The 1998âÂÂ99 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November 1998 and concluded with the 64-team 1999 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, whose finals were held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Connecticut Huskies earned their first national championship by defeating the Duke Blue Devils, 77âÂÂ74, on March 29, 1999. They were coached by Jim Calhoun, and the NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player was Richard Hamilton.
In the 32-team 1999 National Invitation Tournament, the California Golden Bears defeated the Clemson Tigers at the Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Following the season, the 1999 NCAA Men's Basketball All-American Consensus First Team included Elton Brand, Mateen Cleaves, Richard Hamilton, Andre Miller and Jason Terry. The consensus second team was composed of Evan Eschmeyer, Steve Francis, Trajan Langdon, Chris Porter, and Wally Szczerbiak.
These schools joined new conferences for the 1998âÂÂ99 season.
The top 25 from the AP Poll November 6, 1998 and the ESPN/USA Today Poll November 5, 1998.
Twenty-eight conferences concluded their seasons with a single-elimination tournament, with only the Ivy League and Pacific-10 Conference choosing not to conduct conference tournaments. Most conference tournament winners received an automatic bid to the 1999 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
Two schools played as Division I independents.
For the eighth consecutive season, the Philadelphia Big 5 did not play a full round-robin schedule in which each team met each other team once, a format it had used from its first season of competition in 1955âÂÂ56 through the 1990âÂÂ91 season. Instead, each team played only two games against other Big 5 members, and Villanova finished with a 2âÂÂ0 record in head-to-head competition among the Big 5. The Big 5 did not revive its full round-robin schedule until the 1999âÂÂ2000 season.
Source for additional stats categories
# - Ohio State vacated 34 games, including all NCAA Tournament wins from the 1998âÂÂ99 season due to the Jim OâÂÂBrien scandal. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Ohio State removing the wins from its own record.
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A number of teams changed coaches during the season and after it ended.