The 1951 NCAA basketball tournament involved 16 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. The 13th annual edition of the tournament began on March 20, 1951, and ended with the championship game on March 27, at Williams Arena, located on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. A total of 18 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.
Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp, won the national title with a 68âÂÂ58 victory over Kansas State, coached by Jack Gardner.
This NCAA tournament was the first with a 16-team field and the first with automatic bids for conference champions, of which there were 10. Only the championship and third place games were held in Minneapolis, while the semifinals were held in the respective regional sites; similar to previous years. A true "Final Four" (semifinals and final at same location) debuted the following year.
The twelve-team National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was held the previous week in New York City at Madison Square Garden, with its championship on Saturday, Mach 17. Four teams competed in both tournaments, including NIT champion they lost in the quarterfinal round, by ten points to
The three other teams were Arizona, North Carolina State, and St. John's.
Locations
The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1951 tournament:
First round
March 20
Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: Metropolitan New York Conference)
Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)
March 21 and 22
Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)
Regionals
March 22 and 24
East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: Metropolitan New York Conference)
March 23 and 24
West Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)
Championship Game
March 27:
Williams Arena, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Hosts: University of Minnesota, Big Ten Conference)
Teams
Bracket
East Region â New York City
West Region â Kansas City, Missouri
National Finals â Minneapolis, Minnesota
Notes
- Despite what some NCAA publications have printed many years laterâÂÂthat Kentucky's Bill Spivey won the 1951 awardâÂÂno official vote occurred after the game and no player was officially presented as the winner. A news article printed by the Lexington Herald-Leader on April 7, 1951, titled "What Happened To NCAA's MVP Award?" detailed this mysterious divergence of precedent. Reporter Ed Ashford wrote, "For 11 consecutive years a most valuable player was chosen after the NCAA basketball tournament. However this year, for some unexplained reason, no poll was taken and there was no MVP honored. Whether the authorities just forgot about it or decided to eliminate balloting for the honor is not known. If a poll had been taken, it is likely that Kentucky would have garnered its third MVP award in the last four years. Alex Groza won the honor in 1948 and 1949 while Bill Spivey and Shelby Linville would have been strong contenders for the award this year."
References