1996 NCAA Division I
men's basketball tournament

Season	1995–96
Teams	64
Finals site	Continental Airlines Arena East Rutherford, New Jersey
Champions	Kentucky Wildcats (6th title, 8th title game, 11th Final Four)
Runner-up	Syracuse Orangemen (2nd title game, 3rd Final Four)
Semifinalists	UMass Minutemen (Vacated) (1st Final Four) Mississippi State Bulldogs (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	Rick Pitino (1st title)
MOP	Tony Delk (Kentucky)
Attendance	631,834
Top scorer	John Wallace (Syracuse) (29 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments «1995 1997»

The 1996 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. It began on March 14, 1996, and ended with the championship game on April 1 at Continental Airlines Arena (now known as Meadowlands Arena) in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. A total of 63 games were played.

The Final Four venue was notable for several reasons:

• This marked the first time that the NCAA finals had been held in Greater New York since 1950.
• This was also the last (men's) Final Four to be held in a basketball/hockey-specific facility. Every Final Four since has been held in a domed stadium (usually built for football) because of NCAA venue capacity requirements. Therefore, this was also the last time the NCAA finals have been held in the Greater New York area and the Northeastern United States (for the time being).

The Final Four consisted of Kentucky, making its first appearance in the Final Four since 1993 and eleventh overall, Massachusetts, making its first ever appearance in the Final Four, Syracuse, making its third appearance in the Final Four and first since 1987, and Mississippi State, also making its first appearance.

Kentucky won its sixth national championship by defeating Syracuse in the final game 76–67.

Tony Delk of Kentucky was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Kentucky's run to the championship was one of the most dominant in NCAA tournament history, as the Wildcats won each of their first four games by at least 20 points and won every game by at least 7 points.

Massachusetts, coached by John Calipari, was later stripped of its wins, including the UMass Minutemen's Final Four appearance, by the NCAA because UMass star Marcus Camby had accepted illegal gifts from agents. Connecticut, coached by Jim Calhoun, was additionally punished monetarily due to players accepting illegal gifts from agents.^[1]

The 1996 tournament was the last to feature teams from the Big Eight and Southwest Conferences; later that year the two would form the Big 12 Conference. As of 2022 they are the last Division I conferences to disband and/or merge after sending teams to the NCAA tournament.

Schedule and venues

Providence

Richmond

Indianapolis

Orlando

Milwaukee

Dallas

Albuquerque

Tempe

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1996 first and second rounds

Denver

Minneapolis

Lexington

Atlanta

E. Rutherford

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1996 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1996 tournament:

First and Second Rounds

• March 14 and 16
  • East Region
    • Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island (Host: Providence College)
  • Midwest Region
    • Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas (Host: Southwest Conference)
  • Southeast Region
    • RCA Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana (Hosts: Butler University, Midwestern Collegiate Conference)
  • West Region
    • University Arena ("The Pit"), Albuquerque, New Mexico (Host: University of New Mexico)
• March 15 and 17
  • East Region
    • Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, Virginia (Hosts: University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University)
  • Midwest Region
    • Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Host: Marquette University)
  • Southeast Region
    • Orlando Arena, Orlando, Florida (Host: Stetson University)
  • West Region
    • ASU Activity Center, Tempe, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 21 and 23
  • East Regional, Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia (Host: Georgia Tech)
  • Midwest Regional, Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Host: University of Minnesota)
• March 22 and 24
  • Southeast Regional, Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky (Host: University of Kentucky)
  • West Regional, McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado (Host: University of Colorado)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)

• March 30 and April 1
  • Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey (Hosts: Seton Hall University, Big East Conference)

Teams

There were 30 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 27 were given to the winners of their conference's tournament, while three were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference (Big Ten, Ivy League and Pac-10).

Two conferences, the American West Conference and Conference USA, did not receive automatic bids to the tournament.^[2]

Four conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: Monmouth (NEC), UNC Greensboro (Big South), Valparaiso (Mid-Continent), and Western Carolina (Southern).

Automatic qualifiers

Tournament seeds