High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1983 NCAA Men`s Division I Basketball Tournament involved 52 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men`s NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 2, 1983, and ended with the championship game on April 4 at The Pit, then officially known as University Arena, on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. A total of 51 games were played.