1973 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament

The 1973 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA University Division (now Division I, created later in 1973) college basketball. It began on Saturday, March 10, and ended with the championship game on Monday, March 26, in St. Louis, Missouri. A total of 29 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.

1973 NCAA University Division
Basketball Tournament

NCAA logo from 1971 to 1979
Teams	25
Finals site	St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri
Champions	UCLA Bruins (9th title, 9th title game, 10th Final Four)
Runner-up	Memphis State Tigers (1st title game, 1st Final Four)
Semifinalists	Indiana Hoosiers (3rd Final Four) Providence Friars (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	John Wooden (9th title)
MOP	Bill Walton (UCLA)
Attendance	163,160
Top scorer	Ernie DiGregorio Providence (128 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments «1972 1974»

Led by longtime head coach John Wooden, the UCLA Bruins won their seventh consecutive national title with an 87–66 victory in the final game over Memphis State, coached by Gene Bartow, a future head coach at UCLA. Junior center Bill Walton of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

This was the first year that the championship game was held on a Monday night, with Saturday semifinals. Previously, the championship game was on Saturday, with the semifinals on either Thursday or Friday. Also, this was the first year matchups in the semifinals rotated; previously, it was East vs. Mideast and West vs. Midwest every year.

Tournament notes

The UCLA – Memphis State championship game made USA Today's list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time at #18.[1] Bill Walton set a championship game record, hitting 21 of 22 shots and scoring 44 points.

This tournament marked the first appearance of Bob Knight as coach of Indiana University.

The participation for this tournament, as well as the previous tournament, for Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) was vacated on August 5, 1973, when the NCAA Committee on Infractions ruled the university guilty of over 100 violations, including impermissible benefits and doctoring high school transcripts of players. USL's program was shut down for the 1973–74 and 1974–75 seasons, all other Ragin Cajun' athletic programs were placed on three years' probation and banned from postseason participation, and the university was stripped of voting rights at the NCAA convention until 1977 (the NCAA originally planned to expel USL from the organization, but that sanction was downgraded in January 1974).

Locations

Round	Region	Site	Venue	Host
First Round	East	Jamaica, New York	Alumni Hall	St. John's
	East	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	The Palestra	Drexel/Penn/Temple
	East	Williamsburg, Virginia	William & Mary Hall	William & Mary
	Mideast	Dayton, Ohio	University of Dayton Arena	Dayton
	Midwest	Wichita, Kansas	Levitt Arena	Wichita State
	West	Logan, Utah	Dee Glen Smith Spectrum	Utah State
Regionals	East	Charlotte, North Carolina	Charlotte Coliseum	UNC Charlotte
	Mideast	Nashville, Tennessee	Memorial Gymnasium	Vanderbilt
	Midwest	Houston, Texas	Hofheinz Pavilion	Houston/Rice/Texas Southern
	West	Los Angeles, California	Pauley Pavilion	UCLA
Final Four		St. Louis, Missouri	St. Louis Arena	Missouri Valley Conference/St. Louis

The city of St. Louis became the 12th host city, and the St. Louis Arena became the thirteenth host venue, of the Final Four. The arena, home to the St. Louis Blues of the NHL and, at the time, the St. Louis Billikens basketball team, was the first of five straight venues to host the Final Four for the first time, and it was the first time the tournament was held in the city of St. Louis as well. Besides the St. Louis Arena, only one other venue made its debut in the tournament. For the second straight year, the tournament opened a new city in the state of Tennessee; this time, it was the capital city of Nashville. Memorial Gym on the campus of Vanderbilt University would go on to host the tournament four times overall before tournament games in the city were moved to the downtown Bridgestone Arena in 2000. Additionally, only one venue saw its final games in the 1972 Tournament, with William & Mary Hall ending its usage in the tournament. The tournament has come back to the state of Virginia twice since, both times being at the Richmond Coliseum in the capital city of Richmond.

