 | |||||
| Teams | 8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | Patten Gymnasium, Evanston, Illinois | ||||
| Champions | Oregon Webfoots (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Ohio State Buckeyes (1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| Winning coach | Howard Hobson (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Jimmy Hull, (Ohio State) | ||||
| Attendance | 15,025 | ||||
| Top scorer | Jimmy Hull, (Ohio State) (58 points) | ||||
| |||||
The1939 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing insingle-elimination play to determine theNCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. It was the 1st NCAA basketball national championship tournament, although it was operated by theNational Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) at the time.
The tournament began on March 17, 1939, and ended with thechampionship game on March 27, at thePatten Gymnasium onNorthwestern University's campus inEvanston, Illinois.[1][2][3][4] A total of eight games were played, including a single third-place game in the West region. The East region did not hold a third-place game until1941, and there was no national third-place game until1946.
Oregon, coached byHoward Hobson, won the national title with a 46–33 victory in the final game overOhio State, coached byHarold Olsen.Jimmy Hull of Ohio State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Despite its success in this first tournament, Oregon would not make another Final Four until2017.
One team would represent each of the NCAA's eight geographic districts for a total of eight teams. Each district had a selection committee which determined their representative; one district elected to hold a playoff to determine the bid. In the bracket, the four eastern districts met for the East Regional, and the four western districts met for the West Regional; the champions of each region met inEvanston, Illinois for the championship game.
The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1939 tournament:
District selection committees decided upon their representative, with most analyzing the top teams and selecting one.[5] Districts 2, 6, and 8 invitedVillanova,Texas, andOregon, respectively, who accepted their invitations. Other districts had their first choice decline the invitation. District 1 initially selectedDartmouth, theEastern Intercollegiate Basketball League champion, but they declined the invitation and the committee subsequently invited independentBrown. District 3 selectedSouthern Conference championWake Forest overSouthern Conference tournament championClemson andSoutheastern Conference tournament championKentucky. District 4 selected independentBradley, but they elected to participate in theNational Invitation Tournament instead; the committee then invited their second-best team,Ohio State, theBig Ten champion. District 7 selectedColorado, the champion of theMountain States Conference but they declined the invitation due to not wanting to travel again after a mid-season trip to New York City. Utah State was instead invited to represent District 7.[6]
One district, District 5, decided to host a four-team playoff inOklahoma City to determine which team would represent them in the tournament. The committee invitedMissouri andOklahoma from theBig 6 Conference andOklahoma A&M andDrake from theMissouri Valley Conference. However, Missouri declined the invitation to the playoff. Oklahoma A&M defeated Drake in the first round of the playoffs, and Oklahoma won the second game against A&M to advance to the tournament.[7]
| First Round March 13 | Second Round March 14 | ||||||
| Oklahoma | 30 | ||||||
| Oklahoma A&M | 23 | Oklahoma A&M | 21 | ||||
| Drake | 22 | ||||||
| School | Coach | Conference | NCAA District | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | Eck Allen | Independent | District 1 | 16–3 |
| Ohio State | Harold Olsen | Big Ten | District 4 | 14–6 |
| Villanova | Alex Severance | Independent | District 2 | 19–4 |
| Wake Forest | Murray Greason | Southern | District 3 | 18–5 |
| School | Coach | Conference | NCAA District | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | Bruce Drake | Big Six | District 5 | 11–8 |
| Oregon | Howard Hobson | Pacific Coast | District 8 | 26–5 |
| Texas | Jack Gray | Southwest | District 6 | 19–4 |
| Utah State | Dick Romney | Mountain States | District 7 | 16–6 |
| Regional Semifinals | Regional Finals | National Championship | |||||||||||
| March 17 | |||||||||||||
| Villanova | 42 | ||||||||||||
| March 18 | |||||||||||||
| Brown | 30 | ||||||||||||
| Villanova | 36 | ||||||||||||
| East – Philadelphia | |||||||||||||
| Ohio State | 53 | ||||||||||||
| Ohio State | 64 | ||||||||||||
| Evanston, Illinois – March 27 | |||||||||||||
| Wake Forest | 52 | ||||||||||||
| Ohio State | 33 | ||||||||||||
| March 20 | |||||||||||||
| Oregon | 46 | ||||||||||||
| Oregon | 56 | ||||||||||||
| March 21 | |||||||||||||
| Texas | 41 | ||||||||||||
| Oregon | 55 | ||||||||||||
| West – San Francisco | |||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | 37 | ||||||||||||
| Utah State | 39 | ||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | 50 | ||||||||||||
| West Third Place Game | |||||||||||||
| March 21 | |||||||||||||
| Texas | 49 | ||||||||||||
| Utah State | 51 | ||||||||||||