1951 NCAA Basketball Tournament

1951 NCAA Basketball Tournament
Teams	16
Finals site	Williams Arena; Minneapolis, Minnesota
Champions	Kentucky Wildcats (3rd title, 3rd title game,; 4th Final Four)
Runner-up	Kansas State Wildcats (1st title game,; 2nd Final Four)
Semifinalists	Illinois Fighting Illini (2nd Final Four); Oklahoma State Cowboys (4th Final Four);
Winning coach	Adolph Rupp (3rd title)
MOP	Bill Spivey (Kentucky)
Attendance	110,645
Top scorer	Don Sunderlage Illinois; (83 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments
«1950	1952»

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. It began on March 20, 1951, and ended with the championship game on March 27 at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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 68–58 victory in the final game over Kansas State, coached by Jack Gardner.

The tournament was the first to introduce a 16-team field. Only the championship and third place games were held in Minneapolis, while the semifinals were held in the respective regional sites. In this sense, the 1951 tournament did not feature a true "Final Four". This would have to wait until the 1952 tournament.

Locations

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1951 tournament:

The city of Minneapolis became the fifth host city, and Williams Arena the fifth host arena, of the National Championship game. It was the third college venue to do so, after Patten Gym in 1939 and Hec Edmundson Pavilion in 1949. For the ninth and twelfth straight years, Madison Square Garden and the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium hosted the East and West regionals, respectively. The two other arenas would also host the Sweet Sixteen games; while the Municipal Auditorium did so on consecutive days, Madison Square Garden shared duties for these games with a new venue, Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. It was the first games held in the state of North Carolina, and the second time a Southern school hosted games after Tulane University did in 1942. Reynolds would go on to host games a dozen times over a thirty year stretch.

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	Columbia	Lou Rossini	Sweet Sixteen	Illinois	L 79–71
East	Connecticut	Hugh Greer	Sweet Sixteen	St. John's	L 63–52
East	Illinois	Harry Combes	Third Place	Oklahoma A&M	W 61–46
East	Kentucky	Adolph Rupp	Champion	Kansas State	W 68–58
East	Louisville	Peck Hickman	Sweet Sixteen	Kentucky	L 79–68
East	NC State	Everett Case	Regional Fourth Place	St. John's	L 71–59
East	St. John's	Frank McGuire	Regional Third Place	NC State	W 71–59
East	Villanova	Alex Severance	Sweet Sixteen	NC State	L 67–62
West
West	Arizona	Fred Enke	Sweet Sixteen	Kansas State	L 61–59
West	BYU	Stan Watts	Regional Fourth Place	Washington	L 80–67
West	Kansas State	Jack Gardner	Runner-up	Kentucky	L 68–58
West	Montana State	Brick Breeden	Sweet Sixteen	Oklahoma A&M	L 50–46
West	Oklahoma A&M	Henry Iba	Fourth Place	Illinois	L 61–46
West	San Jose State	Walt McPherson	Sweet Sixteen	BYU	L 68–61
West	Texas A&M	John Floyd	Sweet Sixteen	Washington	L 62–40
West	Washington	Tippy Dye	Regional Third Place	BYU	W 80–67

Bracket

First round		Second round		National Semifinals		National Final


Illinois	79

Columbia	71
		Illinois	84

		NC State	70
NC State	67

Villanova	62
				Illinois	74
EAST REGION
				Kentucky	76
Kentucky	79

Louisville	68
		Kentucky	59

		St John's	43
St John's	63

Connecticut	52
						Kentucky	68

						Kansas State	58
Kansas State	61

Arizona	59
		Kansas State	64

		BYU	54
BYU	68

San Jose State	61
				Kansas State	68
WEST REGION
				Oklahoma A&M	44
Oklahoma A&M	50

Montana State	46
		Oklahoma A&M	61

		Washington	57
Washington	62

Texas A&M	40

National Third Place Game

	National Third Place


	Illinois		61

	Oklahoma A&M		46

Regional Third Place Games

	East Regional Third Place


	St John's		71

	NC State		59

	West Regional Third Place


	Washington		80

	BYU		67

^[1]

References

↑ "1951 NCAA Basketball Tournament". College Basketball Reference. Retrieved 4 April 2018.

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[1] "1951 NCAA Basketball Tournament". College Basketball Reference. Retrieved 4 April 2018.

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
Structure	Selection process Venues No. 1 seeds Opening Round Elite Eight Final Four National Championship Game
Champions & awards	Champions Most Outstanding Player
Media & culture	Bracketology Broadcasting Tournament Final Four March Madness pools "One Shining Moment"
Records & statistics	All-time team records Bids by school Bids by school and conference Consecutive appearances Final Four appearances by school Final Four participants Final Four appearances by coach Upsets

1951 NCAA Basketball Tournament

Locations

First round

Regionals

Championship Game

Teams

Bracket

National Third Place Game

Regional Third Place Games

See also

References