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Andy Wittry | NCAA.com | March 11, 2020

The 2020 NCAA tournament regional sites have a deep connection to March Madness

Here are the top March Madness moments of the decade (2010-2019)

We're now only weeks away, and soon just days, from March Madness. We've compiled the complete 2020 NCAA tournament schedule for you here, so you won't miss a game.

This year, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and New York will host the four regionals with Atlanta hosting the Final Four. These are familiar NCAA tournament locations, including the city where Kris Jenkins' buzzer-beating 3-pointer beat North Carolina in the 2016 national championship and where hometown schools made the Final Four and even cut down the nets in front of their school's fans.

Here's the complete history and notable moments that have happened at each of this year's NCAA tournament regional and Final Four sites.

Wisconsin ends Kentucky's undefeated seasonWisconsin ends Kentucky's undefeated season in the Final Four.

Indianapolis

Final Four: 1980, 1991, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2021, 2026
Regional: 1940, 1979, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2020

You might be surprised to learn that of the five cities that are hosting a regional or the Final Four in the 2020 NCAA tournament, Indianapolis is tied for first in terms of the number of years it has hosted the Final Four. Indianapolis and New York have both hosted the event seven times but New York's Final Fours all came between 1943 and 1950.

Indianapolis has been on a steady rotation of hosting the Final Four every three to six years since the 1990s. Indy will soon pass New York because it will host the 2021 Final Four, then again in 2026. Three different Indianapolis venues have hosted the Final Four — Market Square Arena, the RCA Dome and Lucas Oil Stadium.

Notable moments:

  • 1940: Indiana won the East Regional over Duquesne in Indianapolis en route to the Hoosiers' first national title.
  • 1980: In just the second year of every team being seeded in the NCAA tournament, the four seeds of the Final Four teams added up to 21 — a record that stood for 20 years, until it was broken in the 2000 NCAA Tournament. No. 2 Louisville, No. 5 Iowa, No. 6 Purdue and No. 8 UCLA made the Final Four with Louisville winning the national title. There weren't any No. 1 seeds in the Final Four — a rare occurrence that didn't happen again until 2006.
  • 1979: Michigan State beat Notre Dame in the Mideast Regional en route to the Spartans' first-ever national title.
  • 1980: This was also the first season in which the limit of one at-large team per conference was removed.
  • 1991: This was as traditional a Final Four as you'll see with North Carolina, Duke and Kansas, plus 28-0, No. 1 seed UNLV one year after it won the national title. In terms of name brands, it may have been the biggest Final Four ever. It's fitting that in 1991, CBS Sports broadcast every NCAA tournament game for the first time. Duke beat UNLV in the Final Four in a rematch of the 1990 NCAA Tournament national championship game, then the Blue Devils beat Kansas and then-coach Roy Williams in the 1991 national title game.
  • 1997: Speaking of blue blood-heavy Final Four fields, how about 1997? Kentucky and North Carolina made the Final Four as No. 1 seeds (as did No. 1 seed Minnesota), plus No. 4 seed Arizona. Maybe there's something about Indy that draws some of the sport's strongest programs historically and some of the most passionate fan bases.
  • 1997: Arizona won its first national championship and defeated three No. 1 seeds along the way, becoming the first team to ever accomplish that feat.
  • 1997: North Carolina coaching legend Dean Smith coached his final game ever in the Tar Heels' Final Four loss to Arizona.
  • 2000: The 2000 Final Four field broke the record set in 1980 (which was also held in Indy) of the highest sum of the four Final Four teams' seeds. The four seeds added up to 22 thanks to No. 5 seed Florida and No. 8 seeds North Carolina and Wisconsin.
  • 2000: But it was No. 1 seed Michigan State that won that season's national championship, marking coach Tom Izzo's rise to a Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame career and the last national championship won by a Big Ten school.
  • 2006: No. 11 seed George Mason made a Cinderella run to the Final Four. Florida won its first-ever national championship (and the first of back-to-back titles), while UCLA made its first of three consecutive Final Four appearances.
  • 2010: Hometown Cinderella Butler made the 2010 national championship game in Indianapolis as a No. 5 seed and had a shot at the buzzer to potentially win the national championship.
  • 2014: No. 8 seed Kentucky, fresh off of upsetting No. 1 seed Wichita State, defeated No. 4 seed Louisville and No. 2 seed Michigan in Indianapolis as the Wildcats made the Final Four and eventually the national championship game, where they lost to UConn. The three games at the 2014 Midwest Regional were decided by a combined 10 points.
  • 2015: 38-0 Kentucky entered the Final Four with the chance to be the sport's first undefeated national champion since 1976 Indiana. But Wisconsin, which Kentucky had defeated in the previous Final Four, beat the unbeaten Wildcats 71-64. This was another Final Four loaded with big brands with No. 1 seeds Duke, Kentucky and Wisconsin, plus Michigan State. Those are three of the four programs that play in the Champions Classic every November.
  • 2015: A Duke team loaded with talented freshmen — Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones (the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player), Justise Winslow and Grayson Allen — won the Blue Devils' second national title of the decade.

