1977 NCAA Division I basketball tournament

See also: 1977 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game

The 1977 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 32 American schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the National Champion of Men's NCAA Division I college basketball. The 39th annual edition of the tournament began on Saturday, March 12, 1977, and ended with the championship game on Monday, March 28, at The Omni in Atlanta. A total of 32 games were played, including a national third-place game. This was the final tournament in which teams were not seeded.

1977 NCAA Division I
basketball tournament

Season	1976–77
Teams	32
Finals site	The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia
Champions	Marquette Warriors (1st title, 2nd title game, 2nd Final Four)
Runner-up	North Carolina Tar Heels (4th title game, 7th Final Four)
Semifinalists	UNLV Runnin' Rebels (1st Final Four) UNC Charlotte 49ers (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	Al McGuire (1st title)
MOP	Butch Lee (Marquette)
Attendance	241,610
Top scorer	Cedric Maxwell (Charlotte) (123 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments «1976 1978»

Marquette, coached by Al McGuire, won the national title with a 67–59 victory in the final game over North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith. Butch Lee of Marquette was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Publicly announcing his retirement during the middle of the season, McGuire retired as head coach immediately after the game.^[1] UNLV and UNC Charlotte were third and fourth place, respectively.^[2] Marquette's seven losses were a record at the time for the most losses in a season by a national champion, exceeded four years later in 1981 by Indiana with nine.

Schedule and venues

Raleigh

Philadelphia

Norman

Baton Rouge

Omaha

Bloomington

Pocatello

Tucson

1977 sites for first round games

College Park

Lexington

Oklahoma City

Provo

Atlanta

1977 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1977 tournament:

First round

• March 12
  • East Region
    • The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Hosts: University of Pennsylvania, Ivy League)
    • Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)
  • Midwest Region
    • Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Oklahoma (Host: University of Oklahoma)
    • Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, Nebraska (Hosts: Creighton University, Missouri Valley Conference)
  • West Region
    • ASISU Minidome, Pocatello, Idaho (Hosts: Idaho State University, Big Sky Conference)
    • McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona (Host: University of Arizona)
• March 13
  • Mideast Region
    • LSU Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Host: Louisiana State University)
    • Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana (Host: Indiana University Bloomington)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 17 and 19
  • East Regional, Cole Field House, College Park, Maryland (Host: University of Maryland, College Park)
  • Mideast Regional, Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky (Host: University of Kentucky)
  • Midwest Regional, Myriad Convention Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Host: Oklahoma City University)
  • West Regional, Marriott Center, Provo, Utah (Host: Brigham Young University)

National semifinals, 3rd-place game, and championship (Final Four and championship)

• March 26 and 28
  • The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia (Host: University of Georgia)

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Conference	Finished	Final opponent	Score
East
East	Duquesne	John Cinicola	Eastern	Round of 32	VMI	L 73–66
East	Hofstra	Roger Gaeckler	East Coast	Round of 32	Notre Dame	L 90–83
East	Kentucky	Joe B. Hall	Southeastern	Regional Runner-up	North Carolina	L 79–72
East	North Carolina	Dean Smith	Atlantic Coast	Runner Up	Marquette	L 67–59
East	Notre Dame	Digger Phelps	Independent	Sweet Sixteen	North Carolina	L 79–77
East	Princeton	Pete Carril	Ivy League	Round of 32	Kentucky	L 72–58
East	Purdue	Fred Schaus	Big Ten	Round of 32	North Carolina	L 69–66
East	VMI	Charlie Schmaus	Southern	Sweet Sixteen	Kentucky	L 93–78
Mideast
Mideast	Central Michigan	Dick Parfitt	Mid-American	Round of 32	UNC Charlotte	L 91–86
Mideast	UNC Charlotte	Lee Rose	Sun Belt	Fourth Place	UNLV	L 106–94
Mideast	Detroit	Dick Vitale	Independent	Sweet Sixteen	Michigan	L 86–81
Mideast	Holy Cross	George Blaney	Independent	Round of 32	Michigan	L 92–81
Mideast	Michigan	Johnny Orr	Big Ten	Regional Runner-up	UNC Charlotte	L 75–68
Mideast	Middle Tennessee State	Jimmy Earle	Ohio Valley	Round of 32	Detroit	L 93–76
Mideast	Syracuse	Jim Boeheim	Independent	Sweet Sixteen	UNC Charlotte	L 81–59
Mideast	Tennessee	Ray Mears	Southeastern	Round of 32	Syracuse	L 93–88
Midwest
Midwest	Arizona	Fred Snowden	Western Athletic	Round of 32	Southern Illinois	L 81–77
Midwest	Arkansas	Eddie Sutton	Southwest	Round of 32	Wake Forest	L 86–80
Midwest	Cincinnati	Gale Catlett	Metropolitan	Round of 32	Marquette	L 66–51
Midwest	Kansas State	Jack Hartman	Big Eight	Sweet Sixteen	Marquette	L 67–66
Midwest	Marquette	Al McGuire	Independent	Champion	North Carolina	W 67–59
Midwest	Providence	Dave Gavitt	Independent	Round of 32	Kansas State	L 87–80
Midwest	Southern Illinois	Paul Lambert	Missouri Valley	Sweet Sixteen	Wake Forest	L 86–81
Midwest	Wake Forest	Carl Tacy	Atlantic Coast	Regional Runner-up	Marquette	L 82–68
West
West	Idaho State	Jim Killingsworth	Big Sky	Regional Runner-up	UNLV	L 107–90
West	Long Beach State	Dwight Jones	Pacific Coast	Round of 32	Idaho State	L 83–72
West	Louisville	Denny Crum	Metropolitan	Round of 32	UCLA	L 87–79
West	San Francisco	Bob Gaillard	West Coast	Round of 32	UNLV	L 121–95
West	St. John's	Lou Carnesecca	Independent	Round of 32	Utah	L 72–68
West	UCLA	Gene Bartow	Pacific-8	Sweet Sixteen	Idaho State	L 76–75
West	UNLV	Jerry Tarkanian	Independent	Third Place	UNC Charlotte	W 106–94
West	Utah	Jerry Pimm	Western Athletic	Sweet Sixteen	UNLV	L 83–88

