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The1955 NCAA basketball tournament involved 24 schools playing insingle-elimination play to determine the national champion of men'sNCAA Division Icollege basketball. The 17th annual edition of the tournament began on March 8, 1955, and ended with thechampionship game on March 19, at theMunicipal Auditorium inKansas City, Missouri. A total of 28 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.

San Francisco, coached byPhil Woolpert, won the national title with a 77–63 victory in the final game overLa Salle, coached byKen Loeffler.Bill Russell of San Francisco was named the tournament'sMost Outstanding Player.

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1955 tournament:

First round (March 8)

Madison Square Garden,New York, New York (Hosts:Fordham University,Columbia University)

East-1 Regional (March 11 and 12)

The Palestra,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Host:University of Pennsylvania)

First round (March 9)

Memorial Coliseum,Lexington, Kentucky (Host:University of Kentucky)

East-2 Regional (March 11 and 12)

McGaw Memorial Hall,Evanston, Illinois (Host:Northwestern University)

First round (March 8)

Thunderbird Coliseum,El Reno, Oklahoma (Host:Oklahoma City University)

West Regional (March 11 and 12)

Ahearn Field House,Manhattan, Kansas (Host:Kansas State University)

First round (March 8)

Cow Palace,San Francisco, California (Hosts:University of San Francisco,Stanford University,University of California, Berkeley)

West-2 Regional (March 11 and 12)

Oregon State Coliseum,Corvallis, Oregon (Host:Oregon State University)

March 18 and 19

Municipal Auditorium,Kansas City, Missouri (Host:Missouri Valley Conference)

• 1955 National Invitation Tournament
• 1955 NAIA Basketball Tournament

• The 1955 tournament saw a record eleven teams - Canisius, Duke, Iowa, Marquette, Memphis State, San Francisco, Southern Methodist, Tulsa, West Texas State, West Virginia and Williams College - make the tournament for the first time. This beat the record of ten teams set in 1953 (the first year which the tournament expanded to include a regional quarterfinal round), and would be beat in 1981 when 12 teams made the tournament.
• Two teams in the field, West Texas State College (now known as West Texas A&M University) and Williams College of Williamstown, Massachusetts, are no longer in Division I. Neither team would make the tournament again; West Texas is now in Division II and Williams is in Division III. The NCAA would split into University and College Divisions in 1956, thus ending the chances for smaller teams such as these to make the tournament.

• NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
• 1954–55 NCAA men's basketball season
• 1955 in sports in Missouri
• March 1955 sports events in the United States

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