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Edition of USA college basketball tournament From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1978 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 32 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1978, and ended with the championship game on March 27 in St. Louis, Missouri. A total of 32 games were played, including a national third-place game.
![]() NCAA logo from 1971 to 1979 | |||||
Season | 1977–78 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Teams | 32 | ||||
Finals site | The Checkerdome St. Louis, Missouri | ||||
Champions | Kentucky Wildcats (5th title, 7th title game, 8th Final Four) | ||||
Runner-up | Duke Blue Devils (2nd title game, 4th Final Four) | ||||
Semifinalists |
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Winning coach | Joe B. Hall (1st title) | ||||
MOP | Jack Givens (Kentucky) | ||||
Attendance | 447,234 | ||||
Top scorer | Mike Gminski (Duke) (109 points) | ||||
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The process of seeding the bracket was first used in this tournament. Sixteen conference winners with automatic bids were seeded 1 through 4 in each region. At-large teams were seeded 1 through 4 in each region separately. There were in fact only eleven true at-large teams in the field, as the remaining five were conference winners with automatic bids and seeded as "at-large."[1] The practice of distinguishing between automatic and at-large teams ended with this edition; the expanded field of forty in the 1979 tournament was simply seeded from one to ten in each of the four regions.
Led by head coach Joe B. Hall, Kentucky won its fifth national title with a 94–88 victory over Duke, coached by Bill Foster. Wildcat forward Jack Givens scored 41 points in the finale and was named the tournament's most outstanding player.[2][3][4][5]
The bracket's biggest upset came in the first round, when little-heralded Miami (Ohio) defeated defending champion Marquette 84–81 in overtime. The victory was even sweeter for Miami Redskins (now RedHawks) fans as former Marquette coach Al McGuire had earlier strongly criticized the NCAA for potentially matching Marquette against Kentucky in the second round, with Marquette being given a first-round opponent in Miami that was supposedly not even worthy of providing an adequate tune-up game.
Unranked Cal State Fullerton (CSUF) pulled off two upsets, first over 4th ranked New Mexico (coached by Norm Ellenberger and led by Michael Cooper) and then over top-10 San Francisco (featuring Bill Cartwright). The loss was especially painful for New Mexico as the regional semifinals and finals were held on the Lobos' home court in Albuquerque. CSUF then almost upset Arkansas in the West Regional final, losing by 3 points. In each of the three games, the Titans overcame second-half double-digit deficits. In the Arkansas game, they cut a big deficit to 1 and had the ball with 14 seconds left. But Arkansas' Ron Brewer stripped the ball from Keith Anderson and Jim Counce drove down to hit a clinching layup.
In the Mideast regional final, Kentucky knocked off Michigan State, led by freshman Earvin "Magic" Johnson. This was the only time in a 4-year period (that included his senior year in high school, 2 years of college, and his rookie NBA season) that Magic's team did not win its final game of the playoffs and hence the championship.
The Final Four games (semifinals, third-place, and championship) at St. Louis Arena (a.k.a. The Checkerdome) were not played on the arena's official floor. Water damage to it forced the NCAA to borrow the floor from Indiana University's Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
This was the fourth and last year for a 32-team bracket; the field expanded to forty teams in 1979 and 48 in 1980, all seeded. The 64-team field debuted in 1985, eliminating byes for the top seeds (1979–1984). The third-place game at the Final Four was last played in 1981.