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

Cole Field House – College Park, Maryland^[3][4]
First round games were played at Raleigh, North Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, March 12.^[5]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	VMI		73
	Duquesne		66
						VMI		78
						Kentucky		93
	Kentucky		72
	Princeton		58
											Kentucky		72
											North Carolina		79
	Notre Dame		90
	Hofstra		83
						Notre Dame		77
						North Carolina		79
	North Carolina		69
	Purdue		66

West region

Most of the excitement surrounding the Western Regional was the anticipated matchup between top-five-ranked teams UCLA and UNLV. Jerry Tarkanian had lost three times in the tournament to UCLA while he was at Long Beach State, including a heartbreaking 57–55 loss in the 1971 West Regional final in which Long Beach led by eleven in the second half. Many felt this UNLV team gave him the best opportunity to beat his longtime nemesis. But he never got the chance as UCLA was stunned in the regional semi final by unranked Idaho State of the Big Sky Conference.^[6][7][8] This was the first time since 1963 that UCLA made the tournament but failed to get to the Final Four. Down by a point at halftime, UNLV went on to easily beat Idaho State 107–90.^[9]

Marriott Center – Provo, Utah^[3][4]
First round games were played at Pocatello, Idaho and Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, March 12.^[5]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	UCLA		87
	Louisville		79
						UCLA		75
						Idaho State		76
	Idaho State		83
	Long Beach State		72
											Idaho State		90
											UNLV		107
	Utah		72
	St. John's		68
						Utah		83
						UNLV		88
	UNLV		121
	San Francisco		95

Mideast region

Rupp Arena – Lexington, Kentucky^[3][4]
First round games were played at Bloomington, Indiana and Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday, March 13.^[5]

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Michigan

92

Holy Cross

81

Michigan

86

Detroit

81

Detroit

93

Middle Tennessee State

76

Michigan

68

UNC Charlotte

75

UNC Charlotte

91

Central Michigan

86*

UNC Charlotte

81

Syracuse

59

Syracuse

93

Tennessee

88*

Midwest region

Myriad Convention Center – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma^[3][4]
First round games were played at Omaha, Nebraska and Norman, Oklahoma on Saturday, March 12.^[5]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	Marquette		66
	Cincinnati		51
						Marquette		67
						Kansas State		66
	Kansas State		87
	Providence		80
											Marquette		82
											Wake Forest		68
	Wake Forest		86
	Arkansas		80
						Wake Forest		86
						Southern Illinois		81
	Southern Illinois		81
	Arizona		77

Final Four

Omni Coliseum – Atlanta, Georgia

	National semifinals Saturday, March 26					National Championship Game Monday, March 28
	E	North Carolina	84
	W	UNLV	83
						E	North Carolina	59
						MW	Marquette	67
	ME	UNC Charlotte	49
	MW	Marquette	51			National third-place game
						W	UNLV	106
						ME	UNC Charlotte	94

See also

• 1977 NCAA Division II basketball tournament
• 1977 NCAA Division III basketball tournament
• 1977 National Invitation Tournament
• 1977 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 1977 National Women's Invitation Tournament

Notes

• All four regionals were played on Thursday and Saturday.^[3][4] The opening round the preceding weekend played twelve games on Saturday and four on Sunday.^[5]
• The tournament saw only two teams making their NCAA Tournament debut, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Southern Illinois University. Interestingly, both teams had hosted tournament games in their arenas before playing in the tournament; SIU Arena hosted first-round games in the 1969 tournament, and Charlotte Coliseum, which the 49ers had just moved to in 1976 after previously playing on campus at Belk Gymnasium, had hosted games seven previous years (including 1976) and would host five more times before the opening of the second Charlotte Coliseum in 1988.
• This tournament marked the most recent appearance of VMI; their 47-year drought is, as of 2024, the sixth-longest active drought in the NCAA and ninth all-time. Fellow 1977 tournament participant Duquesne, who also spent 47 years attempting to reach the tournament again, ended their drought in 2024.
• Prior to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, this marked the last time the six Division I college basketball-playing schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area: Drexel, La Salle, Penn, St. Joseph's, Temple, and Villanova – were collectively shut out of the NCAA tournament. At least one of the teams had made the tournament the previous 18 years, and the city has only been shut out twelve of the 83 tournaments.

Announcers

Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, and Billy Packer - Final Four at Atlanta, Georgia; For the Final Four, Dick Enberg and Billy Packer called the first game while Packer teamed with Curt Gowdy for the second game. For the Championship Game, Curt Gowdy called the play-by-play while Dick Enberg and Billy Packer did the color commentary.

• Dick Enberg and Billy Packer - First Round at Pocatello, Idaho (UCLA-Louisville); First Round at Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Syracuse-Tennessee); East Regional Semifinals at College Park, Maryland; West Regional Final at Provo, Utah
• Curt Gowdy and John Wooden - First Round at Bloomington, Indiana (Michigan-Holy Cross); Mideast Regional Semifinals at Lexington, Kentucky; East Regional Final at College Park, Maryland
• Jim Simpson and Tom Hawkins - First Round at Tucson, Arizona (UNLV-San Francisco); Mideast Regional Final at Lexington, Kentucky
• Jay Randolph and Gary Thompson - Midwest Regional Final at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Marquette-Wake Forest)