1944 NCAA basketball tournament

The 1944 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 24, 1944, and ended with the championship game on March 28 in New York City. A total of nine games were played, including a third place game in each region.

Utah, coached by Vadal Peterson, won the national title with a 42–40 victory in the final game over Dartmouth, coached by Earl Brown. Arnie Ferrin of Utah was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Utah became the first team to play in both the NIT and NCAA tournament in the same season. Utah was given a second chance to play in the NCAA Tournament after a March 1944 automobile accident killed a coaching aide and seriously injured two players on the Arkansas team.^[1]

Utah's winning team featured Wataru Misaka, who later joined the New York Knicks to become the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball.^[2]

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Locations

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1944 tournament:

Regionals

March 24 and 25: East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: Metropolitan New York Conference); West Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)

Championship Game

March 28: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: Metropolitan New York Conference)

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Conference	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	Catholic	John Long	Independent	Regional Fourth Place	Temple	L 55–35
East	Dartmouth	Earl Brown	EIBL	Runner Up	Utah	L 42–40
East	Ohio State	Harold Olsen	Big Ten	National Semifinals	Dartmouth	L 60–53
East	Temple	Josh Cody	Middle Atlantic	Regional third place	Catholic	W 55–35
West
West	Iowa State	Louis Menze	Big Six	National Semifinals	Utah	L 40–31
West	Missouri	George R. Edwards	Big Six	Regional third place	Pepperdine	W 61–46
West	Pepperdine	Al Duer	Independent	Regional Fourth Place	Missouri	L 61–46
West	Utah	Vadal Peterson	Skyline	Champion*	Dartmouth	W 42–40^OT

Bracket

Quarterfinals		Semifinals		Finals

Dartmouth	63

Catholic	38
		Dartmouth	60

		Ohio State	53
Ohio State	57

Temple	47
				Dartmouth	40

				Utah	42^OT
Iowa State	44

Pepperdine	39
		Iowa State	31

		Utah	40
Utah	45

Missouri	35

Regional third place

	East Regional third place

	Catholic		35

	Temple		55

	West Regional third place

	Pepperdine		46

	Missouri		61

^[3]

References

^ Chipman, Kit (April 30, 2010). "University of Utah 1944 National Basketball Championship". University of Utah Department of Communication. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
^ "New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
^ "1944 NCAA basketball tournament". College Basketball Reference. Retrieved April 4, 2018.

v t e NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
Tournaments	1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Structure	Selection process Venues No. 1 seeds First Four Elite Eight Final four
Champions & awards	List of champions Most Outstanding Player
Media & culture	Blue bloods Bracketology Broadcasting Tournament Final Four Cutting down the nets March Madness pools "One Shining Moment"
Records & statistics	Team records Bids by school Consecutive appearances Final Four participants Final Four appearances by coach Overall records Upsets
See also: Division I Women's Tournament, Division II Tournament, Division III Tournament

This page was last edited on 15 March 2024, at 06:29