2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
Preseason AP No. 1	Kansas Jayhawks
Regular season	November 9, 2009 – March 9, 2010
NCAA Tournament	2010
Tournament dates	March 16 – April 5, 2010
National Championship	Lucas Oil Stadium Indianapolis, Indiana
NCAA Champions	Duke Blue Devils
Other champions	Dayton Flyers (NIT), VCU Rams (CBI), Missouri State Bears (CIT)
Player of the Year (Naismith,Wooden)	Evan Turner,Ohio State Buckeyes
←2008–09 2010–11 →

The2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 9, 2009, and ended with the2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on April 5, 2010, atLucas Oil Stadium inIndianapolis, Indiana. The opening round occurred on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, followed by first and second rounds on Thursday through Sunday, March 18–21, 2010. Regional games were played on Thursday through Sunday, March 25–28, 2010, with theFinal Four played on Saturday and Monday, April 3 and 5, 2010.

• TheDuke Blue Devils and head coachMike Krzyzewski won their fourth national championship, defeating upstartButler 61–59 behind their "big three" ofJon Scheyer,Kyle Singler andNolan Smith. The game was played in Butler's home town ofIndianapolis.
• Krzyzewski became the third coach in NCAA history to win four championships, joiningJohn Wooden (10) andAdolph Rupp (4).^[1]
• Kentucky became the first college team to reach the 2000 win mark by defeatingDrexel 88–44 on December 21.^[2]North Carolina became the second with a win over Miami on March 2.Kansas became the third with a win over Texas Tech on March 11.
• Arkansas sophomore guardRotnei Clarke set anSEC record by hitting 13 three-pointers in a game in the Razorbacks' November 13 season opener againstAlcorn State. Clarke connected on 13 of 17 three-pointers and finished the game with 51 points.^[3] Clarke's 51 points was an Arkansas school record, while his 13 threes was good for fifth in NCAA history.
• Prior to the season theNCAA announced thatMemphis would serve three years' probation and would vacate their record-setting 38-win 2007–08 season due to a fraudulentSAT score by starDerrick Rose and extra benefits given to Rose's brother under then-coachJohn Calipari.^[4] Memphis appealed the decision. The NCAA rejected the appeal during theNCAA tournament.^[5]
• Binghamton University dismissed six players on September 25, following the arraignment of Emanuel "Tiki" Mayben on charges of cocaine distribution.^[6] The move left Binghamton with only seven scholarship players for the 2009–10 season and included the dismissal of star guard D.J. Rivera. CoachKevin Broadus was placed on administrative leave and assistantMark Macon served as interim coach.
• The preseason AP All-American team was named on November 2.Luke Harangody ofNotre Dame (57 votes),Cole Aldrich (49) andSherron Collins (39) ofKansas,Patrick Patterson ofKentucky (35) andKyle Singler ofDuke (30) were tabbed.^[7]
• Utah Valley gained fullDivision I status after a seven-year provisional period where they played a D1 schedule. This move was the first time that a school had moved to D1 directly from theNJCAA.^[8] Other schools to officially gain Division I status includeKennesaw State,NJIT andNorth Florida.
• TheGreat West Conference began league play in 2009–10 as the 32nd Division I conference.^[9]
• Notre Dame forwardLuke Harangodysurpassed both the 2000-point and 1000-rebound marks during the season, becoming the first Fighting Irish player to do so.
• Mercer guardJames Florence,South Carolina guardDevan Downey,Maryland guardGreivis Vásquez,San Francisco forwardDior Lowhorn,Morgan State guardReggie Holmes,Western Michigan guardDavid Kool,West Virginia forwardDa'Sean Butler,Villanova guardScottie Reynolds,Cornell forwardRyan Wittman andDuke guardJon Scheyer surpassed the 2,000 point mark during the season.
• Syracuse coachJim Boeheim became the eighth Division I coach to win 800 games when the Orange defeatedAlbany 75–43 on November 9.^[10]
• Tom Penders became the eighth head coach in NCAA history to lead four different schools to the NCAA Tournament when he coached theHouston Cougars to the Conference USA tournament title. Penders had previously ledRhode Island,Texas andGeorge Washington to NCAA tournament berths.
• In November,Evan Turner became the 34th player to record multipletriple doubles in a season.^[11] Over the course of the2009–10 Big Ten season, he became the first player to finish in the top two in average points (1st, 20.4), rebounds (2nd, 9.2) and assists (2nd, 6.0) inBig Ten Conference history.^[12][13] Along the way, he broke and rebroke Big Ten records for single-season (7) and career (10) Player of the week awards.^[14][15][16]
• On February 22,Cole Aldrich was named the men's college basketball Academic All-American of the year.^[17]
• On February 24,Mississippi State'sJarvis Varnado became the NCAA's all-time leading shot-blocker.^[18]
• On February 27, a contest between then-no. 4 Syracuse and then-no. 8Villanova set the NCAA on-campus basketball attendance record, with 34,616 spectators packing theCarrier Dome.^[19] The Wildcats fell to the Orange, 95–77.^[19]
• The rise and fall ofTexas. Ranked in the top three from the beginning of the season until mid-January, including two weeks at #1, they were considered national title contenders.^[20] But they fell out of the top 25 less than two months later, lost two starters (Doğuş Balbay andVarez Ward) to season-ending injuries, and lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
• On April 1,Deon Thompson ofNorth Carolina appeared in theNIT Championship game, giving him 152 career game appearances.^[21] This set theNCAA all-time career games played mark, formerly held byWayne Turner ofKentucky andWalter Hodge ofFlorida.^[21]
• Third-year coachTommy Amaker leadsHarvard to its most wins in school history (21) behind the play of rare Harvard NBA playerJeremy Lin.^[22]

Beginning in 2009–10, the following rules changes were implemented:

• The NCAA reduced the amount of time that college underclassmen can test the waters for theNBA draft and still retain their college eligibility. As of this season, players have until early May (rather than mid-June) to decide to return.^[23]
• Secondary defenders must now establish their position outside of the zone between the backboard and the front of the rim to draw a charge.^[24]
• If a player is injured and unable to shoot his own foul shots, the replacement shooter must be chosen from the players currently on the court.^[24]
• Instant replay may now be used to determine flagrant fouls.^[24]

The top 25 from the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls, October 29, 2009.^[25] Collegeinsider.com released the preseason Mid-Major Top 25 poll on November 3.^[26] This poll was meant to recognize the top teams outside of major conferences.

These schools joined new conferences for the 2009–10 season.

*Although these tournaments included more teams, only four played for the championship.

Thirty-oneconference seasons concluded with asingle-elimination tournament. Conference tournament winners received an automatic bid to the2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament except for the winner of theGreat West Conference tournament, although Great West Tournament championSouth Dakota received an automatic bid to the2010 CollegeInsider.com Tournament.^[33] TheIvy League was the onlyNCAA Division I conference that did not hold a conference tournament, instead sending its regular-season champion to the NCAA tournament.