1954 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

1954 NCAA Men's Division I
Basketball Tournament

Teams	24
Finals site	Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri
Champions	La Salle (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four)
Runner-up	Bradley (2nd title game, 2nd Final Four)
Semifinalists	Penn State (1st Final Four) USC (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 Men's Division I Tournaments «1953 1955»

The 1954 NCAA Men's Division I 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.

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

Cameron 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)

Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Oregon

Final Four

March 19 and 20

Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri

Teams

Region	Seed	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	n/a	Connecticut	Hugh Greer	First round	Navy	L 85-80
East	n/a	Cornell	Royner Greene	Regional Fourth Place	North Carolina State	L 65-54
East	n/a	Fordham	Johnny Bach	First round	La Salle	L 76-74
East	n/a	George Washington	William Reinhart	First round	North Carolina State	L 75-73
East	n/a	Indiana	Branch McCracken	Regional Third Place	LSU	W 73-62
East	n/a	La Salle	Ken Loeffler	Champion	Bradley	W 92-76
East	n/a	LSU	Harry Rabenhorst	Regional Fourth Place	Indiana	L 73-62
East	n/a	Loyola (LA)	Jim McCafferty	First round	Notre Dame	L 80-70
East	n/a	Navy	Ben Carnevale	Elite Eight	La Salle	L 64-48
East	n/a	North Carolina State	Everett Case	Regional Third Place	Cornell	W 65-54
East	n/a	Notre Dame	John Jordan	Elite Eight	Penn State	L 71-63
East	n/a	Penn State	Elmer Gross	National Third Place	USC	W 70-61
East	n/a	Toledo	Jerry Bush	First round	Penn State	L 62-50
West
West	n/a	Bradley	Forddy Anderson	Runner Up	La Salle	L 92-76
West	n/a	Colorado	Bebe Lee	Regional Fourth Place	Rice	L 78-55
West	n/a	Colorado State	Bill Strannigan	Regional Fourth Place	Idaho State	L 62-57
West	n/a	Idaho State	Steve Belko	Regional Third Place	Colorado State	W 62-57
West	n/a	Oklahoma City	Doyle Parrack	First round	Bradley	L 61-55
West	n/a	Oklahoma A&M	Henry Iba	Elite Eight	Bradley	L 71-57
West	n/a	Rice	Don Suman	Regional Third Place	Colorado	W 78-55
West	n/a	Santa Clara	Bob Feerick	Elite Eight	USC	L 66-65
West	n/a	Seattle	Al Brightman	First round	Idaho State	L 77-75
West	n/a	USC	Forrest Twogood	National Fourth Place	Penn State	L 70-61
West	n/a	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
		N.C. State	75
		George Washington	73
							N.C. State	81
							La Salle	88
		La Salle	76
		Fordham	74*

East-2 Region

	First Round					Regional Semifinals					Regional Finals
							LSU	70
		Penn St.	62				Penn St.	78
		Toledo	50									Penn St.	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

Southern California

73

Idaho St.

77

Idaho St.

59

Seattle

75*

Southern California

66

Santa Clara

65**

Colorado St.

50

Santa Clara

73

Santa Clara

73

Texas Tech

64

Final Four

	National Semifinal					National Championship
	Penn St.		54
	La Salle		69
						La Salle		92
						Bradley		76
	Bradley		74
	Southern California		72

National Third Place Game

	National Third Place Game
		Southern California	61
		Penn St.	70

Regional Third Place Games

	East-1 Regional Third Place
	Indiana		73
	LSU		62

	East-2 Regional Third Place
	N.C. State		65
	Cornell		54

	West-1 Regional Third Place
	Rice		78
	Colorado		55

	West-2 Regional Third Place
	Idaho St.		62
	Colorado St.		57

See also

• 1954 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament