1987 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
The 1987 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 12, 1987, and ended with the championship game on March 30 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A total of 63 games were played.
Indiana, coached by Bob Knight, won the national title with a 74–73 victory in the final game over Syracuse, coached by Jim Boeheim. Keith Smart of Indiana, who hit the game-winner in the final seconds, and intercepted the full court pass at the last second, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
The tournament also featured a "Cinderella team" in the Final Four, as Providence College, led by a then-unknown Rick Pitino, made their first Final Four appearance since 1973.
One year after reaching the Final Four as a #11 seed, LSU made another deep run as a #10 seed in the Midwest region. The Tigers ousted #2 seed Temple in the second round and #3 seed DePaul in the Sweet 16 before losing 77-76 to top seeded Indiana in the Elite Eight.
This was the last tournament in which teams were allowed to have home court advantage: national runner-up Syracuse, DePaul, Arizona and UAB all opened the tournament playing on their home courts. UAB and Arizona each lost in the first round, while DePaul won twice at the Rosemont Horizon. Under rules adopted in 1988, teams cannot play in a facility in which they play four or more regular season games.
The 1987 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament was also the first tournament to use the three-point shot.
Locations
First & Second Rounds
Regional Sites and Final Four
For the second time, the Louisiana Superdome hosted the Final Four. There were four domed stadiums in the 1987 tournament, including Indianapolis, New Orleans, Seattle and Syracuse. There were two new venues, the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis and the Rosemont Horizon, located in suburban Chicago. This marked the first time the Tournament returned to the Chicago area in twenty years. This also marked the last appearance of the original Charlotte Coliseum, moving to the new Coliseum in 1991.Teams
Bracket
East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey
Regional Final Summary
Southeast Regional – Louisville, Kentucky
Regional Final Summary
Midwest Regional – Cincinnati, Ohio
West Regional – Seattle, Washington
Final Four – New Orleans, Louisiana
Game Summaries
National Championship
Trivia
- The 59th Academy Awards show was broadcast on the ABC network at the same time as CBS network broadcast of the championship game between Indiana and Syracuse. Oscars show host Chevy Chase quipped later in the evening, "Is the game over yet?" The Oscars show would subsequently be scheduled around the tournament broadcast by moving it later in April for two years.
- Tenth seeded LSU reached the Elite Eight for the second straight year without being favored to win a game. They had previously reached the Final Four as an 11-seed in 1986, losing to eventual national champion Louisville Cardinals. The Tigers missed a shot at the buzzer and fell short of another trip to the Final Four, losing 77-76 to eventual national champion Indiana. It marked the fifth time in seven tournament appearances between 1979 and 1987 LSU was eliminated by the eventual national champion.
- This marked the first time that CBS Sports used "One Shining Moment" during their tournament epilogue. Initially, the song was supposed to have been played after Super Bowl XXI, but due to time constraints, its debut was delayed until the national championship game. The opening words for the football version were "The ball is kicked"; in the reworked version, the word "kicked" was changed to "tipped" to suit the tournament.
- The three losing coaches in the Final Four all eventually won national titles. Jerry Tarkanian was the first to do so, winning in 1990 with UNLV defeating the Duke University Blue Devils 103–73. The following year 1991, Duke defeated UNLV in the National Semi-final game to end UNLV's chance to finish undefeated. Rick Pitino followed in 1996 with Kentucky, defeating Jim Boeheim's Syracuse team in the final. Boeheim would win in 2003 with Syracuse by defeating the University of Kansas Jayhawks.
- There were no teams from the Metro Conference, Big South Conference or Gulf Star Conference in the tournament. The Metro Conference allowed Memphis State, which was serving an NCAA tournament ban that year, to compete in its conference tournament, which it won by defeating the defending 1986 National Champion Louisville Cardinals by the lopsided score 75 to 52 on the Cardinals' home court, Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. The NCAA basketball tournament committee said as the conference had committed its automatic berth would go to its conference tournament winner, the conference lost its automatic berth that year, and no other schools received an at-large entry. Most conferences now prohibit teams on postseason bans from participating in conference tournaments as a result, or have provisional automatic bids awarded to the eligible team that advanced the most. The Gulf Star and Big South did not have automatic bids to the tournament because many of the schools in these conferences were transitioning from other divisions.
- During the selection show, there was a spot left open for the #12 seed in the Southeast Region. Kansas, the 5th seed in the region, was due to face either Washington or Houston in the first round. Washington was facing UCLA in the finals of the Pac-10 tournament at the time the selections were announced. UCLA held on to defeat Washington 76-62, putting Houston into the field of 64.
Announcers
- Brent Musburger and Billy Packer – First Round at Salt Lake City, Utah; Second Round at Indianapolis, Indiana and Rosemont, Illinois; East Regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey; Midwest Regional Final at Cincinnati, Ohio; Final Four at New Orleans, Louisiana
- Dick Stockton and Tom Heinsohn – First and Second Rounds at Tucson, Arizona; Southeast Regional Semifinal and Regional Final at Louisville, Kentucky
- Verne Lundquist and Billy Cunningham – Second Round at Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia; Midwest Regional Semifinals at Cincinnati, Ohio; West Regional Final at Seattle, Washington
- Tom Hammond and Larry Conley – Southeast Regional Semifinal at Louisville, Kentucky
- Tim Brant and Bill Raftery – Second Round at Syracuse, New York; West Regional Semifinals at Seattle, Washington
- Mike Patrick and Larry Conley – First and Second Rounds at Birmingham, Alabama
- Gary Bender and Hubie Brown – Second Round at Salt Lake City, Utah
- Jim Thacker and Jack Givens – First Round at Charlotte, North Carolina
- Frank Herzog and Bucky Waters – First Round at Charlotte, North Carolina
- Mike Gorman and Ron Perry – First Round at Syracuse, New York
- Phil Stone and Bill Raftery – First Round at Syracuse, New York
- John Sanders and Joe Dean – First Round at Atlanta, Georgia
- John Sanders and Dave Gavitt – First Round at Atlanta, Georgia
- Fred White and Joe Dean – First Round at Atlanta, Georgia
- Fred White and Dave Gavitt – First Round at Atlanta, Georgia
- Bob Rathbun and Dan Bonner – First Round at Birmingham, Alabama
- Tom Hammond and Jim Gibbons – First Round at Indianapolis, Indiana
- Ralph Hacker and John Laskowski – First Round at Indianapolis, Indiana
- Mick Hubert and Gary Thompson – First Round at Rosemont, Illinois
- Wayne Larrivee and Bob Ortegel – First Round at Rosemont, Illinois
- Frank Fallon and Lynn Shackelford – First Round at Salt Lake City, Utah
- Bob Carpenter and Irv Brown – First Round at Salt Lake City, Utah
- Pete Solomon and Bruce Larson – First Round at Tucson, Arizona
- Ted Robinson and Dan Belluomini – First Round at Tucson, Arizona