1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

1986 NCAA Division I
men's basketball tournament
Season	1985–86
Teams	64
Finals site	Reunion Arena,; Dallas, Texas
Champions	Louisville Cardinals (2nd title, 2nd title game,; 7th Final Four)
Runner-up	Duke Blue Devils (3rd title game,; 5th Final Four)
Semifinalists	Kansas Jayhawks (7th Final Four); LSU Tigers (3rd Final Four);
Winning coach	Denny Crum (2nd title)
MOP	Pervis Ellison (Louisville)
Attendance	499,704
Top scorer	Johnny Dawkins (Duke); (153 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments
«1985	1987»

The 1986 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 48th annual edition of the tournament began on March 13, 1986, and ended with the championship game on March 31, at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. A total of 63 games were played.

Season1985–86

Teams64

Finals siteReunion Arena,
Dallas, Texas

ChampionsLouisville Cardinals (2nd title, 2nd title game,
7th Final Four)

Quick facts Season, Teams ...

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Louisville, coached by Denny Crum, won the national title with a 72–69 victory in the final game over Duke, coached by Mike Krzyzewski. Pervis Ellison of Louisville was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.^[1] Louisville became the first team from outside a power conference to win the championship since the expansion to 64 teams, and remains one of only two teams to do so (the other team was UNLV in 1990).

The 1986 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament was the first tournament to use a shot clock limiting the amount of time for any one offensive possession by a team prior to taking a shot at the basket. Beginning with the 1986 tournament, the shot clock was set at 45 seconds, which it would remain until being shortened to 35 seconds beginning in the 1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, and further shortened to 30 seconds (the same as NCAA women's basketball) starting with the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

The 1986 tournament was also the last to not feature the three-point shot, and the first where a custom floor was installed for the Final Four.

LSU's 1985–86 team is tied for the lowest-seeded team (#11) to ever make the Final Four with the 2005–06 George Mason Patriots, the 2010–11 VCU Rams, the 2017–18 Loyola-Chicago Ramblers, the 2020–21 UCLA Bruins, and the 2023-24 NC State Wolfpack. As of 2018, they are the only team in tournament history to beat the top 3 seeds from their region. LSU began its run to the Final Four by winning two games on its home court, the LSU Assembly Center, leading to a change two years later which prohibited teams from playing NCAA tournament games on a court which they have played four or more games in the regular season. Cleveland State University became the first #14 seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen, losing to their fellow underdog, Navy, by a single point. This was also the first year in which two #14 seeds reached the second round in the same year, as Arkansas-Little Rock beat #3-seed Notre Dame; however, they lost their second-round game in double overtime. Both feats have only occurred one other time. Chattanooga reached the Sweet Sixteen as a 14-seed in 1997, and Old Dominion and Weber State both reached the second round as 14-seeds in 1995.

Every regional final featured a #1 or #2 seed playing a team seeded #6 or lower. The lone #1 seed to not reach the Elite Eight, St. John's (West), was knocked out in the second round by #8 Auburn, which lost to #2 Louisville in the regional final.

It could be argued that these upsets by the 14-seeds had launched the NCAA tournament's reputation for having unknown teams defeat well-known basketball powers, and both happened on the same day.^{[citation needed]} Indiana's loss to Cleveland State would be part of the climax in the best-selling book A Season On The Brink.^[2]

Another story of the tournament was when Navy reached the Elite 8 thanks to stunning performances by David Robinson. This tournament had no Pac 10 teams advance beyond the round of 64. This did not occur again until 2018.