MARCHING TOWARDS THE MADNESS: 14 teams to keep an eye on until Selection Sunday

Wichita State made the Final Four as a No. 9 seedWichita State made the Final Four as a No. 9 seed.

Los Angeles

Final Four: 1968, 1972
Regional: 1966, 1969, 1973, 1976, 1984, 1994, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020

Los Angeles hasn't hosted the Final Four in 48 years but the two times it has, hometown power UCLA won the national championship. L.A. was a common NCAA tournament host site in the 1960s and '70s with the city hosting a regional or the Final Four six times from 1966 to 1976.

Notable moments:

  • 1968: UCLA won its fourth championship in five years and in its hometown. In just five NCAA tournament games, Houston's Elvin Hayes scored a tournament-high 167 points.
  • 1972: UCLA won its sixth consecutive national championship and eighth in nine years, once again being crowned as champion in L.A. That season's Final Four featured three current ACC schools — Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina.
  • 1976: In a West Regional semifinal, Arizona defeated UNLV 114-109 — the sixth-highest single-game point total in NCAA tournament history.
  • 1984: No. 10 seed Dayton upset No. 7 seed LSU, No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 6 seed Washington to advance to the West Regional finals in L.A., where the Flyers fell to No. 1 seed Georgetown, which went on to win the national championship.
  • 2013: No. 9 seed Wichita State made a Final Four run through L.A., where the seeds of the four teams that made the regional semifinals added up to 30 — No. 2 seed Ohio State, No. 6 seed Arizona, No. 9 seed Wichita State and No. 13 seed La Salle. How often do you see a No. 9 seed and a No. 13 seed playing in the Sweet 16?
Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat North CarolinaKris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat North Carolina.

Houston

Final Four: 1971, 2011, 2016, 2023
Regional: 1973, 1980, 1986, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2020

Notable moments:

  • 1971: UCLA won its fifth consecutive national title and seventh in eight years by defeating Villanova in the national championship game.
  • 1973: Memphis State, now known as Memphis, beat South Carolina and Kansas State in Houston to advance to its first-ever Final Four.
  • 1980: Louisville defeated Kansas State, Texas A&M and No. 1 seed LSU in Houston to make the Final Four, where it defeated Iowa and UCLA as the Cardinals won their first championship.
  • 1984: Houston was once again a kind host to Louisville, which made the Final Four again while coming out of the West Region. Auburn was nearly one of the earliest Cinderellas as the No. 8-seeded Tigers defeated No. 1 seed St. John's 81-65, then No. 4 seed UNLV before falling to Louisville in the Eight Eight by eight points.
  • 2008: In the last regional final in 2008, No. 1 seed Memphis defeated No. 2 seed Texas to ensure that all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four for the first time ever. It was also the 2,700th NCAA tournament game ever. Memphis' participation in the 2008 NCAA Tournament was later vacated. The only "upset" in the entire South Regional was No. 5 seed Michigan State beating No. 4 Pittsburgh in the second round.
  • 2011: The 2011 Final Four holds the record for the highest combined seed total of the four teams — 26. No. 3 seed UConn and No. 4 seed Kentucky met in one national semifinal, while Cinderellas No. 8 seed Butler and No. 11 seed VCU met in the other. UConn ultimately defeated Butler 53-41 in the national title game, capping off the Kemba Walker-led national title run for the Huskies and leaving the Bulldogs as the national runners-up two years in a row.
  • 2016: Villanova won its second national title and first under coach Jay Wright as the hot-shooting Wildcats defeated Oklahoma 95-51 in the national semifinals after having lost to the Sooners 78-55 earlier in the season. Villanova shot 71.4 percent (35-of-49) from the field, which is tied for the ninth-best single-game field goal percentage in NCAA tournament history. Meanwhile, No. 10 seed Syracuse made Houston and the Final Four after beating No. 7 seed Dayton, No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee and No. 11 seed Gonzaga before making a thrilling comeback against No. 1 seed Virginia. Villanova won the 2016 national championship on Kris Jenkins' heroic buzzer-beating 3-pointer, which is maybe the greatest shot in the history of the NCAA tournament.
Florida's Chris Chiozza hit a running 3-pointer to beat WisconsinFlorida's Chris Chiozza hit a running 3-pointer to beat Wisconsin.

