The 1938–39 NCAA men's basketball season began in December 1938, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the

1939 NCAA basketball tournament The 1939 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. It was the first NCAA basketball national championship tournament, although it was ope ...

championship game on March 27, 1939, at

Patten Gymnasium Patten Gymnasium is the name of two multi-purpose gymnasiums (one past and one present) in Evanston, Illinois, United States, on the campus of Northwestern University. The original building, designed by George Washington Maher, opened in 1910 and ...

in Evanston,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. The Oregon Webfoots won the first NCAA national championship with a 46–33 victory over the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

Rule changes

After a team makes a

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

as a result of a

technical foul In basketball, a technical foul (colloquially known as a "T" or a "tech") is any infraction of the rules penalized as a foul which does not involve physical contact during the course of play between opposing players on the court, or is a foul by a ...

, it retains possession and throws the ball in from out of bounds. Previously, a jump ball at center court had taken place after a team shot a free throw as a result of a technical foul.

Season headlines

* The

Skyline Conference The Skyline Conference is a college athletic conference based in the New York City area that competes in the NCAA's Division III. The league was originally chartered on May 16, 1989, as a men's basketball conference and now sponsors 17 sports (ni ...

began play, with seven original members. The

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

became a non-major conference after the departure of seven of its larger members for the Skyline Conference. * The practice of naming a Consensus All-American Second Team began. * The NCAA tournament was held for the first time, operated by the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, head men's basketball coach at the University ...

rather than the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

itself. Eight teams competed. The tournament lost $2,500; although 5,000 fans attended the championship game, many of the tickets were given away.Anonymous, "How the NCAA Overtook Its Rival, the NIT," ''Sport History Weekly'', March 24, 2019 Accessed May 4, 2021
/ref> The NCAA viewed its champion as the official national champion, the National Invitation Tournament, which had debuted the previous year, widely was considered the more prestigious of the two tournaments and the "true" national championship tournament through at least the mid-1950s, with better teams often choosing the NIT over the NCAA or playing in both tournaments in the same year. * The

Eastern Intercollegiate Conference The Eastern Intercollegiate Conference (EIC) was an athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. The conference sponsored men's college basketball and existed from 1932 to 1939, with teams in the Dist ...

and the Northern California Conference both disbanded at the end of the season. * In February 1943, the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively selected Long Island, the

1938 National Invitation Tournament The 1938 National Invitation Tournament was the 1938 edition of the annual NCAA basketball competition. It was the inaugural National Invitational Tournament and was won by Temple. Selected teams Below is a list of the six teams selected for the ...

winner, as its national champion for the 1938–39 season. * In 1995, the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

retroactively selected Long Island as its national champion for the 1938–39 season.

Conference membership changes

Regular season

Conference winners and tournaments

Statistical leaders

Post-Season Tournaments

NCAA Tournament

Semifinals & finals

National Invitation Tournament

Semifinals & finals

* Third Place – Bradley 40, St. John's 35

Awards

Consensus All-American teams

Major player of the year awards

* Helms Player of the Year:

Chet Jaworski Chester Stanley Jaworski (November 8, 1916 – October 16, 2003) was the University of Rhode Island (URI)'s first All-American selection in men's basketball. As a senior in 1938–39, he led the nation in scoring at 22.9 points per game and w ...

, Rhode Island State (retroactive selection in 1944)

Other major awards

* NIT/Haggerty Award (Top player in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

metro area): Irv Torgoff, Long Island

Coaching changes

A number of teams changed coaches during the season and after it ended.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1938-39 Ncaa Men's Basketball Season