[1]

[2]

Region	Seed	Team	Coach	Conference	Finished	Final opponent	Score
West
West	1	St. John's	Lou Carnesecca	Big East	Round of 32	8 Auburn	L 81–65
West	2	Louisville	Denny Crum	Metro	Champion	1 Duke	W 72–69
West	3	North Carolina	Dean Smith	Atlantic Coast	Sweet Sixteen	2 Louisville	L 94–79
West	4	UNLV	Jerry Tarkanian	Pacific Coast	Sweet Sixteen	8 Auburn	L 70–63
West	5	Maryland	Lefty Driesell	Atlantic Coast	Round of 32	4 UNLV	L 70–64
West	6	UAB	Gene Bartow	Sun Belt	Round of 32	3 North Carolina	L 77–59
West	7	Bradley	Dick Versace	Missouri Valley	Round of 32	2 Louisville	L 82–68
West	8	Auburn	Sonny Smith	Southeastern	Regional Runner-up	2 Louisville	L 84–76
West	9	Arizona	Lute Olson	Pacific-10	Round of 64	8 Auburn	L 73–63
West	10	UTEP	Don Haskins	Western Athletic	Round of 64	7 Bradley	L 83–65
West	11	Missouri	Norm Stewart	Big Eight	Round of 64	6 UAB	L 66–64
West	12	Pepperdine	Jim Harrick	West Coast	Round of 64	5 Maryland	L 69–64
West	13	Northeast Louisiana	Mike Vining	Southland	Round of 64	4 UNLV	L 74–51
West	14	Utah	Lynn Archibald	Western Athletic	Round of 64	3 North Carolina	L 84–72
West	15	Drexel	Eddie Burke	East Coast	Round of 64	2 Louisville	L 93–73
West	16	Montana State	Stu Starner	Big Sky	Round of 64	1 St. John's	L 83–74
Midwest
Midwest	1	Kansas	Larry Brown	Big Eight	National semifinals	1 Duke	L 71–67
Midwest	2	Michigan	Bill Frieder	Big Ten	Round of 32	7 Iowa State	L 72–69
Midwest	3	Notre Dame	Digger Phelps	Independent	Round of 64	14 Arkansas–Little Rock	L 90–83
Midwest	4	Georgetown	John Thompson	Big East	Round of 32	5 Michigan State	L 80–68
Midwest	5	Michigan State	Jud Heathcote	Big Ten	Sweet Sixteen	1 Kansas	L 96–86
Midwest	6	NC State	Jim Valvano	Atlantic Coast	Regional Runner-up	1 Kansas	L 75–67
Midwest	7	Iowa State	Johnny Orr	Big Eight	Sweet Sixteen	6 NC State	L 70–66
Midwest	8	Jacksonville	Bob Wenzel	Sun Belt	Round of 64	9 Temple	L 61–50
Midwest	9	Temple	John Chaney	Atlantic 10	Round of 32	1 Kansas	L 65–43
Midwest	10	Miami (OH)	Jerry Peirson	Mid-American	Round of 64	7 Iowa State	L 81–79
Midwest	11	Iowa	George Raveling	Big Ten	Round of 64	6 NC State	L 66–64
Midwest	12	Washington	Andy Russo	Pacific-10	Round of 64	5 Michigan State	L 72–70
Midwest	13	Texas Tech	Gerald Myers	Southwest	Round of 64	4 Georgetown	L 70–64
Midwest	14	Arkansas–Little Rock	Mike Newell	Trans America	Round of 32	6 NC State	L 80–66
Midwest	15	Akron	Bob Huggins	Ohio Valley	Round of 64	2 Michigan	L 70–64
Midwest	16	North Carolina A&T	Don Corbett	Mid-Eastern	Round of 64	1 Kansas	L 71–46
