1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament

1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament
Teams	24
Finals site	Municipal Auditorium; Kansas City, Missouri
Champions	La Salle Explorers (1st title, 1st title game,; 1st Final Four)
Runner-up	Bradley Braves (2nd title game,; 2nd Final Four)
Semifinalists	Penn State Nittany Lions (1st Final Four); USC Trojans (2nd Final Four);
Winning coach	Ken Loeffler (1st title)
MOP	Tom Gola (La Salle)
Attendance	115,391
Top scorer	Tom Gola La Salle; (114 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments
«1953	1955»

The 1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 8, 1954, and ended with the championship game on March 20 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 28 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.

La Salle, coached by Ken Loeffler, won the national title with a 92–76 victory in the final game over Bradley, coached by Forddy Anderson. Tom Gola of La Salle was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Of note, Kentucky, the top-ranked team in the nation (with a record of 25–0) did not participate in any post-season tournament. Since several key players had technically graduated the year before (when Kentucky was banned from playing a competitive schedule due to the point-shaving scandal a few years earlier), those players were ruled ineligible for the NCAA tournament. Despite the wishes of the players, Adolph Rupp ultimately decided his team wouldn't play.

LSU represented the Southeastern Conference in the tournament. It would be the Bayou Bengals' last appearance until 1979, well after the graduation of NCAA all-time leading scorer Pete Maravich. LSU made only one postseason appearance over the next 24 seasons, the 1970 NIT, Maravich's senior season.

Locations

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1954 tournament:

East-1 Region

First Round (March 8): Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York; Duke Indoor Stadium, Durham, North Carolina

East-1 Regional (March 12 and 13): The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

East-2 Region

First Round (March 9): Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana

East-2 Regional (March 12 and 13): Iowa Field House, Iowa City, Iowa

West-1 Region

First Round (March 8): Robertson Memorial Field House, Peoria, Illinois

West-1 Regional (March 12 and 13): Gallagher Hall, Stillwater, Oklahoma

West-2 Region

First Round (March 9) and West-2 Regional (March 12 and 13): Oregon State Coliseum, Corvallis, Oregon

Final Four

March 19 and 20: Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri

For the second straight year, and the fifth overall, Kansas City and the Municipal Auditorium hosted the Final Four. The tournament included five new venues. The city of Buffalo hosted games for the only time at the Aud; the tournament would not return to Western New York until 2000 when its replacement, HSBC Arena, would host. Also serving for the only time was Duke Indoor Stadium, the venerable home of the Duke Blue Devils in Durham, the second of the Tobacco Road schools to host games. For the first time, the tournament came to the state of Iowa, playing at the University of Iowa's Field House. The tournament also came to the city of Peoria for the only time to date, playing at Robertson Memorial Field House on the campus of Bradley University. And for the first time, the tournament came to the state of Oklahoma, playing at Gallagher Hall, home to the powerhouse teams of Hank Iba and Oklahoma A&M College.

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	Connecticut	Hugh Greer	First round	Navy	L 85–80
East	Cornell	Royner Greene	Regional Fourth Place	NC State	L 65–54
East	Fordham	Johnny Bach	First round	La Salle	L 76–74
East	George Washington	William Reinhart	First round	NC State	L 75–73
East	Indiana	Branch McCracken	Regional Third Place	LSU	W 73–62
East	La Salle	Ken Loeffler	Champion	Bradley	W 92–76
East	LSU	Harry Rabenhorst	Regional Fourth Place	Indiana	L 73–62
East	Loyola (LA)	Jim McCafferty	First round	Notre Dame	L 80–70
East	Navy	Ben Carnevale	Elite Eight	La Salle	L 64–48
East	NC State	Everett Case	Regional Third Place	Cornell	W 65–54
East	Notre Dame	John Jordan	Elite Eight	Penn State	L 71–63
East	Penn State	Elmer Gross	National Third Place	USC	W 70–61
East	Toledo	Jerry Bush	First round	Penn State	L 62–50
West
West	Bradley	Forddy Anderson	Runner Up	La Salle	L 92–76
West	Colorado	Bebe Lee	Regional Fourth Place	Rice	L 78–55
West	Colorado A&M	Bill Strannigan	Regional Fourth Place	Idaho State	L 62–57
West	Idaho State	Steve Belko	Regional Third Place	Colorado A&M	W 62–57
West	Oklahoma City	Doyle Parrack	First round	Bradley	L 61–55
West	Oklahoma A&M	Henry Iba	Elite Eight	Bradley	L 71–57
West	Rice	Don Suman	Regional Third Place	Colorado	W 78–55
West	Santa Clara	Bob Feerick	Elite Eight	USC	L 66–65
West	Seattle	Al Brightman	First round	Idaho State	L 77–75
West	USC	Forrest Twogood	National Fourth Place	Penn State	L 70–61
West	Texas Tech	Polk Robison	First round	Santa Clara	L 73–64

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East-1 Region

Quarterfinals			Semifinals			Finals


				Cornell	67

				Navy	69
	Navy	85

	Connecticut	80
							Navy	48
							La Salle	64
	NC State	75
	George Washington	73
				NC State	81

				La Salle	88
	La Salle	76

	Fordham	74*

East-2 Region

First Round			Regional Semifinals			Regional Finals

				LSU	70
	Penn State	62		Penn State	78
	Toledo	50					Penn State	71
							Notre Dame	63
				Indiana	64
	Notre Dame	80		Notre Dame	65
	Loyola (LA)	70

West-1 Region

Quarterfinals			Semifinals			Finals


				Colorado	64

				Bradley	76
	Bradley	61

	Oklahoma City	55
							Bradley	71
							Oklahoma A&M	57


				Oklahoma A&M	51

				Rice	45

West-2 Region

First Round

Regional Semifinals

Regional Finals

USC

73

Idaho State

77

Idaho State

59

Seattle

75*

USC

66

Santa Clara

65**

Colorado A&M

50

Santa Clara

73

Santa Clara

73

Texas Tech

64

Final Four

National Semifinal		National Championship


Penn State	54

La Salle	69
		La Salle	92

		Bradley	76
Bradley	74

USC	72

National Third Place Game

	National Third Place Game ^[1]


	USC		61

	Penn State		70

Regional Third Place Games

	East-1 Regional Third Place


	NC State		65

	Cornell		54

	East-2 Regional Third Place


	Indiana		73

	LSU		62

	West-1 Regional Third Place


	Rice		78

	Colorado		55

	West-2 Regional Third Place


	Idaho State		62

	Colorado A&M		57

References

↑ "1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket". Retrieved October 14, 2011.

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[1] "1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket". Retrieved October 14, 2011.

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

1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament

Locations

East-1 Region

East-2 Region

West-1 Region

West-2 Region

Final Four

Teams

Bracket

East-1 Region

East-2 Region

West-1 Region

West-2 Region

Final Four

National Third Place Game

Regional Third Place Games

See also

References