Special Sub-Topic: NCAA Basketball in the 20th Century Click Here To Play: NCAA Basketball in the 20th Century

What was the site of the first NCAA championship game in 1939 ?

Patten Gymnasium, Evanston, Illinois. On March 27, 1939, 15,025 people watched Oregon defeat Ohio State, 46-33, at Patten Gymnasium in Evanston, Illinois, to win the first NCAA basketball title.

What city hosted the most NCAA Division I championship games in the 20th century ?

Kansas City. Kansas City hosted 10 championship games, followed by New York with seven, Louisville with six, and Seattle with five.

Which of these pairings of NCAA championship game teams resulted in the first championship game to go into overtime ?

Utah and Dartmouth. All of the pairings matched teams who played overtime in NCAA championship games. The first championship game to go to overtime was the 1944 championship game between Utah and Dartmouth, won by the Utes by a 42-40 score.

Which two schools were involved in the first Division II championship game ?

Wheaton and Kentucky Wesleyan. Wheaton defeated Kentucky Wesleyan, 89-65, at Evansville IN for the 1957 title, the first at the Division II level.

Which two schools were involved in the first Division III championship game ?

LeMoyne-Owen and Rowan. LeMoyne-Owen defeated Rowan, 57-54, at Reading PA for the 1975 title, the first at the Division III level.

City College of New York won both the NCAA tournament and the NIT tournament in the same year. Which top-ranked team did CCNY defeat to win the 1950 NCAA title?

Bradley. CCNY, led by tournament MVP Irwin Dambrot, defeated top-ranked Bradley, 71-68, to win the 1950 NCAA tournament title, and also defeated #1 Bradley, 69-61, to win the NIT title. The 1950 CCNY team was the first NCAA champ to have African American players in its starting lineup.

Who were the first undefeated NCAA tournament champions ?

San Francisco Dons. Only seven teams finished as undefeated NCAA champions, with UCLA leading the pack with 4 undefeated national championship teams. The first, however, were the 1956 San Francisco Dons, who ended the season with a 29-0 record after defeating Iowa, 83-71, in the championship game.

The following pairings list the first round matchups in the 1939 NCAA tournament. Which two teams met in the first NCAA basketball tournament game ?

Brown and Villanova. The pairings listed make up the first round games in the first NCAA tournament played in 1939. Villanova defeated Brown, 42-30, in the first game of a March 17th doubleheader in the first game in NCAA tournament history.

From 1964 to 1975, UCLA won ten basketball championships in twelve years. Which team was UCLA's opponent in the 1964 championship game ?

Duke. Led by Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich, UCLA won the 1964 championship by defeating Duke, 98-83, in the tournament's final game.

The objection to racial integration caused friction on college campuses in the 1950s and 1960s. Mississippi State's 1963 team had to sneak out of town in order to play against a racially integrated team in the NCAA tournament. Who were the Bulldogs opponents in that celebrated game ?

Loyola (Illinois). Mississippi State won the SEC title in 1959, 1961, and 1962, but were forced to skip the NCAA tournament due to state prohibitions of the team playing racially integrated squads. Behind coach Babe McCarthy, the team left town before a state senator could serve them with an injunction that would prohibit them for playing the Loyola Ramblers, a team that started four African Americans. Loyola ended up winning the historic contest, 61-51.

Which was the last school to reject a bid to participate in the NCAA Division I Tournament ?

Marquette. Marquette passed on a bid to participate in the 1970 NCAA basketball tournament. Irked over the NCAA's decision to assign the school to the Midwest Regional, played in Fort Worth, Texas, rather than the Mideast Regional in Dayton, Ohio, coach Al McGuire accepted instead a bid to play in the National Invitation Tournament, which they won. The Warriors ended the season 26-3 and were ranked 8th nationally.

One player had five of the top ten single game scoring outputs in Division I tournament history during the 20th century. Who was he ?

Austin Carr of Notre Dame. In 1970, Austin Carr scored 61 points against Ohio (an NCAA tournament record), 52 against Kentucky, and 45 against Iowa. In 1971, Carr scored 47 against Houston and 52 against Texas Christian. All five of these games rank among the top 10 outputs in Division I tournament history.

Who won the last consolation game at the Final Four of the Division I tournament ?

Virginia. Virginia (led by Ralph Sampson and Jeff Lamp) defeated LSU, 78-74, in 1981 to win the third-place consolation game at the NCAA final four tournament. Beginning with the 1982 tournament, this game was no longer played.

Only one team entered the NCAA tournament unbeaten, then proceeded to lose its opening game in the tournament. Which school ended 21-1 after entering the tournament 21-0 ?

Columbia. After an unbeaten regular season, the 1951 Columbia Lions lost their NCAA tournament opener to Illinois, 79-71. The other schools mentioned had teams that went unbeaten in the regular season and lost in the NCAA tournament, but not in their opening game.

Which of the following coaches ended their college coaching careers with an NCAA championship ?

Larry Brown of Kansas. Kansas defeated conference rival Oklahoma, 83-79, in the final game coach Larry Brown would coach at the COLLEGIATE level in the 20th century.

Which of the following was the youngest coach to guide his squad to an NCAA tournament championship ?

Branch McCracken of Indiana. 31-year old Branch McCracken was the coach of Indiana in 1940 when the Hoosiers won the NCAA championship by defeating Kansas, 60-42.

There have been a number of famous last-second shots to win games in the NCAA tournament, the most famous of which is Christian Laettner's jumper giving Duke a 104-103 overtime victory in the 1992 East Regional final. Which of the following famous buzzer-beating shots also won an overtime game at the tournament ?

Vic Rouse's tip-in at the buzzer to give Loyola the 1963 NCAA championship over Cincinnati. With :03 left in overtime, the two-time defending champion Cincinnati Bearcats tied the score at 58-58. Loyola's Les Hunter then launched a brick from the left baseline, but Vic Rouse, anticipating Hunter’s shot, grabbed the rebound and laid it in at the buzzer for the title.

There have been a number of famous upsets in NCAA tournament history. Which of the following celebrated upsets occured by the widest margin of victory ?

#15 seed Coppin State over #2 seed South Carolina in 1997. Coppin State stunned South Carolina, 78-65, in the opening round of the 1997 tournament. The other three listed games were closer at the end. Richmond downed Syracuse 73-69, Princeton edged UCLA 43-41, and Villanova topped Georgetown 66-64.

15 teams in the 20th century made the NCAA tournament with losing records. Only one of them won a game; that team went 2-1 and made it to the regional final. That team also happened to have the worst regular season record for any team entering the NCAA tournament. From what school did that team come ?

Bradley. In 1955, district five tournament selectors had to name two independents to fill out the tournament bracket. Since only two independent teams existed in the district, both Bradley (7-19) and Oklahoma City (9-17) were named to the tournament. Bradley defeated Oklahoma City, 69-65, and SMU, 81-79, before losing to Colorado, 93-81, in the Midwest Regional final. (This rule was changed for the following season.)

The NCAA started seeding its teams beginning with the 1979 Division I tournament. The lowest seeded team to reach the final four was a #11 seed. From which school did that number 11 seed come ?

Louisiana State. The 1986 final four consisted of number one seeds Duke and Kansas, number two seed Louisville, and number eleven seed LSU. Penn made it to the final four as a number nine seed in 1979; Villanova in 1985 and Wisconsin in 2000 were number eight seeds, as was UCLA in 1980.

Which of the following conferences did not have a team win a game at the NCAA Division I tournament in the 20th century ?

Big South Conference. The Big South Conference did not have a team win a game at the NCAA tournament in the 20th century.

Which of these all-time great players collected the most rebounds in a Division I final four game ?

Bill Russell of San Francisco. Bill Russell collected 27 rebounds against Iowa in the Dons' 83-71 championship game victory in 1956 to set the record.

March 19, 1996: on this day Texas Western defeated Kentucky, 72-66, at Cole Field House to win the NCAA title - the only title UCLA did not claim between 1964 and 1973. Which of the following statements about the game that day is NOT true ?

Texas Western guard Bobby Jo Hill was named the MVP of the 1966 final four.. This game has been credited with tourning around the public perception of the ability of African Americans to play basketball, but in reality it was a natural progression as basketball teams like San Francisco and Loyola won national titles featuring African Americans. Although Bobby Jo Hill was named to the all-tournament team, Jerry Chambers from the fourth place Utah squad was named the tournament's MVP.

Lew Alcindor was the first and only player to win the MVP award at the final four on three occasions. Four other players won it twice. Which of the players below won the Final Four MVP award on only one occasion ?

Bill Russell of San Francisco. While San Francisco won the title in both 1955 and 1956, Russell won the MVP award only for his 1955 performance. The 1956 MVP award went to Hal Lear of the third place Temple squad.

The NCAA named an all-time all star team on the occasion of the final four's 50th anniversary. Which of the following players was NOT named to that team ?

Christian Laettner of Duke. The 50th anniversary team was named in conjunction with the tournament's 50th anniversary, which occured in 1988. Christian Laettner, who played for Duke after that season, could not have been named to the team. In addition to Bird, Chamberlain, and Johnson, Michael Jordan of North Carolina and Lew Alcindor of UCLA were named to the squad.