2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The 2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2022–23 season. The 84th annual edition of the tournament began on March 14, 2023, and concluded with the UConn Huskies defeating the San Diego State Aztecs, 76–59 in the championship game on April 3 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.

ASUN champion Kennesaw State made its NCAA tournament debut, while Southern Conference champion Furman made its first NCAA appearance since 1980. Another school, Texas Southern, won the SWAC tournament to become the third 20-loss team to make the field, after the Coppin State Eagles in 2008 and Liberty Flames in 2013. It was also Texas Southern's 3rd consecutive NCAA tournament.

This tournament featured several notable upsets. For only the second time in history, a 16-seed defeated a 1-seed, when Fairleigh Dickinson upset Purdue in the first round 63–58 in Columbus. Coincidentally, much like the previous time a top seed lost in Round 1, the regional final was contested between a mid-major (in this case Florida Atlantic) and Kansas State. For the third consecutive year, and seventh time since 2012, a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed in the tournament, when 15-seeded Princeton defeated 2-seed Arizona 59–55 in Sacramento for the Tigers' first tournament win since 1998. Arizona became the first team to lose to a 15-seed team twice, with the first loss being against the Santa Clara Broncos in 1993. Additionally, Princeton subsequently defeated Missouri in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16, marking the third consecutive year where a 15-seed reach the regional semifinals. It was also the 15th consecutive tournament since 2007 where a double-digit seed made the regional semifinals. Additionally, Virginia was knocked out in the first round as a top-four seed for the second consecutive year, and the third time in five years as a 4-seed when they were upset by 13-seed Furman.

The defending national champions Kansas Jayhawks were eliminated in the second round, against the Arkansas Razorbacks, becoming the sixth consecutive tournament where the defending champion failed to make the Sweet Sixteen.

This was also the first NCAA tournament in which all of the top seeds failed to make the Elite Eight, after Alabama and Houston's eliminations in the Sweet Sixteen. This year also had the fewest combined 1- and 2-seeds left in the Elite Eight in tournament history, with only 2-seed Texas remaining.

For the first time since 1970, three teams made their first Final Four appearance in this tournament. Those three teams were Florida Atlantic, who defeated 3-seed Kansas State to join Wichita State as the only 9-seeds to advance to the Final Four since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, San Diego State, and Miami (FL), who both advanced to their first Final Four in program history. FAU also became the first team since George Mason in 2006 to make the Final Four in the same season that it earned its first NCAA tournament win. This is also the third Final Four without any 1-seeds since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, with the first two being in 2006 and 2011, the second time without any 1 or 2 seeds (2011), and the first time in Final Four history without any teams seeded 1–3. The highest seeded team in the Final Four was #4 seed UConn. With FAU (Conference USA) and SDSU (Mountain West Conference), the Final Four had two mid-major teams for the first time since 2011's Butler and VCU.

The 2023 Final Four was also marked by its lack of highly touted high school prospects. For the first time since the NCAA began seeding the tournament in 1979, no former McDonald's All-American participated in the Final Four. Of the rotation players on the Final Four teams (those receiving regular playing time), the highest-ranked in the composite recruiting rankings of 247Sports was UConn's Jordan Hawkins, who was #51 in the 2021 class. Only eight rotation players in the Final Four were even ranked in the top 100; by contrast, 12 players were unranked in high school. Two teams, Florida Atlantic and San Diego State, had no top-100 players, with FAU's nine-man rotation featuring six unranked players and only one in the top 200.

For the second consecutive year, a school that won a conference championship was ineligible to compete in the NCAA tournament because they were in transition to Division I. Fairleigh Dickinson was awarded the Northeast Conference bid due to Merrimack's ineligibility.

A total of 68 teams participated in the tournament with 32 automatic bids being filled by each program that won its conference tournament. The remaining 36 bids were issued "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee on Selection Sunday, March 12. The Selection Committee also seeded the entire field from 1 to 68.

