The 1993 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 Icollege basketball. It began on March 18, 1993, and ended with the championship game on April 5 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A total of 63 games were played. North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith, won the national title with a 77–71 victory in the final game over Michigan, coached by Steve Fisher. Donald Williams of North Carolina was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The most memorable play in the championship game came in the last seconds as Michigan's Chris Webber tried to call a timeout with his team down by 2 points when double-teamed by North Carolina. Michigan had already used all of its timeouts, so Webber's gaffe resulted in a technical foul. Michigan subsequently vacated its entire 1992–93 schedule, including its six NCAA Tournament games, after it emerged that Webber had received under-the-table payments from a booster. In a game that featured two great individual battles, two-time defending champion Duke was upset in the second round by California. This year's Final Four was the closest the tournament came to having all four top seeds advance to the semifinals until all four did advance in the 2008 tournament. Indiana was the only top seed not to make it out of its regional; it was defeated by the 2-seed Kansas, in the Midwest regional finals. This tournament is also notable for the uneven distribution of first-round upsets. While there were no upsets in the East, one 'minor' upset in the Midwest, and one 'medium' upset in the Southeast, the West featured three remarkable upsets amongst the top 5 seeds, with a 12, a 13, and a 15-seed advancing to the second round in that region. At the time, 15-seed Santa Clara's victory over 2-seed Arizona was only the second such upset, and following the 2019 tournament, is one of only eight times that a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams.
Locations
First & Second Rounds
Regional Sites and Final Four
For the third time, the Superdome was the host venue for the Final Four, and for the second straight year, all four regional sites were former or future Final Four sites. 1993 saw two new host cities, in Orlando, Florida and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This was only the second time that Florida hosted a tournament site. Winston-Salem, by contrast, was the sixth different city in North Carolina to host a tournament game. This was the final year for two venues, Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym and the St. Louis Arena. Games in Nashville have moved to the downtown Bridgestone Arena, and games since in St. Louis have been either at The Dome at America's Center or the Enterprise Center, the successor venue to the Arena, which was torn down in 1999. This was also the most recent time the Carrier Dome has served as a site for opening weekend games; it has been used as a regional site ever since.
# Michigan's entire 1992–93 schedule results were vacated, on November 7, 2002, as part of the settlement of the University of Michigan basketball scandal. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Michigan removing the wins from its own record.
Announcers
James Brown/Jim Nantz and Billy Packer – Brown/Packer, First & Second Round at Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Nantz/Packer, West Regional at Seattle; Final Four at New Orleans, Louisiana
Dick Stockton and Al McGuire – First & Second Round at Indianapolis, Indiana; Southeast Regional at Charlotte, North Carolina
