The 1977–78 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November 1977, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the

1978 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 1978 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 32 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1978, and ended with the championship g ...

Championship Game on March 27, 1978, at The Checkerdome in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. The

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30, ...

won their fifth NCAA national championship with a 94–88 victory over the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

Season headlines

* On December 13, 1977, the

University of Evansville The University of Evansville (UE) is a private university in Evansville, Indiana. It was founded in 1854 as Carnegie Hall of Moores Hill College, Moores Hill College. The university operates a satellite center, Harlaxton Manor, Harlaxton College ...

's first season of

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division 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 athlet ...

men's basketball came to a tragic and premature end when Air Indiana Flight 216 crashed just after takeoff from Evansville Regional Airport in

Evansville Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, killing all 29 people on board, including Evansville Purple Aces head coach Bobby Watson and all but one member of the team, which was on its way to Murfreesboro,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, for a game against

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

. The only surviving member of the team, 18-year-old freshman David Furr, was not on the plane because he was out for the season with an ankle injury, but Furr and his younger brother died in an automobile accident two weeks after the plane crash. With its entire 1977–78 men's basketball team dead after Furr's accident, the university decided to cancel the rest of the season rather than attempt to continue it with a substitute team. * In the Pacific 8 Conference,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

won its 12th of what would ultimately be 13 consecutive conference titles. * For the first time, the NCAA used a seeding process to align teams in the NCAA tournament brackets. * Bob Bender of

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

becomes the first player to play in the NCAA championship game for two different teams. He had played for

in the 1976 championship game.

Season outlook

Pre-season polls

The top 20 from the AP Poll during the pre-season.

Conference membership changes

Regular season

Conferences

Conference winners and tournaments

The

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United St ...

— with members

Alcorn State Alcorn State University (Alcorn State, ASU or Alcorn) is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. T ...

, Grambling State, Jackson State, Mississippi Valley State, Prairie View A&M, Southern, and Texas Southern — became a Division I conference this season. NOTE: From

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

, the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from ...

(ECAC), a loosely organized sports federation of colleges and universities in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

, organized Division I ECAC regional tournaments for those of its members that were independents in basketball. Each 1978 tournament winner received an automatic bid to the

in the same way that the tournament champions of conventional

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

s did.Varsity Pride: ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments
/ref>

Conference standings

Division I independents

A total of 78 college teams played as Division I independents. Among them, DePaul (27–3) had both the best

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage or Copeland score is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the to ...

(.900) and the most wins.

Informal championships

Rutgers finished with a 6–1 record in head-to-head competition among members of the New Jersey-New York 7 Conference. Temple and Villanova both finished with 3–1 records in head-to-head competition among the Philadelphia Big 5.

Statistical leaders

Post-season tournaments

NCAA tournament

Final Four

National Invitation tournament

Semifinals & finals

Awards

Consensus All-American teams

Major player of the year awards

* Wooden Award: Phil Ford,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

* Naismith Award:

Butch Lee Alfred "Butch" Lee Jr. (born December 5, 1956) is a Puerto Rican former professional basketball player. Lee was the first Puerto Rican and first Latin American-born athlete to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), accomplishing thi ...

, Marquette * Helms Player of the Year: Jack Givens,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

* Associated Press Player of the Year:

, Marquette * UPI Player of the Year:

, Marquette *

NABC Player of the Year The NABC Player of the Year is an award given annually by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to recognize the top player in men's college basketball across the three largest college athletic associations in the United States. Th ...

: Phil Ford,

Oscar Robertson Trophy The Oscar Robertson Trophy is given out annually to the most outstanding NCAA Division I men's basketball player by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), first presented in 1958–59 NCAA University Division men's basketball season, 19 ...

(

USBWA The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 with the urging of National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The U ...

): Phil Ford,

Adolph Rupp Trophy The Adolph F. Rupp Trophy was an annual college basketball award given to the top player in men's NCAA Division I competition. It was awarded between 1972 and 2015. The recipient of the award was selected by an independent panel consisting of nat ...

, Marquette * ''Sporting News'' Player of the Year: Phil Ford,

Major coach of the year awards

* Associated Press Coach of the Year:

Eddie Sutton Edward Eugene Sutton (March 12, 1936 – May 23, 2020) was an American college basketball coach. A native of Bucklin, Kansas, Sutton played college basketball at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball, Oklahoma State) and was a h ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

Henry Iba Award The Henry Iba Award was established in 1959 to recognize the best college basketball coach of the year by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Five nominees are presented and the individual with the most votes receives the ...

(

Ray Meyer Raymond Joseph Meyer (December 18, 1913 – March 17, 2006) was an American men's collegiate basketball coach from Chicago, Illinois. He was well known for coaching at DePaul University from 1942 to 1984, compiling a 724–354 record. Care ...

, DePaul *

NABC Coach of the Year The NABC Coach of the Year is an award given annually by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to recognize the top head coach in men's college basketball across the four largest college athletic associations in the United States. ...

: Bill Foster,

& Abe Lemons,

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 ...

* UPI Coach of the Year:

* ''Sporting News'' Coach of the Year: Bill Foster,

Other major awards

Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award was an annual college basketball award in the United States intended to honor players who excelled on the court in spite of their height. The award, named in honor of James Naismith's daughter-in-law, was establi ...

(Best player under 6'0): Mike Scheib, Susquehanna * Robert V. Geasey Trophy (Top player in

Philadelphia Big 5 The Philadelphia Big 5, known simply as the "Big 5", is an association of six college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference, but rather a group of NCAA Division I basketball schools who compete for the city’ ...

): Michael Brooks, La Salle * NIT/Haggerty Award (Top player in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

metro area): George Johnson, St. John's

Coaching changes

A number of teams changed coaches during the season and after it ended.

References

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