The 1961 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 24 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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Division I

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in the

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. It began on March 14, 1961, and ended with the championship game on March 25 in

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. A total of 28 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.

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, coached by Ed Jucker, won the national title with a 70–65 victory in the final game over in-state rival and defending national champion

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, coached by Fred Taylor.

Jerry Lucas Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State University, and 1960 Olympic medal, gold medal Olympian and international player be ...

of Ohio State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The national third-place game, won by Saint Joseph's over by the score of 127–120 in four overtimes, tied the record for the longest game in NCAA Division I tournament history, set in

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in a first-round game between

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and

North Carolina State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

. As of the regional finals of the 2019 tournament, no NCAA Division I tournament games since then have gone to a fourth overtime period. Saint Joseph's victory was later vacated because of the 1961 gambling scandal.

Locations

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

Mideast region

Midwest region

West region

Final Four

* - denotes overtime # - Saint Joseph's was later forced to vacate their appearance in the 1961 NCAA Tournament due to a gambling scandal involving a player on the team. Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Saint Joseph's removing the wins from its own record.

National Third Place Game

Regional third place games

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1961 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 Portland, Oregon Basketball in Houston