The 2011 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 basketball national champion for the 2010-11 season.

The 73rd edition of the NCAA tournament began on March 15, 2011, and concluded with the championship game on April 4, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

Due to the geographical location of New Orleans and San Antonio, the "South" and "Midwest" regional games were replaced by the monikers "Southeast" and "Southwest" for this tournament, respectively.

For the first time since 2000, a #8 seed advanced to the Final Four as Butler, the national runner-up from the year before, won the Southeast Region.

For only the third time ever, a #11 seed advanced to the Final Four as Virginia Commonwealth, one of the "First Four" teams, won the Southwest Region.

The East Region saw its #11 seed, Marquette, advance to the Sweet Sixteen where they were downed by North Carolina.

The Big East had a record eleven make the tournament (the conference then had 16 total teams).

Northern Colorado, winners of the Big Sky Conference, made its first NCAA Division I tournament.

The remaining 37 teams were granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

The following sites were selected to host each round of the 2011 tournament:[3][4] First Four First and Second rounds Regional semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship) The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2011 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament (except for the Ivy League, whose regular-season champion received the automatic bid).

[17] The National Championship game was between Butler, a mid-major university team that was a surprise finalist in the 2010 tournament, and Connecticut, a basketball powerhouse which had previously won the tournament twice under coach Jim Calhoun but had an average regular season finishing 9th in the Big East Conference before winning The Big East tournament with five wins in five consecutive days (never before accomplished in NCAA history).

Connecticut contributed to Butler's poor shooting by blocking 10 shots (a championship game record).

Coverage will originate from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and Turner's Atlanta studios.

TruTV, which up to that point had never aired any live sports programming, saw a surge in carriage deals for its high definition feed with several major providers including AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS, Comcast, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Cox Cable and RCN.

The postgame show, called Inside March Madness presented by Buick, alternated between TruTV and TBS.

[31] However, with the CBS-Turner agreement allowing all games in the tournament to be available on a national basis (see above), Mega March Madness, a DirecTV-only service, has been discontinued.