The 1939 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the Division I level ...

. It was the first NCAA basketball national championship tournament, although it was operated by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) at the time. The tournament began on March 17 and ended with the championship game on March 27 on

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

's campus in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

. A total of eight games were played, including a single third-place game in the West region. The East region did not hold a third-place game until 1941, and there was no national third-place game until

1946 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, coached by Howard Hobson, won the national title with a 46–33 victory in the final game over Ohio State, coached by Harold Olsen. Jimmy Hull of Ohio State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Despite its success in this first tournament, Oregon would not make another Final Four until 2017.

Tournament procedure

One team would represent each of the NCAA's eight geographic districts for a total of eight teams. Each district had a selection committee which determined their representative; one district elected to hold a playoff to determine the bid. In the bracket, the four eastern districts met for the East Regional, and the four western districts met for the West Regional; the champions of each region met in

for the championship game.

1939 NCAA tournament schedule and venues

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1939 tournament:

Regionals

;March 17 and 18 :East Regional, The Palestra,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

;March 20 and 21 :West Regional, California Coliseum,

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Championship Game

;March 30 : Patten Gymnasium,

Selection of teams

District decisions

District selection committees decided upon their representative, with most analyzing the top teams and selecting one. Districts 2, 6, and 8 invited Villanova,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and

, respectively, who accepted their invitations. Other districts had their first choice decline the invitation. District 1 initially selected , the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League champion, but they declined the invitation and the committee subsequently invited independent . District 3 selected

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...

champion over Southern Conference tournament champion Clemson and Southeastern Conference tournament champion . District 4 selected independent , but they elected to participate in the National Invitation Tournament instead; the committee then invited their second-best team, Ohio State, the Big Ten champion. District 7 selected , the champion of the Mountain States Conference but they declined the invitation due to not wanting to travel again after a mid-season trip to New York City. Utah State was instead invited to represent District 7.

District 5 playoff

One district, District 5, decided to host a four-team playoff in

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to determine which team would represent them in the tournament. The committee invited and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

from the Big 6 Conference and and from the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

. However, Missouri declined the invitation to the playoff. Oklahoma A&M defeated Drake in the first round of the playoffs, and Oklahoma won the second game against A&M to advance to the tournament.

Tournament teams

Bracket

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1939 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Tournament NCAA basketball tournament NCAA basketball tournament NCAA basketball tournament March 1939 sports events in the United States Sports in Evanston, Illinois