The 1956 NCAA basketball tournament involved 25 schools playing in

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

play to determine the national champion of men's

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college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

. It began on March 12, 1956, and ended with the championship game on March 24 on

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's campus in

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. A total of 29 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game. The 1955–56 season was the last in which only one NCAA Tournament was held. Effective in 1956–57, the NCAA divided its membership into two competitive levels. The larger and more competitive athletic programs were placed in the University Division, and smaller programs in the College Division. Accordingly, that season would see separate tournaments contested in the

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and

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Divisions. In 1973, the University Division would be renamed

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, while the College Division would be split into today's Divisions II and III. This was the first NCAA tournament in which the four regionals were given distinct names, although the concept of four regional winners advancing to a single site for the "Final Four" had been introduced in

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, coached by

Phil Woolpert Philipp D. Woolpert (December 15, 1915 – May 5, 1987) was an American basketball coach, best known as the head coach of the University of San Francisco Dons in the 1950s. He led them to consecutive national championships in 1955 Biograph ...

, won the national title with an 83–71 victory in the final game over

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, coached by Bucky O'Connor. Hal Lear of

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was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Locations

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East Region

Midwest Region

West Region

Far West Region

Final Four

Notes

* Canisius's first-round victory over the second-ranked North Carolina State Wolfpack, considered by many to be among the top ten upsets in tournament history,, Prepticket.com. Accessed 2009-04-02. 2009-05-04. set a record for most overtime periods in a Division I men's tournament game with four, a record that still stands (tied once, in 1961). * Northwestern University previously hosted the first ever NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game on March 27, 1939, in the first Patten Gym. * Alabama (21–3, 14–0) had won the Southeastern Conference and had their all-time highest ranking (#4) at the end of the 1956 season, but due to a rule that players could not play as freshman, as their entire starting lineup had previously done, they were ruled ineligible for the 1956 NCAA Tournament. * There were six new participants in the 1956 tournament: Houston, Manhattan, Marshall, Michigan State, Morehead State and Wayne University (which became Wayne State University later that year). This was the only tournament for the Tartars (now Warriors), as they would drop to the College Division and eventually Division II. They are one of five teams to win a game in the tournament and drop from what is now Division I afterwards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1956 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

Ncaa The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

NCAA University Division basketball tournament NCAA University Division basketball tournament Sports in Evanston, Illinois