1977 NCAA Division I basketball tournament
The 1977 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 32 American schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the National Champion of Men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on Saturday, March 12, 1977, and ended with the championship game on Monday, March 28 in Atlanta. A total of 32 games were played, including a national third-place game. This was the final tournament in which teams were not seeded.
| Season | 1976–77 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 32 | ||||
| Finals site | The Omni Atlanta | ||||
| Champions | Marquette Warriors (1st title, 2nd title game, 2nd Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | North Carolina Tar Heels (4th title game, 7th Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Al McGuire (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Butch Lee (Marquette) | ||||
| Attendance | 241,610 | ||||
| Top scorer | Cedric Maxwell (Charlotte) (123 points) | ||||
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Marquette, coached by Al McGuire, won the national title with a 67–59 victory in the final game over North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith. Butch Lee of Marquette was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Publicly announcing his retirement during the middle of the season, McGuire retired as head coach immediately after the game. UNLV and UNC Charlotte were third and fourth place, respectively. Marquette's seven losses were a record at the time for the most losses in a season by a national champion, exceeded four years later in 1981 by Indiana with nine.