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Season | 2021–22 | ||||
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Teams | 68 | ||||
Finals site | Caesars Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||
Champions | Kansas Jayhawks (4th title, 10th title game, 16th Final Four) | ||||
Runner-up | North Carolina Tar Heels (12th title game, 21st Final Four) | ||||
Semifinalists |
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Winning coach | Bill Self (2nd title) | ||||
MOP | Ochai Agbaji (Kansas) | ||||
Attendance | 684,425[1] | ||||
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The 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's college basketball national champion for the 2021–22 season. The 83rd annual edition of the tournament began on March 15, 2022, and concluded with the championship game on April 4 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Kansas Jayhawks defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels, 72–69, overcoming a 16-point first-half deficit (the largest deficit overcome in championship game history), to claim the school's fourth national title.
Big South Conference champion Longwood and Northeast Conference (NEC) champion Bryant made their tournament debuts. Bryant was eliminated in the First Four by Wright State, and Longwood was eliminated by Tennessee in the first round.
A major upset occurred on the first full day of the tournament, when 15-seed Saint Peter's upset 2-seed Kentucky, and subsequently became the third 15-seed to reach the Sweet 16 (the second consecutive year in which this occurred and third in the last nine years) and the first ever 15-seed to advance to the Elite Eight.[2] This was the tenth time a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed overall, but it was the sixth time since 2012 this occurred. The defending champions Baylor were defeated by North Carolina in the second round, ensuring the defending champion and at least one top seed was eliminated before the regional semifinals for the fifth consecutive tournament, and at least one double-digit seed (this year, four: 15-seed Saint Peter's, 11-seeds Michigan and Iowa State, and 10-seed Miami) made the Sweet 16 for the 14th straight tournament.