The 1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 48 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1982, and ended with the championship game on March 29 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A total of 47 games were played.

North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith, won the national title with a 63-62 victory in the final game over Georgetown, coached by John Thompson. James Worthy of North Carolina was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

This tournament was the first to eliminate the national third place game, which had been held every year since the 1947 tournament. It was also the first tournament to be televised by CBS after it acquired the broadcasting rights from NBC. Gary Bender and Billy Packer (also from NBC Sports) called the Final Four and National Championship games.

[edit] The National Championship Game

The 1982 NCAA Division 1 Championship Game was between the Georgetown Hoyas, led by Patrick Ewing and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, versus the North Carolina Tar Heels, led by James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and a young Michael Jordan.

The game was evenly matched throughout. However, with 17 seconds left on the clock, and the Tar Heels behind by 1 point, Michael Jordan made the game-winning shot, 63-62. Georgetown ran all the way to the end of the court, and held the ball, hoping to take a last-second shot to end the game. However, guard Fred Brown mistakenly passed the ball to James Worthy. Worthy was then immediately fouled. Even though he missed both free throws, it didn't matter. Georgetown had no timeouts left, and they lost the game. Georgetown would eventually win the Championship Game in 1984, against Houston's Phi Slama Jama, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, but the 1982 game would be remembered for Jordan's shot and Brown's turnover.

The main players in the 1982 and 1984 games (Ewing, Worthy, Jordan, Drexler and Olajuwon) would all become future all-stars and future Hall of Famers, and led their respective teams to the Finals. Only Ewing retired without an NBA championship, losing to Olajuwon's Houston Rockets in a rematch 10 years after the 1984 game, in the 1994 NBA Finals (the Knicks reached the finals again in 1999 when Ewing was out with a major leg injury, but lost to the Tim Duncan/David Robinson-led San Antonio Spurs).

[edit] Locations

[edit] Teams

[edit] Bracket

[edit] East region

[edit] Midwest region

[edit] Mideast region

[edit] West region

[edit] Final Four

[edit] External links

• 1982 NCAA Basketball Tournament on Shrp Sports (source for the bracket)
• HoopsTournament.Net, source for much of the information on this page.

v • d • e North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball 1981–1982 NCAA Champions 21 Jimmy Black | 22 Buzz Peterson | 23 Michael Jordan | 24 Jim Braddock | 41 Sam Perkins | 44 Matt Doherty | 45 Chris Brust | 52 James Worthy Coach Dean Smith