Southeast
Southeast	1	Kentucky	Eddie Sutton	Southeastern	Regional Runner-up	11 LSU	L 59–57
Southeast	2	Georgia Tech	Bobby Cremins	Atlantic Coast	Sweet Sixteen	11 LSU	L 70–64
Southeast	3	Memphis State (Vacated)	Dana Kirk	Metro	Round of 32	11 LSU	L 83–81
Southeast	4	Illinois	Lou Henson	Big Ten	Round of 32	5 Alabama	L 58–56
Southeast	5	Alabama	Wimp Sanderson	Southeastern	Sweet Sixteen	1 Kentucky	L 68–63
Southeast	6	Purdue	Gene Keady	Big Ten	Round of 64	11 LSU	L 94–87
Southeast	7	Virginia Tech	Charles Moir	Metro	Round of 64	10 Villanova	L 71–62
Southeast	8	Western Kentucky	Clem Haskins	Sun Belt	Round of 32	1 Kentucky	L 71–64
Southeast	9	Nebraska	Moe Iba	Big Eight	Round of 64	8 Western Kentucky	L 67–59
Southeast	10	Villanova	Rollie Massimino	Big East	Round of 32	2 Georgia Tech	L 66–61
Southeast	11	LSU	Dale Brown	Southeastern	National semifinals	2 Louisville	L 88–77
Southeast	12	Xavier	Pete Gillen	Midwestern	Round of 64	5 Alabama	L 97–80
Southeast	13	Fairfield	Mitch Buonaguro	Metro Atlantic	Round of 64	4 Illinois	L 75–51
Southeast	14	Ball State	Al Brown	Mid-American	Round of 64	3 Memphis State	L 95–63
Southeast	15	Marist	Matt Furjanic	ECAC Metro	Round of 64	2 Georgia Tech	L 68–53
Southeast	16	Davidson	Bobby Hussey	Southern	Round of 64	1 Kentucky	L 75–55
East
East	1	Duke	Mike Krzyzewski	Atlantic Coast	Runner Up	2 Louisville	L 72–69
East	2	Syracuse	Jim Boeheim	Big East	Round of 32	7 Navy	L 97–85
East	3	Indiana	Bob Knight	Big Ten	Round of 64	14 Cleveland State	L 83–79
East	4	Oklahoma	Billy Tubbs	Big Eight	Round of 32	12 DePaul	L 74–69
East	5	Virginia	Terry Holland	Atlantic Coast	Round of 64	12 DePaul	L 72–68
East	6	Saint Joseph's	Jim Boyle	Atlantic 10	Round of 32	14 Cleveland State	L 75–69
East	7	Navy	Paul Evans	Colonial	Regional Runner-up	1 Duke	L 71–50
East	8	Old Dominion	Tom Young	Sun Belt	Round of 32	1 Duke	L 89–61
East	9	West Virginia	Gale Catlett	Atlantic 10	Round of 64	8 Old Dominion	L 72–64
East	10	Tulsa	J. D. Barnett	Missouri Valley	Round of 64	7 Navy	L 87–68
East	11	Richmond	Dick Tarrant	Colonial	Round of 64	6 Saint Joseph's	L 60–59
East	12	DePaul	Joey Meyer	Independent	Sweet Sixteen	1 Duke	L 74–67
East	13	Northeastern	Jim Calhoun	ECAC North	Round of 64	4 Oklahoma	L 80–74
East	14	Cleveland State	Kevin Mackey	Mid-Continent	Sweet Sixteen	7 Navy	L 71–70
East	15	Brown	Mike Cingiser	Ivy League	Round of 64	2 Syracuse	L 101–52
East	16	Mississippi Valley State	Lafayette Stribling	Southwest Athletic	Round of 64	1 Duke	L 85–78

