2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2016–17 season. The 79th edition of the tournament began on March 14, 2017, and concluded with the championship game on April 3 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The championship game was the first to be contested in the Western United States since the 1995 tournament when Seattle was the host of the Final Four.
| Season | 2016–17 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 68 | ||||
| Finals site | University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, Arizona | ||||
| Champions | North Carolina Tar Heels (6th title, 11th title game, 20th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Gonzaga Bulldogs (1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Roy Williams (3rd title) | ||||
| MOP | Joel Berry II (North Carolina) | ||||
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In the Final Four, North Carolina beat Oregon (making their first Final Four appearance since the inaugural tournament in 1939) while Gonzaga defeated South Carolina (both making their first ever Final Four appearance). This was the first NCAA tournament since 1979 to see two first-time Final Four participants. North Carolina then defeated Gonzaga 71–65 to win their 6th national championship, and 3rd under Roy Williams.
After being the only longstanding Power Five team to never made the tournament, Northwestern from the Big Ten finally made the tournament for the first time in program history. North Dakota (Big Sky), UC Davis (Big West), Northern Kentucky (Horizon League), and Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley) also all made their tournament debuts.