Eight teams (the four-lowest seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams) played in the First Four. The winners of those games advanced to the main tournament bracket.

The following are the sites selected to host the each round of the 2023 tournament:

First Four

• March 14 and 15
  • University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio (Host: University of Dayton)

First and second rounds (subregionals)

• March 16 and 18
  • Amway Center, Orlando, Florida (Host: University of Central Florida)
  • Legacy Arena, Birmingham, Alabama (Host: Southeastern Conference)
  • Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa (Host: Drake University)
  • Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California (Host: California State University, Sacramento)
• March 17 and 19
  • MVP Arena, Albany, New York (Hosts: Siena College, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)
  • Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina (Host: Atlantic Coast Conference)
  • Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio (Host: Ohio State University)
  • Ball Arena, Denver, Colorado (Host: Mountain West Conference)

Regional semi-finals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 23 and 25
  • East regional
    • Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Hosts: Big East Conference, St. John's University)
  • West regional
    • T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada (Host: University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
• March 24 and 26
  • South regional
    • KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Kentucky (Host: University of Louisville)
  • Midwest regional
    • T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Big 12 Conference)

National semi-finals and championship (Final Four)

• April 1 and 3
  • NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas (Hosts: University of Houston, Rice University, Houston Christian University, Texas Southern University)

Houston hosted the Final Four for the fourth time, having previously hosted in 1971, 2011, and 2016.

The tournament seeds and regions were determined through the NCAA basketball tournament selection process and were published by the selection committee after the brackets were released.

*See First Four

Source:

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All times are listed in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)

The First Four games involve eight teams: the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams.

• Lamont Butler - San Diego State

• Tosan Evbuomwan - Princeton

• Ryan Kalkbrenner - Creighton

• Baylor Scheierman - Creighton

• Darrion Trammell (MOP) – San Diego State

• Johnell Davis – Florida Atlantic

• Vladislav Goldin – Florida Atlantic

• AJ Hoggard – Michigan State

• Keyontae Johnson – Kansas State

• Markquis Nowell (MOP) – Kansas State

• Timmy Allen – Texas

• Marcus Carr – Texas

• Jordan Miller – Miami (FL)

• Nijel Pack (MOP) – Miami (FL)

• Isaiah Wong – Miami (FL)

• Jordan Hawkins (MOP) – UConn

• Jaime Jaquez Jr. – UCLA

• Adama Sanogo – UConn

• Julian Strawther – Gonzaga

• Drew Timme – Gonzaga

• Lamont Butler – San Diego State
• Jordan Hawkins – UConn
• Alijah Martin – Florida Atlantic
• Tristen Newton – UConn
• Adama Sanogo (MOP) – UConn

Per the NCAA, "Upsets are defined as when the winner of the game was seeded five or more places lower than the team it defeated."

The 2023 tournament saw a total of 9 upsets, with four in the first round, three in the second round, one in the Sweet Sixteen, and one in the Elite Eight.

• The FF, R64, R32, S16, E8, F4, CG, and NC columns indicate how many teams from each conference were in the first four, round of 64 (first round), round of 32 (second round), Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game, and national champion, respectively.
• The America East, Atlantic Sun, Atlantic 10, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, CAA, Horizon, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, Missouri Valley, Patriot, Summit, Sun Belt, and WAC conferences each had one representative, eliminated in the first round with a record of 0–1.
• The Ohio Valley and SWAC each had one representative, both eliminated in the First Four with a record of 0–1.

CBS Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (formerly Turner Sports) had US television rights to the tournament. As part of a cycle that began in 2016, CBS televised the 2023 Final Four and the national championship game.

The 2023 tournament was Jim Nantz's final season as the lead play-by-play announcer, with Ian Eagle succeeding him starting in 2024 onwards.

The 2023 tournament was also Greg Gumbel's last as studio host, as he was unavailable due to family health concerns for the 2024 NCAA tournament before he died from cancer on December 27, 2024.