First round			Quarter-finals			Regional semifinals			Regional Finals

1	Duke	85

16	Mississippi Valley State	78
			1	Duke	89
Greensboro
			8	Old Dominion	61
8	Old Dominion	72

9	West Virginia	64
						1	Duke	74

						12	DePaul	67
5	Virginia	68

12	DePaul	72
			12	DePaul	74
Greensboro
			4	Oklahoma	69
4	Oklahoma	80

13	Northeastern	74
									1	Duke	71

									7	Navy	50
6	Saint Joseph's	60

11	Richmond	59
			6	Saint Joseph's	69
Syracuse
			14	Cleveland State	75
3	Indiana	79

14	Cleveland State	83
						14	Cleveland State	70

						7	Navy	71
7	Navy	87

10	Tulsa	68
			7	Navy	97
Syracuse
			2	Syracuse	85
2	Syracuse	101

15	Brown	52

First round			Quarter-finals			Regional semifinals			Regional Finals

1	Kansas	71

16	North Carolina A&T	46
			1	Kansas	65
Dayton
			9	Temple	43
8	Jacksonville	50

9	Temple	61^OT
						1	Kansas	96^OT

						5	Michigan State	86
5	Michigan State	72

12	Washington	70
			5	Michigan State	80
Dayton
			4	Georgetown	68
4	Georgetown	70

13	Texas Tech	64
									1	Kansas	75

									6	NC State	67
6	NC State	66

11	Iowa	64
			6	NC State	80^OT
Minneapolis
			14	Arkansas–Little Rock	66
3	Notre Dame	83

14	Arkansas–Little Rock	90
						6	NC State	70

						7	Iowa State	66
7	Iowa State	81^OT

10	Miami (OH)	79
			7	Iowa State	72
Minneapolis
			2	Michigan	69
2	Michigan	70

15	Akron	64

First round			Quarter-finals			Regional semifinals			Regional Finals

1	Kentucky	75

16	Davidson	55
			1	Kentucky	71
Charlotte
			8	Western Kentucky	64
8	Western Kentucky	67

9	Nebraska	59
						1	Kentucky	68

						5	Alabama	63
5	Alabama	97

12	Xavier	80
			5	Alabama	58
Charlotte
			4	Illinois	56
4	Illinois	75

13	Fairfield	51
									1	Kentucky	57

									11	LSU	59
6	Purdue	87

11	LSU	94^2OT
			11	LSU	83
Baton Rouge
			3	~~Memphis State~~	81
3	~~Memphis State~~	95

14	Ball State	63
						11	LSU	70

						2	Georgia Tech	64
7	Virginia Tech	62

10	Villanova	71
			10	Villanova	61
Baton Rouge
			2	Georgia Tech	66
2	Georgia Tech	68

15	Marist	53

First round			Quarter-finals			Regional semifinals			Regional Finals

1	St. John's	83

16	Montana State	74
			1	St. John's	65
Long Beach
			8	Auburn	81
8	Auburn	73

9	Arizona	63
						8	Auburn	70

						4	UNLV	63
5	Maryland	69

12	Pepperdine	64
			5	Maryland	64
Long Beach
			4	UNLV	70
4	UNLV	74

13	Northeast Louisiana	51
									8	Auburn	76

									2	Louisville	84
6	UAB	66

11	Missouri	64
			6	UAB	59
Ogden
			3	North Carolina	77
3	North Carolina	84

14	Utah	72
						3	North Carolina	79

						2	Louisville	94
7	Bradley	83

10	UTEP	65
			7	Bradley	68
Ogden
			2	Louisville	82
2	Louisville	93

15	Drexel	73

National semifinals			National Championship Game

E1	Duke	71

MW1	Kansas	67
			E1	Duke	69

			W2	Louisville	72
SE11	LSU	77

W2	Louisville	88

East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey

First round summary

Thursday, March 13, 1986

Friday, March 14, 1986

Second round summary

Saturday, March 15, 1986

Sunday, March 16, 1986

Regional Semi-final summary

Regional Final summary

Midwest Regional – Kansas City, Missouri

First round summary

Thursday, March 13, 1986

Friday, March 14, 1986

Second round summary

Saturday, March 15, 1986

Sunday, March 16, 1986

Regional Semi-final summary

Regional Final summary

Southeast Regional – Atlanta, Georgia

First round summary

Thursday, March 13, 1986

Friday, March 14, 1986

Second round summary

Saturday, March 15, 1986

Sunday, March 16, 1986

Regional Semi-final summary

Regional Final summary

West Regional – Houston, Texas

First round summary

Thursday, March 13, 1986

Friday, March 14, 1986

Second round summary

Saturday, March 15, 1986

Sunday, March 16, 1986

Regional Semi-final summary

Regional Final summary

Final Four – Dallas, Texas

Game summaries

National Championship

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