2015 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

2015 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 2015 tournament:

First Four

Second and Third Rounds (Round of 64 and Round of 32)

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

Notables

Kentucky entered the tournament unbeaten. After 22 years without an unbeaten team in the tournament, following UNLV in 1991, this is the second consecutive tournament with an unbeaten team (after Wichita State in the previous). The Wildcats, by beating Cincinnati in the third round, set an NCAA men's record with 36 straight wins to start a season. They would win two more before Wisconsin upset them in the Final Four.

Defending national champion Connecticut did not qualify.

Kansas extended its streak of consecutive tournament appearances to 26 in a row. They have made each NCAA Tournament dating back to 1990. Kansas would qualify again in 2015–16 to tie the record for consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances held by North Carolina (1975–2001).

Atlantic Sun Conference champion North Florida, Big West Conference champion UC Irvine, and Mid-American Conference champion Buffalo made their first respective appearances in the Division I tournament.

With both Buffalo and Albany winning their respective conferences and reaching the tournament, this is the first time two schools in the State University of New York system have reached the Division I tournament in the same year.

Two teams broke appearance droughts of over 20 years with their bids: Colonial Athletic Association champion Northeastern made its first NCAA appearance since 1991, and American champion Southern Methodist made its first NCAA appearance since 1993.

Harvard and Yale played a one-game playoff at the Palestra. Harvard won in dramatic fashion.

Dayton played a First Four game at their home arena, which is usually not allowed during the men's tournament. The NCAA selection committee indicated that putting Dayton in its home arena "falls within the context" of the committee's procedures.

For the first time since 1995, two 14 seeds recorded wins in the Second Round. On March 19, Georgia State defeated Baylor and UAB defeated Iowa State.

Of the sixteen games played on March 19, five were decided by one point, a single-day record.

For the first time since 2007 and the fourth time since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, all four 5 seeds won their Second Round games. This was also the first time since 2007 that there were four 4 vs. 5 matchups in the Third Round.

On March 20, all but one "chalk" team won their game (there was only one upset), compared to the four upsets the previous day.

Michigan State reached its seventh Final Four in the last 18 seasons—the best mark in the nation during that time span.

For the first time since 2009, multiple 1 seeds reached the Final Four.

For the first time since 2008, two 1 seeds reached the Championship, between Kansas and Memphis (later vacated by Memphis).

Wisconsin was in its first final since 1941, and lost; and Duke in its first final since 2010, and won.

The Wisconsin loss extended the Big Ten Conference's losing streak in National Championship games to six. As of 2015, Michigan State is the last Big Ten team to win a National Championship, having done so in 2000.

Qualifying and selection procedure

Out of 333 eligible Division I teams, 68 participate in the tournament. Eighteen Division I teams were ineligible due to failing to meet APR requirements, self-imposed postseason bans, or reclassification from a lower division.

Of the 32 automatic bids, 31 were given to programs that won their conference tournaments. The Ivy League does not hold a tournament, and awards its bid to the team with the best regular-season record. However, whenever two or more teams are tied for the conference title, league rules call for a one-game playoff between the top two teams (or a series of such playoffs if more than two teams are tied), which occurred in this year. The remaining 36 bids were granted on an "at-large" basis, which were extended by the NCAA Selection Committee to the teams it deemed to be the best 36 teams that did not receive automatic bids.

Eight teams—the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams—will play in the First Four (the successor to what had been popularly known as "play-in games" through the 2010 tournament). The winners of these games advance to the round of 64.

The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 68.

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams are automatic qualifiers for the 2015 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's automatic bid.

Tournament seeds

*See First Four

Since the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, the four 1 seeds have been seeded overall. This was the third time Kentucky was the overall top seed. The previous time was in that 2012 tournament. Duke was the overall 3 seed for the fourth time. Previously advancing to the Final Four in two of those years: 2004 and 2010. Villanova was a 1 seed for the second time in school history, 2006 was the other time. This was the first 1 seed for Wisconsin.

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

Midwest Regional all-tournament team

Regional all-tournament team: Pat Connaughton, Notre Dame; Zach Auguste, Notre Dame; Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky; Andrew Harrison, Kentucky

Regional most outstanding player: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky

West Regional all-tournament team

Regional all-tournament team: Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin; Josh Gasser, Wisconsin; T.J. McConnell, Arizona; Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Arizona

Regional most outstanding player: Sam Dekker, Wisconsin

East Regional all-tournament team

Regional all-tournament team: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State; Terry Rozier, Louisville; Montrezl Harrell, Louisville; Wayne Blackshear, Louisville

Regional most outstanding player: Travis Trice, Michigan State.

South Regional all-tournament team

Regional all-tournament team: Matt Jones, Duke; Justise Winslow, Duke; Kyle Wiltjer, Gonzaga; Domantas Sabonis, Gonzaga

Regional most outstanding player: Tyus Jones, Duke

Final Four

During the Final Four round, regardless of the seeds of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region plays against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region, and the champion of the second overall top seed's region plays against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region.

Record by conference

Story headlines

The round of 64 started off with multiple upsets with majority of the upsets coming out of the Big 12 conference. The television coverages of CBS and Turner had one of the best overall ratings on March 20, 2015. According to Nielsen estimates, exclusive coverage of the opening full round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a 6.6 overnight household rating/14 share — up 10% from last year and the highest since the tournament expanded to four telecast windows for the entire day.

One of the upsets that happened was UAB upsetting No. 3 seed Iowa State 60-59. The 19-15 UAB Blazers qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011 by winning three-straight to earn the Conference USA tournament title and an automatic bid.

Baylor, a No. 3 seed, took on No. 14 seed Georgia State and with less than three minutes to go, Georgia State staged a 13-0 run to beat Baylor. "The comeback was punctuated with a three by R. J. Hunter, son of stool-bound coach Ron Hunter, that has already produced a moment sure to go down in history – the elder Hunter, who already tore his Achilles celebrating the team's Sun Belt conference tourney victory, fell off that stool in ecstasy after his son's three dropped to give the Panthers the 57-56 lead that would be the final margin", according to Andy Hutchins.

However the most talked about headline was UCLA not only making the tournament despite a poor performance in the Pac-12, but also with a call with 13 seconds left when UCLA took on SMU and coach Larry Brown. A late second goaltending that cost SMU the game sparked a lot of attention in sports media and social media. The Bruins moved on to play UAB in the Round of 32. Both teams played each other earlier in the season, when UCLA beat the Blazers 88-76 in the Bahamas back in November. Sam Vecenie a CBS writer, was quoted saying, "Funny part of that story? It was the last-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Cool to see how these two teams have turned around their season"

Television

The year 2015 marked the fifth year of a 14-year partnership between CBS and Turner cable networks TBS, TNT, and truTV to cover the entire tournament under the NCAA March Madness banner. TBS aired the Final Four for the second consecutive year.

Studio hosts

Studio analysts

Commentary teams

Sources:

Team Stream broadcasts

For the second consecutive year, the semifinals were exclusive to cable, with TBS airing the standard broadcast with Nantz, Raftery, Hill, and Wolfson. TNT and TruTV aired Team Stream by Bleacher Report broadcasts (known as Teamcasts during the 2014 tournament), which featured localized commentary and features with specific focuses on each participating team.

Radio

Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.