The 1945 NCAA basketball tournament was an eight-team

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

to determine the national champion of men's

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(NCAA)

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. It began on March 22, 1945, and ended with the championship game on March 27 in

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. A total of nine games were played, including a third place game in each region. Oklahoma A&M, coached by

Henry Iba Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri St ...

, won the national title with a 49–45 victory in the final game over NYU, coached by Howard Cann.

Bob Kurland Robert Albert Kurland (December 23, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was a American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies (now Oklahoma State Cowboys) basketball team. He led the U.S. basketball team to go ...

of Oklahoma A&M was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Locations

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1945 tournament:

Regionals

;March 22 and 24 :East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York ;March 23 and 24 :West Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri

Championship Game

;March 27: : Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

Regional third place

Notes

* This was the first appearance for Oklahoma A&M, who would win their first two NCAA tournaments. They would be the first team to win multiple tournaments, and the first team to repeat as champions. Of the nine other teams to win the championship in their first tournament appearance, only

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was able to repeat as well. * Three teams - NYU, Ohio State and Oklahoma A&M - would return for the 1946 tournament. Arkansas and Kentucky would both return within four years; Utah would not return to the tournament until 1955, and Oregon would not return until 1960. * This was the only appearance of then-Tufts College, who are currently in Division III. Tufts is one of fourteen colleges and universities to have made the NCAA tournament and no longer be in Division I.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1945 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

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 ...

NCAA basketball tournament NCAA basketball tournament