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, 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. 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 were eliminated before the regional semifinals for the seventh 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 (FL)) made the Sweet 16 for the fifth straight tournament. Also, when Kansas defeated Providence in the Sweet 16, the Jayhawks passed Kentucky for the most all-time wins by a Division I program, with 2,354.