The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1978 tournament:
First round
Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
National semifinals, 3rd-place game, and championship (Final Four and championship)
Region | Seed | Team | Coach | Conference | Finished | Final Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
East | |||||||
East | 1Q | Duke | Bill E. Foster | Atlantic Coast | Runner Up | Kentucky | L 94–88 |
East | 3Q | Furman | Joe Williams | Southern | Round of 32 | Indiana | L 63–62 |
East | 1L | Indiana | Bob Knight | Big Ten | Sweet Sixteen | Villanova | L 61–60 |
East | 4L | La Salle | Paul Westhead | East Coast | Round of 32 | Villanova | L 103–97 |
East | 4Q | Penn | Bob Weinhauer | Ivy League | Sweet Sixteen | Duke | L 84–80 |
East | 3L | Rhode Island | Jack Kraft | Independent | Round of 32 | Duke | L 63–62 |
East | 2L | St. Bonaventure | Jim Satalin | Independent | Round of 32 | Penn | L 92–83 |
East | 2Q | Villanova | Rollie Massimino | Eastern Athletic | Regional Runner-up | Duke | L 90–72 |
Mideast | |||||||
Mideast | 4L | Florida State | Hugh Durham | Metropolitan | Round of 32 | Kentucky | L 85–76 |
Mideast | 1Q | Kentucky | Joe B. Hall | Southeastern | Champion | Duke | W 94–88 |
Mideast | 1L | Marquette | Hank Raymonds | Independent | Round of 32 | Miami (OH) | L 84–81 |
Mideast | 3Q | Miami (OH) | Darrell Hedric | Mid-American | Sweet Sixteen | Kentucky | L 91–69 |
Mideast | 2Q | Michigan State | Jud Heathcote | Big Ten | Regional Runner-up | Kentucky | L 52–49 |
Mideast | 3L | Providence | Dave Gavitt | Independent | Round of 32 | Michigan State | L 77–63 |
Mideast | 2L | Syracuse | Jim Boeheim | Independent | Round of 32 | Western Kentucky | L 87–86 |
Mideast | 4Q | Western Kentucky | Jim Richards | Ohio Valley | Sweet Sixteen | Michigan State | L 90–69 |
Midwest | |||||||
Midwest | 3Q | Creighton | Tom Apke | Missouri Valley | Round of 32 | DePaul | L 80–78 |
Midwest | 1L | DePaul | Ray Meyer | Independent | Regional Runner-up | Notre Dame | L 84–64 |
Midwest | 4Q | Houston | Guy Lewis | Southwest | Round of 32 | Notre Dame | L 100–77 |
Midwest | 2Q | Louisville | Denny Crum | Metropolitan | Sweet Sixteen | DePaul | L 90–89 |
Midwest | 1Q | Missouri | Norm Stewart | Big Eight | Round of 32 | Utah | L 86–79 |
Midwest | 2L | Notre Dame | Digger Phelps | Independent | Fourth Place | Arkansas | L 71–69 |
Midwest | 4L | St. John's | Lou Carnesecca | Independent | Round of 32 | Louisville | L 76–68 |
Midwest | 3L | Utah | Jerry Pimm | Western Athletic | Sweet Sixteen | Notre Dame | L 69–56 |
West | |||||||
West | 2L | Arkansas | Eddie Sutton | Southwest | Third Place | Notre Dame | W 71–69 |
West | 4L | Cal State Fullerton | Bobby Dye | Pacific Coast | Regional Runner-up | Arkansas | L 61–58 |
West | 3L | Kansas | Ted Owens | Big Eight | Round of 32 | UCLA | L 83–76 |
West | 2Q | New Mexico | Norm Ellenberger | Western Athletic | Round of 32 | Cal State Fullerton | L 90–85 |
West | 1L | North Carolina | Dean Smith | Atlantic Coast | Round of 32 | San Francisco | L 68–64 |
West | 3Q | San Francisco | Bob Gaillard | West Coast | Sweet Sixteen | Cal State Fullerton | L 75–72 |
West | 1Q | UCLA | Gary Cunningham | Pacific-8 | Sweet Sixteen | Arkansas | L 74–70 |
West | 4Q | Weber State | Neil McCarthy | Big Sky | Round of 32 | Arkansas | L 73–52 |
* – Denotes overtime period
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
1Q | Duke | 63 | ||||||||||||
