifinals, third-place, and championship) atSt. Louis Arena (a.k.a. The Checkerdome) were not played on the arena's official floor. Water damage to it forced the NCAA to borrow the floor fromIndiana University'sAssembly Hall inBloomington.

This was the fourth and last year for a 32-team bracket; the field expanded to forty teams in1979 and 48 in1980, all seeded. The 64-team field debuted in1985, eliminating byes for the top seeds (1979–1984). The third-place game at the Final Four was last played in1981.

Charlotte

Philadelphia

Tulsa

Knoxville

Wichita

Indianapolis

Eugene

Tempe

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1978 sites for first round games

Providence

Dayton

Lawrence

Albuquerque

St. Louis

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1978 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1978 tournament:

First round

• March 11
  • Mideast Region
    • Market Square Arena,Indianapolis, Indiana (Host:Butler University)
    • Stokely Athletic Center,Knoxville, Tennessee (Host:University of Tennessee)
  • West Region
    • McArthur Court,Eugene, Oregon (Host:University of Oregon)
    • ASU Activity Center,Tempe, Arizona (Host:Arizona State University)
• March 12
  • East Region
    • Charlotte Coliseum,Charlotte, North Carolina (Host:University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
    • The Palestra,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Hosts:University of Pennsylvania,Ivy League)
  • Midwest Region
    • Mabee Center,Tulsa, Oklahoma (Host:Oral Roberts University)
    • Levitt Arena,Wichita, Kansas (Host:Wichita State University)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 16 and 18
  • Mideast Regional,University of Dayton Arena,Dayton, Ohio (Host:University of Dayton)
  • West Regional,University Arena ("The Pit"),Albuquerque, New Mexico (Host:University of New Mexico)
• March 17 and 19
  • East Regional,Providence Civic Center,Providence, Rhode Island (Host:Providence College)
  • Midwest Regional,Allen Fieldhouse,Lawrence, Kansas (Host:University of Kansas)

National semifinals, 3rd-place game, and championship (Final Four and championship)

• March 25 and 27
  • The Checkerdome,St. Louis, Missouri (Host:Missouri Valley Conference)

* – Denotes overtime period

Q = automatic qualifier bidL = at-large bid (including 5 automatic bids seeded with at-large teams)

• Dick Enberg/Curt Gowdy,Billy Packer, andAl McGuire – Final Four at St. Louis, Missouri; Gowdy called the Notre Dame-Duke Semifinal with Billy Packer, and served as host of the national championship game, while Enberg called the Arkansas-Kentucky semifinal with Packer and the Duke-Kentucky final with both Packer and McGuire.
• Dick Enberg andAl McGuire – First round at Tulsa, Oklahoma (Louisville–St. John's, Notre Dame–Houston); Midwest Regional Final at Lawrence, Kansas; West Regional Final at Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Curt Gowdy andBilly Packer – East Regional Final at Providence, Rhode Island; Mideast Regional Final at Dayton, Ohio
• Jay Randolph andGary Thompson – Midwest Regional semifinals at Lawrence, Kansas;National Third Place Game (Arkansas-Notre Dame) at St. Louis, Missouri
• Connie Alexander andBill Strannigan – West Regional semifinals at Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Dick Enberg andBilly Packer – First round at Knoxville, Tennessee (Kentucky–Florida State, Syracuse–Western Kentucky)
• Curt Gowdy andAl McGuire – First round at Eugene, Oregon (Arkansas–Weber State, UCLA–Kansas)
• Marv Albert andBucky Waters – First round at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Villanova–La Salle, St. Bonaventure–Pennsylvania)
• Merle Harmon andFred Taylor – First round at Indianapolis, Indiana (Marquette–Miami Ohio, Michigan State–Providence)

• 1978 NCAA Division II basketball tournament
• 1978 NCAA Division III basketball tournament
• 1978 National Invitation Tournament
• 1978 NAIA basketball tournament
• 1978 National Women's Invitation Tournament

• NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 1977–78 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
• 1978 in sports in Missouri
• March 1978 sports events in the United States

• Articles with short description
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• Use mdy dates from August 2023