The 71st annual edition of the tournament began on March 17, 2009, and concluded with the championship game on April 6 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.

He was joined by Spartan teammates Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton, Louisville's Earl Clark and Kansas's Cole Aldrich on the NCAA tournament All-Midwest Regional team.

The Fifth-seeded Utah Utes were upset by the twelfth-seeded Arizona Wildcats, one of the last teams to make it in the tournament and a questionable entry,[8] by a score of 84–71.

For these reasons, Wake Forest never obtained a lead, while Cleveland State sank three consecutive 3-pointers in the early minutes of the game.

Darryl Bryant, who led West Virginia with 21 points, shot two consecutive three-pointers to bring Dayton's lead to 48–47 with 11:02 minutes left in the game.

However, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich proved too much for North Dakota State, accounting for 65 percent of the Jayhawks' points with 32 and 23 respectively.

After leading 34–30 at halftime, the Eagles scored just a single field goal during one 13-minute stretch, as part of a 23.1 shooting percentage in the second half.

Taking advantage of Louisville's 19 turnovers, the Saints came back from a 12-point deficit with 17:21 left in the game to snatch the lead around the 9-minute mark.

The smallest deficit the Vikings faced was 48–44 about midway through the second half, though the Wildcats then went on a 13–2 run led by Nic Wise's five consecutive points.

[16] Cole Aldrich's triple-double with 13 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 blocked shots paved the way for a third-seeded Kansas win over 11 seed Dayton.

[17] Playing the tenth-seeded USC Trojans, second-seeded Michigan State utilized Travis Walton's career-high 18 points for a 74–69 win.

Star Trojan Taj Gibson was in foul trouble throughout much of the game, and yet his teammates rallied for 14 lead changes and 16 ties.

Michigan State held Louisville to their second lowest point total of the season with their man-to-man defense keeping them out of sync all game.

He was joined by teammate Kemba Walker, Missouri's DeMarre Carroll and J. T. Tiller and Memphis' Tyreke Evans on the NCAA West All-regional team.

[21] Forward Quincy Pondexter scored 23 points to lead his Washington Huskies to a first round 71–58 win over Mississippi State Bulldogs in the West Regional.

It was UConn who took full advantage of many Purdue mistakes and, even though Robbie Hummel was able to shoot quite well scoring 17 points, it was Hasheem Thabeet and the Huskies who pulled away for a 72–60 win to move onto the regional finals.

Though Memphis attempted to claw back into the game through Tyreke Evans' 33 points, it was JT Tiller, DeMarre Carroll, and Leo Lyons that moved on to meet UConn in the regional final along with the rest of their Missouri Tigers.

He was joined by teammates Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham, Panthers Sam Young and DeJuan Blair on the NCAA East All-Regional team.

Down 31–19 at the half, the Badgers' Jason Bohannon made a three-point jumper to give Wisconsin the lead with 45 seconds left in regulation.

[24] By six Wildcats scoring double-digit points, Villanova ended UCLA's hope of going to the Final Four for the fourth time in a row.

Number one seed Pittsburgh was upset by the Villanova Wildcats, 78–76 in the East Regional Finals, denying the Panthers a chance for a first national championship in men's basketball.

With five seconds remaining, Levance Fields, who was fouled by Corey Fisher, shot two free-throws to tie the game for Pitt.

Ty Lawson was the South regional MVP and he was joined on the All-regional team by teammates Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough as well as Blake Griffin and Syracuse's Jonny Flynn.

UCLA (1968, 1972, 1975) and North Carolina State (1974) won the national title, but Duke (1994) and Purdue (1980) lost in the Final Four.

The biggest advantage came in 1968 and 1972 when UCLA played the championship game at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, which is a short distance from Pauley Pavilion, their home court since 1965.

In the second half, Michigan State made a comeback to within 13 points of North Carolina with 4:56 to go in the game, but was unable to overcome the record 21 turnovers.

The columns R32, S16, E8, F4, and CG respectively stand for the Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and championship Game.

The only change from past years at the Final Four was that Jim Nantz worked with Clark Kellogg in the color commentary position instead of Billy Packer, who left CBS in July 2008.

For the play-in game in Dayton, ESPN had Brent Musburger, Steve Lavin and Erin Andrews working as the announcers.

Some CBS affiliates put additional game broadcasts on digital subchannels, or, as in the following two instances, on other stations: Westwood One was once again the radio home for the tournament.