1939 NCAA basketball tournament


The 1939 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. It was the 1st NCAA basketball national championship tournament, although it was operated by the National Association of Basketball Coaches at the time.
The tournament began on March 17, 1939, and ended with the championship game on March 27, at the Patten Gymnasium on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois. A total of eight games were played, including a single third-place game in the West region. The East region did not hold a third-place game until 1941, and there was no national third-place game until 1946.
[1938–39 1938–39 Oregon Webfoots men's basketball team|Oregon Webfoots men's basketball team|Oregon], coached by Howard Hobson, won the national title with a 46–33 victory in the final game over Ohio State, coached by Harold Olsen. Jimmy Hull of Ohio State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Despite its success in this first tournament, Oregon would not make another Final Four until 2017.

Tournament procedure

One team would represent each of the NCAA's eight geographic districts for a total of eight teams. Each district had a selection committee which determined their representative; one district elected to hold a playoff to determine the bid. In the bracket, the four eastern districts met for the East Regional, and the four western districts met for the West Regional; the champions of each region met in Evanston, Illinois for the championship game.

1939 NCAA tournament schedule and venues

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1939 tournament:

Regionals

;March 17 and 18
;March 20 and 21

Championship Game

;March 30

Selection of teams

District decisions

District selection committees decided upon their representative, with most analyzing the top teams and selecting one. Districts 2, 6, and 8 invited Villanova, Texas, and Oregon, respectively, who accepted their invitations. Other districts had their first choice decline the invitation. District 1 initially selected, the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League champion, but they declined the invitation and the committee subsequently invited independent. District 3 selected Southern Conference champion over Southern Conference tournament champion Clemson and Southeastern Conference tournament champion. District 4 selected independent, but they elected to participate in the National Invitation Tournament instead; the committee then invited their second-best team, Ohio State, the Big Ten champion. District 7 selected, the champion of the Mountain States Conference but they declined the invitation due to not wanting to travel again after a mid-season trip to New York City. Utah State was instead invited to represent District 7.

District 5 playoff

One district, District 5, decided to host a four-team playoff in Oklahoma City to determine which team would represent them in the tournament. The committee invited and [1938–39 1938–39 Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team|Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team|Oklahoma] from the Big 6 Conference and and from the Missouri Valley Conference. However, Missouri declined the invitation to the playoff. Oklahoma A&M defeated Drake in the first round of the playoffs, and Oklahoma won the second game against A&M to advance to the tournament.

Tournament teams

SchoolCoachConferenceNCAA DistrictRecord
OklahomaBruce DrakeBig SixDistrict 511–8
OregonHoward HobsonPacific CoastDistrict 826–5
TexasJack GraySouthwestDistrict 619–4
Dick RomneyMountain StatesDistrict 716–6