2000 NCAA Division I
men's basketball tournament

Season	1999–00
Teams	64
Finals site	RCA Dome Indianapolis, Indiana
Champions	Michigan State Spartans (2nd title, 2nd title game, 4th Final Four)
Runner-up	Florida Gators (1st title game, 2nd Final Four)
Semifinalists	North Carolina Tar Heels (15th Final Four) Wisconsin Badgers (2nd Final Four)
Winning coach	Tom Izzo (1st title)
MOP	Mateen Cleaves (Michigan State)
Attendance	624,777
Top scorer	Morris Peterson (Michigan State) (105 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments «1999 2001»

The 2000 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 16, 2000, and ended with the championship game on April 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana at the RCA Dome. A total of 63 games were played.

Due to a string of upsets throughout the tournament, only one top-four seed advanced to the Final Four. That was Michigan State, who finished the season as the #2 team in the nation and was given the top seed in the Midwest Region. The highest seeded of the other three Final Four teams was Florida, who won the East Region as the fifth seed. Two eight-seeds made the Final Four, with Wisconsin and North Carolina rounding the bracket out. Wisconsin won the West Region while North Carolina won the South Region, with both regions seeing their top three seeds eliminated during the first weekend of play.

Michigan State won their first national championship since 1979 by defeating Florida 89–76 in the final game. Mateen Cleaves of Michigan State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while Morris Peterson was its leading scorer.

Despite the string of upsets, no seed lower than 11 won a game in the tournament. The only 11 seed to win was Pepperdine, which defeated Indiana in the East Region's first round in what turned out to be Bob Knight's last game coaching the Hoosiers before his firing that offseason. Also, two teams that qualified as 10 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen as Seton Hall in the East and Gonzaga in the West both advanced.

Because of the upsets, the Elite Eight consisted of one top seed (Michigan State), one second seed (Iowa State), one third seed (Oklahoma State), one fifth seed (Florida), one sixth seed (Purdue), one seventh seed (Tulsa), and two eighth seeds (Wisconsin and North Carolina). This is the most recent title won by the Big Ten Conference.

Schedule and venues

Tucson

Salt Lake City

Minneapolis

Cleveland

Nashville

Birmingham

Winston-Salem

Buffalo

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2000 first and second rounds

Albuquerque

Austin

Auburn Hills

Syracuse

Indianapolis

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2000 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2000 tournament:

First and Second Rounds

• March 16 and 18
  • Midwest Region
    • CSU Convocation Center, Cleveland, Ohio (Host: Cleveland State University)
    • Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Host: University of Minnesota)
  • West Region
    • Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (Host: University of Utah)
    • McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona (Host: University of Arizona)
• March 17 and 19
  • East Region
    • HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York (Hosts: Canisius College, Niagara University, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)
    • Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Host: Wake Forest University)
  • South Region
    • BJCC Arena, Birmingham, Alabama (Host: Southeastern Conference)
    • Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville, Tennessee (Host: Ohio Valley Conference)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 23 and 25
  • Midwest Regional, The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan (Host: Mid-American Conference)
  • West Regional, University Arena ("The Pit"), Albuquerque, New Mexico (Host: University of New Mexico)
• March 24 and 26
  • East Regional, Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York (Host: Syracuse University)
  • South Regional, Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas (Host: University of Texas at Austin)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)

• April 1 and 3
  • RCA Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana (Hosts: Butler University, IUPUI)

Teams

There were 30 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 28 were given to the winners of their conference's tournament, while two were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference (Ivy League and Pac-10).

Three conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: UNC Wilmington (CAA), Central Connecticut State (NEC), and Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley).

While the Mountain West Conference held a conference tournament, the conference was not granted an automatic bid to the tournament until the 2000–01 season.^[1]

Automatic qualifiers

Listed by region and seeding