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	Furman	Joe Williams	First round	Syracuse	L 83–82
East	Maryland	Lefty Driesell	Regional Runner-up	Providence	L 103–89
East	Penn	Chuck Daly	Regional Fourth Place	Syracuse	L 69–68
East	Providence	Dave Gavitt	Fourth Place	Indiana	L 97–79
East	St. John's	Frank Mulzoff	First round	Penn	L 62–61
East	Saint Joseph's	Jack McKinney	First round	Providence	L 89–76
East	Syracuse	Roy Danforth	Regional Third Place	Penn	W 69–68
Mideast
Mideast	Austin Peay	Lake Kelly	Regional Fourth Place	Marquette	L 88–73
Mideast	Indiana	Bob Knight	Third Place	Providence	W 97–79
Mideast	Jacksonville	Tom Wasdin	First round	Austin Peay	L 77–75
Mideast	Kentucky	Joe B. Hall	Regional Runner-up	Indiana	L 72–65
Mideast	Marquette	Al McGuire	Regional Third Place	Austin Peay	W 88–73
Mideast	Miami (OH)	Darrell Hedric	First round	Marquette	L 77–62
Midwest
Midwest	Houston	Guy Lewis	First round	Southwestern Louisiana	L 102–89
Midwest	Kansas State	Jack Hartman	Regional Runner-up	Memphis State	L 92–72
Midwest	Southwestern Louisiana (Vacated)	Beryl Shipley	Regional Fourth Place	South Carolina	L 90–85
Midwest	Memphis State	Gene Bartow	Runner Up	UCLA	L 87–66
Midwest	South Carolina	Frank McGuire	Regional Third Place	Southwestern Louisiana	W 90–85
Midwest	Texas Tech	Gerald Myers	First round	South Carolina	L 78–70
West
West	Arizona State	Ned Wulk	Regional Fourth Place	Long Beach State	L 84–80
West	Long Beach State	Jerry Tarkanian	Regional Third Place	Arizona State	W 84–80
West	Oklahoma City	Abe Lemons	First round	Arizona State	L 103–78
West	San Francisco	Bob Gaillard	Regional Runner-up	UCLA	L 54–39
West	UCLA	John Wooden	Champion	Memphis State	W 87–66
West	Weber State	Gene Visscher	First round	Long Beach State	L 88–75

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
							Maryland	91
							Syracuse	75
		Syracuse	83
		Furman	82
												Maryland	89
												Providence	103
		Penn	62
		St. John's	61
							Penn	65
							Providence	87
		Providence	89
		Saint Joseph's	76

	East Regional Third Place
	Syracuse		69
	Penn		68

Mideast region

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Indiana

75

Marquette

69

Marquette

77

Miami (OH)

62

Indiana

72

Kentucky

65

Kentucky

106

Austin Peay

100*

Austin Peay

77

Jacksonville

75

	Mideast Regional Third Place
	Marquette		88
	Austin Peay		73

Midwest region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
							Memphis State	90
							South Carolina	76
		South Carolina	78
		Texas Tech	70
												Memphis State	92
												Kansas State	72
							Kansas State	66
							Southwest Louisiana	63
		Southwest Louisiana	102
		Houston	89

	Midwest Regional Third Place
	South Carolina		90
	Southwestern Louisiana		85

West region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
							UCLA	98
							Arizona State	81
		Arizona State	103
		Oklahoma City	78
												UCLA	54
												San Francisco	39
							San Francisco	77
							Long Beach State	67
		Long Beach State	88
		Weber State	75

	West Regional Third Place
	Arizona State		80
	Long Beach State		84

Final Four

UCLA won its seventh consecutive championship and ninth in ten seasons

	National Semifinals Saturday, March 24					National Championship Game Monday, March 26
	E	Providence	85
	MW	Memphis State	98
						MW	Memphis State	66
						W	UCLA	87
	ME	Indiana	59
	W	UCLA	70			National Third Place Game
						ME	Indiana	97
						E	Providence	79

Aftermath

The 1973 NC State Wolfpack team averaged 93 ppg, led the nation in win margin (21.8 ppg), and posted a 27–0 record, but was ineligible for postseason play because of NCAA probation. David Thompson, a two-time national Player of the Year, and All-America Tom Burleson, led NC State to a 30–1 record the following season, losing only to seven-time defending champion UCLA. The Wolfpack avenged its only loss during the two-year period by defeating UCLA in the 1974 Final Four and winning the title.

Gene Bartow, the Memphis State coach, would be John Wooden's successor at UCLA after the 1974–1975 season.

See also

• 1973 NCAA College Division Basketball Tournament
• 1973 National Invitation Tournament
• 1973 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
• 1973 National Women's Invitation Tournament

References

1. Mike Douchant – Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002