3L | Rhode Island | 62 | ||||||||||||
1Q | Duke | 84 | ||||||||||||
4Q | Penn | 80 | ||||||||||||
4Q | Penn | 92 | ||||||||||||
2L | St. Bonaventure | 83 | ||||||||||||
1Q | Duke | 90 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Villanova | 72 | ||||||||||||
1L | Indiana | 63 | ||||||||||||
3Q | Furman | 62 | ||||||||||||
1L | Indiana | 60 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Villanova | 61 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Villanova | 103 | ||||||||||||
4L | La Salle | 97 |
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
3L | Utah | 86 | ||||||||||||
1Q | Missouri | 79** | ||||||||||||
3L | Utah | 56 | ||||||||||||
2L | Notre Dame | 69 | ||||||||||||
2L | Notre Dame | 100 | ||||||||||||
4Q | Houston | 77 | ||||||||||||
2L | Notre Dame | 84 | ||||||||||||
1L | DePaul | 64 | ||||||||||||
1L | DePaul | 80 | ||||||||||||
3Q | Creighton | 78 | ||||||||||||
1L | DePaul | 90 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Louisville | 89** | ||||||||||||
2Q | Louisville | 76 | ||||||||||||
4L | St. John's | 68 |
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
1Q | Michigan State | 77 | ||||||||||||
3L | Providence | 63 | ||||||||||||
1Q | Michigan State | 90 | ||||||||||||
4Q | Western Kentucky | 69 | ||||||||||||
4Q | Western Kentucky | 87 | ||||||||||||
2L | Syracuse | 86* | ||||||||||||
1Q | Michigan State | 49 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Kentucky | 52 | ||||||||||||
3Q | Miami (OH) | 84 | ||||||||||||
1L | Marquette | 81* | ||||||||||||
3Q | Miami (OH) | 69 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Kentucky | 91 | ||||||||||||
2Q | Kentucky | 85 | ||||||||||||
4L | Florida State | 76 |
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
1Q | UCLA | 83 | ||||||||||||
3L | Kansas | 76 | ||||||||||||
1Q | UCLA | 70 | ||||||||||||
2L | Arkansas | 74 | ||||||||||||
2L | Arkansas | 73 | ||||||||||||
4Q | Weber State | 52 | ||||||||||||
2L | Arkansas | 61 | ||||||||||||
4L | Cal State Fullerton | 58 | ||||||||||||
3Q | San Francisco | 68 | ||||||||||||
1L | North Carolina | 64 | ||||||||||||
3Q | San Francisco | 72 | ||||||||||||
4L | Cal State Fullerton | 75 | ||||||||||||
4L | Cal State Fullerton | 90 | ||||||||||||
2Q | New Mexico | 85 |
National semifinals Saturday, March 25 | National Championship Game Monday, March 27 | ||||||||
E1Q | Duke | 90 | |||||||
MW2L | Notre Dame | 86 | |||||||
E1Q | Duke | 88 | |||||||
ME2Q | Kentucky | 94 | |||||||
ME2Q | Kentucky | 64 | |||||||
W2L | Arkansas | 59 | National third-place game | ||||||
MW2L | Notre Dame | 69 | |||||||
W2L | Arkansas | 71 |
Q = automatic qualifier bid L = at-large bid (including 5 automatic bids seeded with at-large teams)
NBC |
March 25 |
#5 Arkansas Razorbacks 59, #1 Kentucky Wildcats 64 | ||
Scoring by half: 30–32, 29–32 | ||
Pts: Ron Brewer 16 Rebs: Marvin Delph 8 Asts: Jim Counce 2 |
Pts: Jack Givens 23 Rebs: Jack Givens 9 Asts: Jay Shidler 4 |
NBC |
March 25 |
#7 Duke Blue Devils 90, #6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 86 | ||
Scoring by half: 43–29, 47–57 | ||
Pts: Mike Gminski 29 Rebs: Gene Banks 12 Asts: Jim Spanarkel/Bob Bender 5 |
Pts: Duck Williams 16 Rebs: Bill Laimbeer 10 Asts: Rich Branning 5 |
NBC |
March 27 |
#7 Duke Blue Devils 88, #1 Kentucky Wildcats 94 | ||
Scoring by half: 38-45, 50-49 | ||
Pts: Gene Banks 22 Rebs: Mike Gminski 12 |
Pts: Jack Givens 41 Rebs: Rick Robey 11 |
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