| Teams | 8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri | ||||
| Champions | Stanford Indians (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Dartmouth Indians (1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Everett Dean (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Howie Dallmar (Stanford) | ||||
| Attendance | 24,373 | ||||
| Top scorers | Chet Palmer, (Rice) Jim Pollard, (Stanford) (43 points) | ||||
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The1942 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing insingle-elimination play to determine the national champion of men'sNCAADivision Icollege basketball. The 4th annual edition of the tournament began on March 20, 1942, and ended with thechampionship game on March 28, at theMunicipal Auditorium inKansas City, Missouri. A total of nine games were played, including a third place game in each region.
Stanford, coached byEverett Dean, won the national title with a 53–38 victory in the final game overDartmouth, coached byO. B. Cowles.Howie Dallmar of Stanford was named the tournament'sMost Outstanding Player. The Indians' success, however, was not to last, as they would not make the tournament again for 47 years, which is currently tied for the eighth-longest drought in NCAA tournament history.
Everett Dean is the only coach to have never lost an NCAA tournament game. Dean was 3–0 in his lone appearance.
Colorado, Dartmouth, Kansas and Rice became the first teams to appear in multiple NCAA Tournaments by appearing in the 1942 tournament.
The following were the sites selected to host each round of the 1942 tournament:
| East Regional -New Orleans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| School | Coach | Conference | Record |
| Dartmouth | Osborne Cowles | EIBL | 20–3 |
| Illinois | Doug Mills | Big Ten | 18–3 |
| Kentucky | Adolph Rupp | SEC | 18–5 |
| Penn State | John Lawther | Independent | 17–2 |
| West Regional -Kansas City | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| School | Coach | Conference | Record |
| Colorado | Frosty Cox | Mountain States | 15–1 |
| Kansas | Phog Allen | Big Six | 16–4 |
| Rice | Buster Brannon | Southwest | 22–3 |
| Stanford | Everett Dean | Pacific Coast | 25–4 |
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| Dartmouth | 44 | |||||||||||||
| Penn State | 39 | |||||||||||||
| Dartmouth | 47 | |||||||||||||
| Kentucky | 28 | |||||||||||||
| Kentucky | 46 | |||||||||||||
| Illinois | 44 | |||||||||||||
| Dartmouth | 38 | |||||||||||||
| Stanford | 53 | |||||||||||||
| Stanford | 53 | |||||||||||||
| Rice | 47 | |||||||||||||
| Stanford | 46 | |||||||||||||
| Colorado | 35 | |||||||||||||
| Colorado | 46 | |||||||||||||
| Kansas | 44 | |||||||||||||
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