1953 NCAA basketball tournament

The 1953 NCAA basketball tournament involved 22 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of NCAA college basketball. The 15th edition of the tournament began on March 10, 1953, and ended with the championship game on March 18 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 26 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.

1953 NCAA basketball tournament

Season	1952–53
Teams	22
Finals site	Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri
Champions	Indiana Hoosiers (2nd title, 2nd title game, 2nd Final Four)
Runner-up	Kansas Jayhawks (3rd title game, 3rd Final Four)
Semifinalists	Washington Huskies (3rd) (1st Final Four) LSU Tigers (4th) (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	Branch McCracken (2nd title)
MOP	B. H. Born (Kansas)
Attendance	127,149
Top scorer	Bob Houbregs (Washington) (139 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments «1952 1954»

Indiana, coached by Branch McCracken, won the tournament title with a 69–68 victory in the final game over Kansas, coached by Phog Allen. B. H. Born of Kansas was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The Hoosiers became the third team, after Oklahoma A&M in 1945–46 and Kentucky in 1948–49, to win two titles and the second of three teams to win titles in their first two tournament appearances (after Oklahoma A&M); however, unlike Oklahoma A&M before them and San Francisco after, their first two tournament appearances were 13 years apart.

Locations

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1953 tournament:

East-1 Region

First round (March 10)

The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Hosts: University of Pennsylvania, Ivy League)

East-1 Regional (March 13 and 14)

Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)

East-2 Region

First round (March 10)

Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Host: Big Ten Conference)

East-2 Regional (March 12 and 13)

Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois (Hosts: Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University)

West-1 Region

West-1 Regional (March 12 and 13)

Ahearn Field House, Manhattan, Kansas (Host: Kansas State University)

West-2 Region

First round (March 10)

Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Seattle, Washington (Host: University of Washington)

Stanford Pavilion, Palo Alto, California (Host: Stanford University)

West-2 Regional (March 13 and 14)

Oregon State Coliseum, Corvallis, Oregon (Host: Oregon State University)

Final Four

March 17 and 18

Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Conference	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	DePaul	Ray Meyer	Independent	Regional Fourth Place	Penn	L 90–70
East	Eastern Kentucky	Paul McBrayer	Ohio Valley	First round	Notre Dame	L 72–57
East	Fordham	Johnny Bach	Metro NY	First round	Lebanon Valley	L 80–67
East	Holy Cross	Buster Sheary	Independent	Elite Eight	LSU	L 81–73
East	Indiana	Branch McCracken	Big Ten	Champion	Kansas	W 69–68
East	Lebanon Valley	Rinso Marquette	Independent	Regional Fourth Place	Wake Forest	L 91–71
East	LSU	Harry Rabenhorst	Southeastern	Fourth Place	Washington	L 88–69
East	Miami (OH)	Bill Rohr	Mid-American	First round	DePaul	L 74–72
East	Navy	Ben Carnevale	Independent	First round	Holy Cross	L 87–74
East	Notre Dame	John Jordan	Independent	Elite Eight	Indiana	L 79–66
East	Penn	Howie Dallmar	Ivy League	Regional third place	DePaul	W 90–70
East	Wake Forest	Murray Greason	Southern	Regional third place	Lebanon Valley	W 91–71
West
West	Hardin–Simmons	Bill Scott	Border	First round	Santa Clara	L 81–56
West	Idaho State	Steve Belko	Independent	First round	Seattle	L 88–77
West	Kansas	Phog Allen	Big 7	Runner Up	Indiana	L 69–68
West	Oklahoma City	Doyle Parrack	Independent	Regional Fourth Place	TCU	L 58–56
West	Oklahoma A&M	Henry Iba	Missouri Valley	Elite Eight	Kansas	L 61–55
West	Santa Clara	Bob Feerick	CBA	Elite Eight	Washington	L 74–62
West	Seattle	Al Brightman	Independent	Regional third place	Wyoming	W 80–64
West	TCU	Buster Brannon	Southwest	Regional third place	Oklahoma City	W 58–56
West	Washington	Tippy Dye	Pacific Coast	Third Place	LSU	W 88–69
West	Wyoming	Everett Shelton	Mountain States	Regional Fourth Place	Seattle	L 80–64

Bracket

East-1 Region

	First Round				Regional Semifinals				Regional Finals
					LSU	89
	Lebanon Valley	80			Lebanon Valley	76
	Fordham	67							LSU	81
									Holy Cross	73
					Wake Forest	71
	Holy Cross	87			Holy Cross	79
	Navy	74							Third place
									Lebanon Valley	71
									Wake Forest	91

East-2 Region

	First Round				Regional Semifinals				Regional Finals
					Penn	57
	Notre Dame	72			Notre Dame	69
	Eastern Kentucky	57							Notre Dame	66
									Indiana	79
					Indiana	82
	DePaul	74			DePaul	80
	Miami (OH)	72							Third place
									Penn	90
									DePaul	70

West-1 Region

	Regional Semifinals				Regional Final
	Oklahoma A&M	71
	TCU	54
					Oklahoma A&M	55
					Kansas	61
	Kansas	73
	Oklahoma City	65			Third place
					TCU	58
					Oklahoma City	56

West-2 Region

	First Round				Regional Semifinals				Regional Final
					Washington	92
	Seattle	88			Seattle	70
	Idaho State	77							Washington	74
									Santa Clara	62
					Wyoming	52
	Santa Clara	81			Santa Clara	67
	Hardin–Simmons	56							Third place
									Seattle	80
									Wyoming	64

Final Four

	National semifinal				National Championship
	LSU	67
	Indiana	80
					Indiana	69
					Kansas	68
	Kansas	79
	Washington	53			National Third Place
					LSU	69
					Washington	88

See also

• 1953 National Invitation Tournament
• 1953 NAIA Basketball Tournament

Notes

• As would be expected with the expanded field, a then-record ten teams - Eastern Kentucky, Fordham, Hardin-Simmons, Idaho State, Lebanon Valley, LSU, Miami University, Notre Dame, Penn and Seattle - made their tournament debut. The record would be broken in 1955 with eleven new teams, and again in 1981 with twelve newcomers.
• Lebanon Valley College, at 425 students, would become by far the smallest school to ever field a team, as well as win a game, in the NCAA tournament. Following the 1956 split of the NCAA into University and College divisions, as well as the subsequent split into the current three division format, it is most likely that this record will never be broken. This would be LVC's only appearance in the tournament; they are also the only team from the tournament to not play in the tournament again.