• Selection Show – CBS

• First Four – TruTV

• First and Second Rounds – CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV

• Regional semifinals and finals – CBS and TBS

• National semifinals (Final Four) and championship – CBS

• Greg Gumbel (New York City and Houston) – First round, second round, regionals, Final Four and national championship game

• Ernie Johnson (Atlanta, New York City, and Houston) – First round, second round, regionals, and Final Four

• Adam Lefkoe (Atlanta) – First Four and first round

• Adam Zucker (New York City) – First round and second round (game breaks)

• Nabil Karim (Atlanta) - First round and second round (game breaks)

• Charles Barkley (New York City and Houston) – First round, second round, regionals, Final Four and national championship game

• Seth Davis (Atlanta and Houston) – First Four, first round, second round, regional semifinals and Final Four

• Clark Kellogg (New York City and Houston) – First round, second round, regionals, Final Four and national championship game

• Candace Parker (Atlanta and Houston) – First Four, first round, second round, regional semifinals, and Final Four

• Kenny Smith (New York City and Houston) – First round, second round, regionals, Final Four and national championship game

• Gene Steratore (New York City and Houston) (Rules Analyst) – First Four, first round, second round, regionals, Final Four and national championship game

• Wally Szczerbiak (New York City) – Second round

• Jay Wright (Atlanta, New York City and Houston) – First Four, first round, second round, regionals, Final Four and national championship game

• Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery/Grant Hill/Tracy Wolfson – First and Second Rounds at Birmingham, Alabama; Midwest Regional at Kansas City, Missouri; Final Four and National Championship at Houston, Texas

• Brian Anderson/Jim Jackson/Allie LaForce – First and Second Rounds at Des Moines, Iowa; East Regional at New York City, New York

• Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel/Evan Washburn – First and Second Rounds at Greensboro, North Carolina; South Regional at Louisville, Kentucky

• Kevin Harlan/Dan Bonner/Stan Van Gundy/Lauren Shehadi – First and Second Rounds at Orlando, Florida; West Regional at Las Vegas, Nevada

• Brad Nessler/Brendan Haywood/Dana Jacobson – First and Second Rounds at Sacramento, California

• Spero Dedes/Debbie Antonelli/AJ Ross – First and Second Rounds at Albany, New York

• Andrew Catalon/Steve Lappas/Jamie Erdahl – First and Second Rounds at Columbus, Ohio

• Lisa Byington/Steve Smith/Avery Johnson/Andy Katz – First and Second Rounds at Denver, Colorado

• Tom McCarthy/Avery Johnson/Jon Rothstein – First Four at Dayton, Ohio

(#) Tournament seedings and region in parentheses.

Westwood One will have exclusive coverage of the entire tournament.

Video

Live video of games is available for streaming through the following means:

• NCAA March Madness Live (website and app, CBS games are available for free on digital media players; access to games requires TV Everywhere authentication through provider)
• Paramount+ (only CBS games)
• Watch TBS website and app (only TBS games, required TV Everywhere authentication)
• Watch TNT website and app (only TNT games, required TV Everywhere authentication)
• Watch truTV website and app (only truTV games, required TV Everywhere authentication)
• Websites and apps of cable, satellite, and OTT providers of CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV (access required subscription)

For the app this year, a new multiview which showed all games airing simultaneously was available.

In addition, the March Madness app offered Fast Break, whiparound coverage of games similar to NFL RedZone on the First weekend of the tournament (First and Second rounds).

• Dave Briggs, Tony Delk, Tyler Hansbrough, Randolph Childress – Atlanta

Audio

Live audio of games is available for streaming through the following means:

• NCAA March Madness Live (website and app)
• Westwood One Sports website
• TuneIn (website and app, required TuneIn Premium subscription)
• Varsity Network app
• Websites and apps of Westwood One Sports affiliates

New in 2023, the March Madness app supported Apple CarPlay and Android Auto through a native app.

• 2023 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
• 2023 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament
• 2023 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament
• 2023 National Invitation Tournament