New York

Final Four: 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950
Regional: 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021

Notable moments:

  • 1943: Wyoming defeated Georgetown inside Madison Square Garden in the national championship.
  • 1944: The 50th NCAA tournament game in history was played in New York, where Dartmouth defeated Ohio State 60-53 in the Eastern Regional final in 1944.
  • 1945: Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) of the Missouri Valley Conference defeated NYU of the Middle Atlantic Conference in the national championship. While one of the East Region's quarterfinal matchups was Ohio State-Kentucky, another was NYU-Tufts.
  • 1946: This was the first NCAA tournament in which the last four teams all played at the final site, rather than just the two teams that made the finals.
  • 1950: CCNY became the first team to win the NCAA tournament and the NIT in the same season.
  • 2014: No. 4 seed Michigan State knocked No. 1 seed Virginia out of the tournament in the Sweet 16, then No. 7 seed UConn beat the Spartans to advance to the Final Four, where they won their second national championship in four seasons.
  • 2017: No. 4 seed Florida knocked off No. 8 seed Wisconsin on Chris Chiozza's running 3-pointer that just barely beat the buzzer in overtime in the Sweet 16. Improbably, it was No. 7 seed South Carolina that advanced out of the East Regional in 2017 as the Gamecocks defeated No. 10 seed Marquette, No. 2 seed Duke, No. 3 seed Baylor and No. 4 seed Florida to make their first-ever Final Four.
Loyola Chicago made the Final Four in 2018 after advancing through AtlantaLoyola Chicago made the Final Four in 2018 after advancing through Atlanta.

Atlanta

Final Four: 1977, 2002, 2007, 2013, 2020
Regional: 1981, 1984, 1986, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2018

Notable moments:

  • 1977: Both North Carolina and UNC Charlotte made the Final Four, although they were on opposite sides of the bracket. Marquette defeated both schools on its way to its first national championship. Marquette coach Al McGuire retired after the game. UNC Charlotte and UNLV each made its first Final Four that season.
  • 1981: Virginia made its first-ever Final Four appearance by defeating No. 4 seed Tennessee and No. 6 seed BYU in Atlanta.
  • 1984: Virginia made its second-ever Final Four appearance by beating Syracuse and Indiana in Atlanta.
  • 1986: In 1986, Atlanta hosted a regional that featured three teams from one conference for the first time in NCAA tournament history as Alabama, Kentucky and LSU all played at the same regional site. LSU was a No. 11 seed and defeated No. 6 seed Purdue, No. 3 seed Memphis State, No. 2 seed Georgia Tech and No. 1 seed Kentucky in a tough road to the Final Four.
  • 2001: In a chaotic South Region, No. 7 seed Penn State, No. 11 seed Temple and No. 12 seed Gonzaga all made the Sweet 16. But it was No. 1 seed Michigan State that won in the regional final in Atlanta.
  • 2002: Maryland won its first-ever national title, beating No. 5 seed Indiana, which made its first Final Four in the post-Bob Knight era.
  • 2007: All four Final Four teams were a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. Florida won its second national title in a row, defeating Ohio State 84-75. Georgetown made the Final Four for the first time since it lost in the 1985 national championship game.
  • 2018: For the first time in NCAA tournament history, all four top teams in a region failed to reach the Sweet 16 in 2018, when No. 5 seed Kentucky, No. 7 seed Nevada, No. 9 seed Kansas State and No. 11 seed Loyola Chicago all advanced.

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