1980 NCAA Division I basketball tournament

1980 NCAA Division I
basketball tournament

Season	1979–80
Teams	48
Finals site	Market Square Arena Indianapolis, Indiana
Champions	Louisville Cardinals (1st title, 1st title game, 4th Final Four)
Runner-up	UCLA Bruins (Vacated) (11th title game, 14th Final Four)
Semifinalists	Iowa Hawkeyes (3rd Final Four) Purdue Boilermakers (2nd Final Four)
Winning coach	Denny Crum (1st title)
MOP	Darrell Griffith (Louisville)
Attendance	321,260
Top scorer	Joe Barry Carroll (Purdue) (160 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments «1979 1981»

The 1980 NCAA 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 6, 1980, and ended with the championship game on March 24 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. A total of 48 games were played, including a national third-place game.

Louisville, coached by Denny Crum, won the national title with a 59–54 victory in the final game over UCLA, coached by Larry Brown. Darrell Griffith of Louisville was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Structurally speaking, this was the first tournament of the modern era.^[1] For the first time:

1. An unlimited number of at-large teams could come from any conference. (From 1975 to 1979, conferences were allowed only one at-large entry.)
2. The bracket was seeded to make each region as evenly competitive as possible. (Previously, geographic considerations had trumped this.)
3. All teams were seeded solely based on the subjective judgment of the committee. (In 1979, seeding was partially based on the prior performance of a conference winner's conference.)

In this, the second year the tournament field was seeded, no #1 seed reached the Final Four. Since then, it has happened three other times, in 2006, 2011, and 2023. Purdue University's next Final Four appearance after this year would occur in 2024. Five coaches from teams in the Eastern bracket (Jim Boeheim, John Thompson, Lute Olson, Rick Pitino and Rollie Massimino) would later win their first (and in Pitino's case, the first of more than one) national championship.

UCLA would forfeit its second place in the standings in 1980 after players representing the school were declared ineligible by the NCAA.^[2]

Greensboro

Denton

Bowling Green

Lincoln

Ogden

Providence

Tempe

West Lafayette

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1980 sites for first and second round games

Philadelphia

Lexington

Houston

Tucson

Indianapolis

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1980 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1980 tournament:

First and Second Rounds

• March 6 and 8
  • East Region
    • Greensboro Memorial Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina (Host: Atlantic Coast Conference)
  • Mideast Region
    • Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Indiana (Host: Purdue University)
  • Midwest Region
    • Bob Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, Nebraska (Host: University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
  • West Region
    • Dee Events Center, Ogden, Utah (Host: Weber State University)
• March 7 and 9
  • East Region
    • Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island (Host: Providence College)
  • Mideast Region
    • E.A. Diddle Arena, Bowling Green, Kentucky (Host: Western Kentucky University)
  • Midwest Region
    • UNT Coliseum, Denton, Texas (Host: North Texas State University)
  • West Region
    • ASU Activity Center, Tempe, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 13 and 15
  • Mideast Regional, Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky (Host: University of Kentucky)
  • West Regional, McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona (Host: University of Arizona)
• March 14 and 16
  • East Regional, The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Hosts: The Philadelphia Big 5 – Villanova University, Temple University, La Salle University, Saint Joseph's University, University of Pennsylvania)
  • Midwest Regional, The Summit, Houston, Texas (Hosts: University of Houston, Rice University, Southwest Conference)

National semifinals, 3rd-place game, and championship (Final Four and championship)

• March 22 and 24
  • Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana (Hosts: Butler University, Midwestern City Conference)

* – Denotes overtime period.

# — UCLA vacated its appearance in the 1980 NCAA Tournament after the NCAA had determined that the Bruins committed nine major violations.^[3] Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with the removal of any UCLA wins from all records.

• Dick Enberg, Billy Packer, and Al McGuire – Mideast Regional Final at Lexington, Kentucky; Midwest Regional Final at Houston, Texas; Final Four at Indianapolis, Indiana
• Don Criqui and Gary Thompson – East Regional Final at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; West Regional Final at Tucson, Arizona
• Bill O'Donnell and Bucky Waters – East Regional semifinals at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Fred White and Larry Conley – Mideast Regional semifinals at Lexington, Kentucky
• Jay Randolph and Jeff Mullins – Midwest Regional semifinals at Houston, Texas
• Dick Enberg and Al McGuire – second round at Lincoln, Nebraska (Louisville–Kansas State, Notre Dame–Missouri); Second Round at Tempe, Arizona (DePaul–UCLA, Ohio State–Arizona State)
• Don Criqui and Billy Packer – second round at West Lafayette, Indiana (St. John's–Purdue, Duke–Pennsylvania); Second Round at Bowling Green, Kentucky (Indiana–Virginia Tech, Kentucky–Florida State)
• Merle Harmon and Joe Dean – second round at Greensboro, North Carolina (North Carolina State–Iowa, Maryland–Tennessee)
• Bob Costas and Bucky Waters – second round at Providence, Rhode Island (Georgetown–Iona, Syracuse–Villanova)
• Charlie Jones and Lynn Shackelford – second round at Ogden, Utah (Brigham Young–Clemson, Oregon State–Lamar)
• Jay Randolph and Gary Thompson – first round at Lincoln, Nebraska (Kansas State–Arkansas, Missouri–San Jose State); Second Round at Denton, Texas (LSU–Alcorn State, North Carolina–Texas A&M)

• 1980 NCAA Division II basketball tournament
• 1980 NCAA Division III basketball tournament
• 1980 National Invitation Tournament
• 1980 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 1980 National Women's Invitation Tournament