1945–46 NCAA men's basketball season
Men's collegiate basketball season
1945–46 NCAA Division I men's basketball season | |
---|---|
NCAA Tournament | 1946 |
Tournament dates | March 21 – 26, 1946 |
National Championship | Madison Square Garden New York, New York |
NCAA Champions | Oklahoma A&M |
Helms National Champions | Oklahoma A&M |
Other champions | Kentucky (NIT) |
Player of the Year (Helms) | Bob Kurland, Oklahoma A&M |
← 1944–45 1946–47 → |
The 1945–46 NCAA men's basketball season began in December 1945, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the 1946 NCAA basketball tournament championship game on March 26, 1946, at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. The Oklahoma A&M Aggies won their second NCAA national championship with a 43–40 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Season headlines
- The Middle Atlantic States Conference North began play, with five original members.
- The New England Conference disbanded at the end of the season.[1]
- The 1946 NCAA tournament was the first NCAA tournament in which four teams (California, North Carolina, Ohio State, and Oklahoma A&M) advanced to the finals site.[2] However, they advanced from two regional sites, so the NCAA does not consider the first "true" Final Four to have occurred until the 1952 tournament, when the four teams advanced from four separate regional sites.[2][3]
- The NCAA tournament began holding a national third-place game between the teams which lost in the semifinals. The national third-place game continued through the 1981 tournament.
- Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M became the first player to dunk in the NCAA championship game, doing so twice late in the game on March 26.[2]
- Oklahoma A&M defeated North Carolina 43–40 in the championship game of the 1946 NCAA tournament, becoming the first school to repeat as NCAA champion, following its tournament championship in 1945.[2]
- Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M became the first two-time NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player. He previously had received the honor in 1945.[2]
- For the first time, the NCAA tournament championship game was televised. WCBS-TV aired the game locally in New York City, with an estimated viewership of 500,000.[2]
- In 1995, the Premo-Porretta Power Poll retroactively selected Oklahoma A&M as its national champion for the 1945–46 season.[4]
Conference membership changes
Regular season
Conference winners and tournaments
Conference | Regular season winner[5] | Conference player of the year | Conference tournament | Tournament venue (City) | Tournament winner |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Big Six Conference | Kansas | None selected | No Tournament | ||
Big Ten Conference | Ohio State | None selected | No Tournament | ||
Border Conference | Arizona | None selected | No Tournament | ||
Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League | Dartmouth | None selected | No Tournament | ||
Metropolitan New York Conference | NYU & St. John's | No Tournament | |||
Middle Atlantic States Conference North | Lafayette | No Tournament | |||
Missouri Valley Conference | Oklahoma A&M | None selected | No Tournament | ||
New England Conference | Rhode Island State | No Tournament | |||
Pacific Coast Conference | Idaho (North); California (South) | No Tournament; California defeated Idaho in best-of-three conference championship playoff series | |||
Skyline Conference | Wyoming | No Tournament | |||
Southeastern Conference | Kentucky | None selected | 1946 SEC men's basketball tournament | Jefferson County Armory, (Louisville, Kentucky) | Kentucky |
Southern Conference | North Carolina | None selected | 1946 Southern Conference men's basketball tournament | Thompson Gym (Raleigh, North Carolina) | Duke[6] |
Southwest Conference | Baylor | None selected | No Tournament |
Statistical leaders
Post-season tournaments
NCAA tournament
Semifinals & finals
National semifinals | National Finals | ||||||||
Ohio State | 57 | ||||||||
North Carolina | 60OT | ||||||||
North Carolina | 40 | ||||||||
Oklahoma A&M | 43 | ||||||||
Oklahoma A&M | 52 | ||||||||
California | 35 |
- Third Place – Ohio State 63, California 45
National Invitation tournament
Semifinals & finals
Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||
Rhode Island State | 59 | ||||||||
Muhlenberg | 49 | ||||||||
Rhode Island State | 45 | ||||||||
Kentucky | 46 | ||||||||
West Virginia | 51 | ||||||||
Kentucky | 59' |
- Third Place – West Virginia 65, Muhlenberg 40
Awards
Consensus All-American teams
Player | Position | Class | Team |
---|---|---|---|
Leo Klier | F | Senior | Notre Dame |
Bob Kurland | C | Senior | Oklahoma A&M |
George Mikan | C | Senior | DePaul |
Max Morris | F | Senior | Northwestern |
Sid Tanenbaum | G | Junior | NYU |
Player | Position | Class | Team |
---|---|---|---|
Charles B. Black | F | Junior | Kansas |
John Dillon | G | Sophomore | North Carolina |
Billy Hassett | G | Senior | Notre Dame |
Tony Lavelli | F | Freshman | Yale |
Jack Parkinson | G | Junior | Kentucky |
Ken Sailors | G | Senior | Wyoming |
Major player of the year awards
Other major awards
- NIT/Haggerty Award (Top player in New York City metro area): Sid Tanenbaum, NYU
Coaching changes
A number of teams changed coaches during the season and after it ended.
Team | Former Coach | Interim Coach | New Coach | Reason |
---|---|---|---|---|
Georgetown | Ken Engles | Elmer Ripley | Engles – the only player-coach in Georgetown men's basketball history – stepped aside at the end of the year after coaching the Hoyas for a single season as they reconstituted their basketball program with a mostly walk-on team after a two-season hiatus due to World War II, making way for Ripley to return after a three-year absence for a third stint as coach.[7] | |
Kansas State | Fitz Knorr | Jack Gardner | ||
NC State | Leron Jay | Everett Case | ||
North Carolina | Ben Carnevale | Tom Scott | ||
Notre Dame | Elmer Ripley | Moose Krause | ||
Purdue | Ward Lambert | Mel Taube |
References
- ^ "New England/Yankee regular-season champions," Coaches Database Accessed April 27, 2021
- ^ a b c d e f "Playing Rules History" (PDF). ncaa.org. NCAA. p. 11. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
- ^ "1952 NCAA tournament: Bracket, scores, stats, records". ncaa.com. NCAA. May 27, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
- ^ ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. pp. 526, 529–587. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
- ^ "2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Record Book – Conferences Section" (PDF). NCAA. 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
- ^ 2008–09 SoCon Men's Basketball Media Guide – Postseason Section, Southern Conference, retrieved 2009-02-09
- ^ "The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Head Coaches". Archived from the original on May 27, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
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