The 1957 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 23 schools playing in

single-elimination 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 ...

play to determine the national champion of men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

in the

NCAA 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 an ...

University Division, replaced in 1973 by

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

. The 1956–57 school year was the first in which NCAA members were formally divided into separate competitive levels, with larger and more competitive athletic programs placed in the University Division and smaller programs placed in the College Division (which would be replaced by

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

and

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their st ...

in 1973). The 19th edition of the NCAA tournament began on March 11, 1957, and ended with the

championship game In sport, a championship is a Competition#Sports, competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match sy ...

on March 23 in Kansas City,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. A total of 27 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, coached by

Frank McGuire Frank Joseph McGuire (November 8, 1913 – October 11, 1994) was an American basketball coach. At the collegiate level, he was head coach for three major programs: St. John's, North Carolina, and South Carolina, winning over a hundred games at e ...

, won the national title with a 54–53 triple-overtime victory in the final game over

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

, coached by Dick Harp.

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...

of Kansas became the fourth player to be named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player despite not playing for the championship team.

Tournament notes

North Carolina won two consecutive triple overtime games to win the championship. The North Carolina – Michigan State semi final game and North Carolina – Kansas final game both made ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

''s list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time at 11 and 6 respectively.Mike Douchant �
Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history
The Sports Xchange, published in ''USA Today'', March 25, 2002

Locations

For the seventh time, Kansas City and the Municipal Auditorium hosted the Final Four. This tied the record, with Madison Square Garden, of hosting the most Final Fours in a single arena all-time, a record it would break in 1961 and which it still holds today. Once again, four new sites were used for the tournament. In the Midwest Regional,

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

and the city of Dallas hosted tournament games for the first time at the SMU Coliseum, in its first year of operation. This marked the first games ever in the state of Texas, and the first in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Three of the first round sites were also new. In Columbus, another new building, St. John Arena on the campus of

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, hosted games for the first time, the first games held in the state of Ohio. The state of Idaho became the first of the western mountain states to host games, at Reed Gymnasium on the campus of Idaho State College in Pocatello. And for the second time in three years,

Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and docto ...

hosted the first round at a high school gymnasium, this time at the Capitol Hill High School Gym, a 4,000 seat gym in the southern part of the city. The city would not host games again for twenty years, until the Myriad Convention Center began hosting tournament games. This would also be the only time Reed Gym would host games; subsequent games in Pocatello would be hosted at the

Minidome Holt Arena is an indoor multi-purpose athletic stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of Idaho State University (ISU) in Pocatello, Idaho. It is the home field of the Idaho State Bengals football, Idaho State Bengals of the Bi ...

, its successor as home to the Bengals men's basketball team.

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

Mideast region

Midwest region

West region

Final Four

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1957 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Basketball in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex NCAA University Division basketball tournament NCAA University Division basketball tournament