1943 NCAA Basketball Tournament
The 1943 NCAA Basketball Tournament involved 8 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 24, 1943, and ended with the championship game on March 30 in New York City. A total of 9 games were played, including a third place game in each region. Top-ranked Illinois declined to participate in the NCAA Tournament or NIT after three of its starters were drafted into the Army.
Teams | 8 | ||||
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Finals site | Madison Square Garden New York City | ||||
Champions | Wyoming Cowboys (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
Runner-up | Georgetown Hoyas (1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
Semifinalists |
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Winning coach | Everett Shelton (1st title) | ||||
MOP | Ken Sailors (Wyoming) | ||||
Attendance | 56,876 | ||||
Top scorer | John Hargis Texas (59 points) | ||||
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Wyoming, coached by Everett Shelton, won the national title with a 46–34 victory in the final game over Georgetown, coached by Elmer Ripley.[1][2][3] Ken Sailors of Wyoming was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Locations
Only two venues hosted the 1943 tournament:
Regionals
- March 24 and 25
- East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
- March 26 and 27
- West Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri
Championship Game
- March 30
- Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
For the third straight year, the Municipal Auditorium was the site of the West regional games, but unlike the previous two years, it was not the site of the championship game. This honor fell for the first time to the Madison Square Garden in New York, the country's most prestigious arena at the time. The Garden also hosted the East Regional for the first time, ending a streak of three straight years of it being west of the Appalachians and four straight years of being on a college campus (although the arena did, at the time, host many of the local college teams as an alternate venue). This marked the first of seven times in eight years that the tournament did not feature any college arenas, the only seven times to date for this to happen. The same span saw the same venues used every year except 1949, when Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle hosted the championship game.
Teams
East Regional - New York City | |||
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School | Coach | Conference | Record |
Dartmouth | Osborne Cowles | EIBL | 19–2 |
DePaul | Ray Meyer | Independent | 18–4 |
Georgetown | Elmer Ripley | Independent | 20–4 |
NYU | Howard Cann | Metropolitan New York | 16–4 |
West Regional - Kansas City | |||
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School | Coach | Conference | Record |
Oklahoma | Bruce Drake | Big Six | 17–8 |
Texas | Bully Gilstrap | Southwest | 18–6 |
Washington | Hec Edmundson | Pacific Coast | 24–5 |
Wyoming | Everett Shelton | Mountain States | 28–2 |
Bracket
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
Georgetown | 55 | |||||||||||||
NYU | 36 | |||||||||||||
Georgetown | 53 | |||||||||||||
DePaul | 49 | |||||||||||||
DePaul | 46 | |||||||||||||
Dartmouth | 35 | |||||||||||||
Georgetown | 34 | |||||||||||||
Wyoming | 46 | |||||||||||||
Texas | 59 | |||||||||||||
Washington | 55 | |||||||||||||
Texas | 54 | |||||||||||||
Wyoming | 58 | |||||||||||||
Wyoming | 53 | |||||||||||||
Oklahoma | 50 | |||||||||||||
Regional Third Place
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See also
- 1943 National Invitation Tournament
- 1943 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
References
- "Georgetown beaten by Wyoming, 46-34". Milwaukee Journal. United Press. March 31, 1943. p. 8, part 2.
- "Wyoming defeats Georgetown, 46-34, for NCAA basketball title". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). March 31, 1943. p. 8.
- "Wyoming takes coveted crown". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). United Press. March 31, 1943. p. 11.
- "1943 NCAA Basketball Tournament". College Basketball Reference. Retrieved 3 April 2018.