The 1959 NAIA men's basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in

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. The 22nd annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. The 1959 Tournament is the first tournament to use the 16-seed system, which was used until the

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. The championship game again featured

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...

. The Tigers defeated the Lutes of

Pacific Lutheran University Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) is a private Lutheran university in Parkland, Washington. It was founded by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants in 1890. PLU is sponsored by the 580 congregations of Region I of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ame ...

. It would be the first time any school would win three consecutive tournaments; a feat only repeated once, by Kentucky State, in

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1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

. It was also the first tournament that didn't feature an upset in the championship game and first time a "true" number 1 seed won the tournament since seeding began in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

Awards and honors

Many of the records set by the 1959 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later: *Leading scorer est. 1963 *Leading rebounder est. 1963 *Player of the Year est. 1994 *Most consecutive tournament victories; continues: ''18 overall; 5 in 1959'', Tennessee State,

- 58-59- 60 *Most rebounds: ''32'', Ken Remley, West Virginia Wesleyan vs. Whittier (Calif.) *All-time leading scorer; second appearance: ''Charles Sharp, 5th'' Southwest Texas State (1957,59,60) 12 games, 118 field goals, 69 free throws, 305 total points, 25.4 average per game *All-time leading scorers; final appearance: ''Dick Barnett, 3rd'', Tennessee State (1956,57,58,59) 18 games, 186 field goals, 79 free throws, 451 total points 25.1 average per game, ''Charles Curtis, 8th'', Pacific Lutheran (Wash.) (1956,57,58,59) 14 games 101 field goals, 85 free throws, 287 total points, 20.5 average per game, ''Roger Iverson, 20th'', Pacific Lutheran (1956,57,58,59) 14 games, 109 field goals, 23 free throws, 241 total points, 17.2 average per game, and ''John Barnhill, 21st'', Tennessee State (1956,57,58,59) 17 games, 104 field goals, 27 free throws, 235 total points, 13.8 average per game.NAIA Championship History

1959 NAIA bracket

Third-place game

The third-place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.

References

{{NAIA men's basketball tournament NAIA Men's Basketball Championship

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

NAIA men's basketball tournament Naia or NAIA may refer to: Sports * National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics * NAIA Softball Championship * NAIA Volleyball Championship * NAIA World Series * NAIA Wrestling Championship * NAIA lacrosse Other * Naia (skeleton), a Pale ...

Awards and honors

1959 NAIA bracket

Third-place game

See also

References