The 1943 NAIA basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 7th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. The championship game featured Southeast Missouri State defeating Northwest Missouri State 34âÂÂ32.
This was the first tournament to feature a championship game between two teams from the same state, Missouri, playing in Missouri. The 3rd place game featured the first overtime in the NAIA Final Four history when North Texas State defeated Murray State 59âÂÂ55 in one overtime.
Many of the records set by the 1943 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later: