1973 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament

1973 NCAA University Division
Basketball Tournament
	NCAA logo from 1971 to 1979
Season	1972–73
Teams	25
Finals site	St. Louis Arena; St. Louis, Missouri
Champions	UCLA Bruins (9th title, 9th title game,; 10th Final Four)
Runner-up	Memphis State Tigers (1st title game,; 1st Final Four)
Semifinalists	Indiana Hoosiers (3rd Final Four); Providence Friars (1st Final Four);
Winning coach	John Wooden (9th title)
MOP	Bill Walton (UCLA)
Attendance	163,160
Top scorer	Ernie DiGregorio Providence; (128 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments
«1972	1974»

The 1973 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA University Division (now Division I, created later in 1973) college basketball. It began on Saturday, March 10, and ended with the championship game on Monday, March 26, in St. Louis, Missouri. A total of 29 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.

Led by longtime head coach John Wooden, the UCLA Bruins won their seventh consecutive national title with an 87–66 victory in the final game over Memphis State, coached by Gene Bartow, a future head coach at UCLA. Junior center Bill Walton of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

This was the first year that the championship game was held on a Monday night, with Saturday semifinals. Previously, the championship game was on Saturday, with the semifinals on either Thursday or Friday. Also, this was the first year matchups in the semifinals rotated; previously, it was East vs. Mideast and West vs. Midwest every year.

Tournament notes

The UCLA – Memphis State championship game made USA Today's list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time at #18.[1] Bill Walton set a championship game record, hitting 21 of 22 shots and scoring 44 points.

This tournament marked the first appearance of Bob Knight as coach of Indiana University.

The participation for this tournament, as well as the previous tournament, for Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) was vacated on August 5, 1973, when the NCAA Committee on Infractions ruled the university guilty of over 100 violations, including impermissible benefits and doctoring high school transcripts of players. USL's program was shut down for the 1973–74 and 1974–75 seasons, all other Ragin Cajun' athletic programs were placed on three years' probation and banned from postseason participation, and the university was stripped of voting rights at the NCAA convention until 1977 (the NCAA originally planned to expel USL from the organization, but that sanction was downgraded in January 1974).

Locations

Round	Region	Site	Venue	Host
First Round	East	Jamaica, New York	Alumni Hall	St. John's
	East	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	The Palestra	Drexel/Penn/Temple
	East	Williamsburg, Virginia	William & Mary Hall	William & Mary
	Mideast	Dayton, Ohio	University of Dayton Arena	Dayton
	Midwest	Wichita, Kansas	Levitt Arena	Wichita State
	West	Logan, Utah	Dee Glen Smith Spectrum	Utah State
Regionals	East	Charlotte, North Carolina	Charlotte Coliseum	UNC Charlotte
	Mideast	Nashville, Tennessee	Memorial Gymnasium	Vanderbilt
	Midwest	Houston, Texas	Hofheinz Pavilion	Houston/Rice/Texas Southern
	West	Los Angeles, California	Pauley Pavilion	UCLA
Final Four		St. Louis, Missouri	St. Louis Arena	Missouri Valley Conference/St. Louis

The city of St. Louis became the 12th host city, and the St. Louis Arena became the thirteenth host venue, of the Final Four. The arena, home to the St. Louis Blues of the NHL and, at the time, the St. Louis Billikens basketball team, was the first of five straight venues to host the Final Four for the first time, and it was the first time the tournament was held in the city of St. Louis as well. Besides the St. Louis Arena, only one other venue made its debut in the tournament. For the second straight year, the tournament opened a new city in the state of Tennessee; this time, it was the capital city of Nashville. Memorial Gym on the campus of Vanderbilt University would go on to host the tournament four times overall before tournament games in the city were moved to the downtown Bridgestone Arena in 2000. Additionally, only one venue saw its final games in the 1972 Tournament, with William & Mary Hall ending its usage in the tournament. The tournament has come back to the state of Virginia twice since, both times being at the Richmond Coliseum in the capital city of Richmond.

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	Furman	Joe Williams	First round	Syracuse	L 83–82
East	Maryland	Lefty Driesell	Regional Runner-up	Providence	L 103–89
East	Penn	Chuck Daly	Regional Fourth Place	Syracuse	L 69–68
East	Providence	Dave Gavitt	Fourth Place	Indiana	L 97–79
East	St. John's	Frank Mulzoff	First round	Penn	L 62–61
East	Saint Joseph's	Jack McKinney	First round	Providence	L 89–76
East	Syracuse	Roy Danforth	Regional Third Place	Penn	W 69–68
Mideast
Mideast	Austin Peay	Lake Kelly	Regional Fourth Place	Marquette	L 88–73
Mideast	Indiana	Bob Knight	Third Place	Providence	W 97–79
Mideast	Jacksonville	Tom Wasdin	First round	Austin Peay	L 77–75
Mideast	Kentucky	Joe B. Hall	Regional Runner-up	Indiana	L 72–65
Mideast	Marquette	Al McGuire	Regional Third Place	Austin Peay	W 88–73
Mideast	Miami (OH)	Darrell Hedric	First round	Marquette	L 77–62
Midwest
Midwest	Houston	Guy Lewis	First round	Southwestern Louisiana	L 102–89
Midwest	Kansas State	Jack Hartman	Regional Runner-up	Memphis State	L 92–72
Midwest	Southwestern Louisiana (Vacated)	Beryl Shipley	Regional Fourth Place	South Carolina	L 90–85
Midwest	Memphis State	Gene Bartow	Runner Up	UCLA	L 87–66
Midwest	South Carolina	Frank McGuire	Regional Third Place	Southwestern Louisiana	W 90–85
Midwest	Texas Tech	Gerald Myers	First round	South Carolina	L 78–70
West
West	Arizona State	Ned Wulk	Regional Fourth Place	Long Beach State	L 84–80
West	Long Beach State	Jerry Tarkanian	Regional Third Place	Arizona State	W 84–80
West	Oklahoma City	Abe Lemons	First round	Arizona State	L 103–78
West	San Francisco	Bob Gaillard	Regional Runner-up	UCLA	L 54–39
West	UCLA	John Wooden	Champion	Memphis State	W 87–66
West	Weber State	Gene Visscher	First round	Long Beach State	L 88–75

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

Quarterfinals			Semifinals			Finals


				Maryland	91

				Syracuse	75
	Syracuse	83

	Furman	82
							Maryland	89
							Providence	103
	Penn	62
	St. John's	61
				Penn	65

				Providence	87
	Providence	89

	Saint Joseph's	76

	East Regional Third Place


	Syracuse		69

	Penn		68

Mideast region

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Indiana

75

Marquette

69

Marquette

77

Miami (OH)

62

Indiana

72

Kentucky

65

Kentucky

106

Austin Peay

100*

Austin Peay

77

Jacksonville

75

	Mideast Regional Third Place


	Marquette		88

	Austin Peay		73

Midwest region

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Memphis State

90

South Carolina

76

South Carolina

78

Texas Tech

70

Memphis State

92

Kansas State

72

Kansas State

66

Southwest Louisiana

63

Southwestern Louisiana

102

Houston

89

	Midwest Regional Third Place


	South Carolina		90

	Southwestern Louisiana		85

West region

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

UCLA

98

Arizona State

81

Arizona State

103

Oklahoma City

78

UCLA

54

San Francisco

39

San Francisco

77

Long Beach State

67

Long Beach State

88

Weber State

75

	West Regional Third Place


	Arizona State		80

	Long Beach State		84

Final Four

UCLA won its seventh consecutive championship and ninth in ten seasons

National Semifinals Saturday, March 24			National Championship Game Monday, March 26

E	Providence	85
MW	Memphis State	98
			MW	Memphis State	66
			W	UCLA	87
ME	Indiana	59
W	UCLA	70	National Third Place Game

			ME	Indiana	97
			E	Providence	79

Aftermath

The 1973 NC State Wolfpack team averaged 93 ppg, led the nation in win margin (21.8 ppg), and posted a 27–0 record, but was ineligible for postseason play because of NCAA probation. David Thompson, a two-time national Player of the Year, and All-America Tom Burleson, led NC State to a 30–1 record the following season, losing only to seven-time defending champion UCLA. The Wolfpack avenged its only loss during the two-year period by defeating UCLA in the 1974 Final Four and winning the title.

Gene Bartow, the Memphis State coach, would be John Wooden's successor at UCLA after the 1974–1975 season.

References

Mike Douchant – Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002

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[1] Mike Douchant – Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002

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

1973 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament

Tournament notes

Locations

Teams

Bracket

East region

Mideast region

Midwest region

West region

Final Four

Aftermath

See also

References