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1995 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The 1995 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. The 57th annual edition of the tournament began on March 16, 1995, and ended with the championship game on April 3 at the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington. This Final Four would be the last time that the Final Four was hosted in the Western United States until the 2017 edition of the tournament where Glendale, Arizona, was the host. A total of 63 games were played.

The Final Four consisted of UCLA, making their fifteenth appearance and first since the 1980 team that eventually saw their appearance vacated, Oklahoma State, making their fifth appearance and first since 1951, North Carolina, making their twelfth appearance and second in three years, and Arkansas, the defending national champions.

The championship game saw UCLA win their eleventh national championship and first (and only) national title under Jim Harrick by defeating Arkansas 89–78, foiling the Razorbacks' hopes of back to back national titles.

UCLA's Ed O'Bannon was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Schedule and venues

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1995 tournament:

First and Second Rounds

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)

Teams

There were 29 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 26 were given to the winners of their conference's tournament, while three were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference (Big Ten, Ivy League and Pac-10).

Four conferences, the American West Conference, Big South Conference, Great Midwest Conference, and Mid-Continent Conference, did not receive automatic bids to the tournament.

Five conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: Colgate (Patriot), FIU (TAAC), Gonzaga (West Coast), Mount St. Mary's (NEC), and Nicholls State (Southland).

Automatic qualifiers

Tournament seeds

Bracket

East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey

# Minnesota vacated its NCAA Tournament appearance from the 1994–95 season due to an academic fraud scandal.

Game summaries

East first round

At Albany, New York

East second round

At Albany, New York

West Regional – Oakland, California

Southeast Regional – Birmingham, Alabama

Midwest Regional – Kansas City, Missouri

Final Four - Seattle, Washington

Game summaries

National Championship

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Named Most Outstanding Player

See also

Notes

  • March 19, 1995 – A final shot in the second round at The Boise State Pavilion is one of the most memorable moments in NCAA history. UCLA's Tyus Edney dashed the length of the 94-foot court in just over 4 seconds to make a layup that gave the Bruins a 75–74 win over Missouri, which sustained UCLA's run to a national title that year.
  • April 3, 1995 – Ed O'Bannon scored 30&nbsp;points and grabbed 17&nbsp;rebounds and is named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player as the Bruins win the championship 89–78 over Arkansas. Cameron Dollar played 36 minutes and contributed eight assists and four steals while filling in for an injured Edney, who did not return after leaving with 17:23 left in the first half. The Bruins enjoyed the biggest lead 34–26 in the first half, but led only by a point at halftime 40–39.
  • To date, this is the last NCAA men's basketball tournament in which no team seeded lower than #6 reached the Sweet Sixteen.
  • Five teams - Colgate, FIU, Gonzaga, Mount St. Mary's and Nicholls State - made their debut in this tournament, all as conference winners. Only FIU has failed to return to the tournament since; Gonzaga would miss the next three tournaments before starting their current streak of making every tournament since 1999.
  • The 1995 tournament was the last to feature teams from the Metro and Great Midwest Conferences, as the two would merge later that year to form Conference USA.
  • Tulane, a charter member of the Metro (expelled from the conference from 1985 to 1989 when the Green Wave shuttered their men's basketball program in the wake of a point shaving scandal), has not returned to the NCAA tournament since.

Announcers

Television

Once again, CBS served as broadcasters on television for the tournament.

Radio

CBS Radio was once again the radio home for the tournament.

First and second rounds

Regionals

Final Four

References