Season 2002–03 Teams 65 Finals site Mercedes-Benz Superdome | Dates 18 Mar 2003 – 7 Apr 2003 Attendance 715,010 | |
 | ||
Champions Syracuse (1st title, 3rd title game,
4th Final Four) Runner-up Kansas (7th title game,
12th Final Four) Semifinalists Marquette (3rd Final Four)
Texas (3rd Final Four) Winning coach Jim Boeheim (1st title) MOP Carmelo Anthony Syracuse Champion Syracuse Orange men's basketball Similar 2002 NCAA Division I, 2004 NCAA Division I, 2005 NCAA Division I, 2006 NCAA Division I, 2001 NCAA Division I | ||
The 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 18, 2003, and ended with the championship game on April 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Superdome. A total of 64 games were played.
Contents
- Locations
- Final Four
- National Semifinals
- Championship Game
- Broadcast information
- CBS Sports announcers
- References
The Final Four consisted of Kansas, making their second straight appearance, Marquette, making their first appearance since they won the national championship in 1977, Syracuse, making their first appearance since 1996, and Texas, making their first appearance since 1947. Texas was the only top seed to advance to the Final Four; the other three (Arizona, Kentucky, and Oklahoma) advanced as far as the Elite Eight but fell.
Syracuse won their first national championship in three tries under Jim Boeheim, defeating Kansas 81-78 in what would be Roy Williams' final game as head coach of the team; he would depart to become the head coach at North Carolina, a position he still holds as of the 2015–2016 season.
Carmelo Anthony of Syracuse was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Syracuse beat four Big 12 teams on its way to the title: Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. Those victories helped earn Boeheim the national title that had eluded him in 1987 and 1996.
Locations
The 2003 play-in game was played on Tuesday, March 18, at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, as it had been since its inception in 2001.
The first and second-round games were played at the following sites:
The regional final sites were:
Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four at the Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, hosted by the Sun Belt Conference and the University of New Orleans. The semi-final games were held on April 5 and the final on April 7, 2003.
Final Four
At Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans
National Semifinals
Championship Game
Broadcast information
Originally, CBS Sports was to have shown all 63 games of the tournament following the opening round, which was on ESPN. However, because of the start of the Iraq war the night before, the afternoon games on Thursday and Friday were moved to ESPN while retaining CBS graphics and production. CBS News then joined other broadcast and non-broadcast outlets in showing extended news coverage.
Thursday and Friday night's games were shown on CBS, albeit with frequent news updates. To make up for lost advertising revenue, an additional time slot was opened the following Sunday evening for more CBS telecasts.
2003 also marked the debut of Mega March Madness as an exclusive package on DirecTV. This offered additional game broadcasts not available to the viewer's home market during the first three rounds of the tournament. All games from the 4th round on were national telecasts.
Westwood One had exclusive national radio coverage.