1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
Teams	32
Finals site	San Diego Sports Arena San Diego
Champions	UCLA (10th title, 10th title game, 12th Final Four)
Runner-up	Kentucky (6th title game, 7th Final Four)
Semifinalists	Louisville (3rd Final Four) Syracuse (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	John Wooden (10th title)
MOP	Richard Washington UCLA
Attendance	183,857
Top scorer	Jim Lee Syracuse (119 points)
NCAA Men's Division I Tournaments «1974 1976»

The 1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 32 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 15, 1975, and ended with the championship game on March 31 at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California. A total of 36 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.

UCLA, coached by John Wooden, won his 10th and last national title with a 92–85 victory in the final game over Kentucky, coached by Joe B. Hall. Richard Washington of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

The Bruins again had an advantage by playing the Final Four in their home state. It marked the last time a team won the national championship playing in its home state.

Tournament notes

• The bracket expanded to 32 teams.
• This was the last tournament in which third-place games were contested in each regional. The national third-place game would continue to be played through the 1981 tournament.
• This was also the first NCAA tournament to allow (or indeed, have room for) more than one team per conference. Previously, only one team from each conference was allowed. This change was response to a number of factors:
  • The 1971 USC Trojans were ranked #2 with their only two losses being to conference rival and #1 ranked UCLA, but were excluded from the 1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament due to being second place in the conference to #1 UCLA.
  • The 1974 ACC tournament final pitted two of the 3 best teams in the country in NC State and Maryland.^[1]
  • In 1974, the Collegiate Commissioners' Association held a tournament in St. Louis, Missouri. They invited the second-place teams from eight conferences to participate.
• The new selection criteria threatened to exclude Northeastern teams, which did not belong to conferences. To address this problem, this was the first NCAA Tournament to grant automatic bids to the winners of ECAC regional tournaments for Northeastern Division I independents organized by the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a loose sports federation of Northeastern colleges and universities. This practice would continue through the 1982 tournament.^[2][3]
• Finally, the national final was the last game for UCLA coaching legend John Wooden, who had announced his retirement at the press conference following the semi-final game with Louisville. Wooden won his tenth and final NCAA Men's Division I Basketball championship.^[4]

Memorable games

There were two memorable games in the 1975 tournament. Number 2 ranked Kentucky upset previously unbeaten Indiana 92-90 in their regional final. The Hoosiers, coached by Bob Knight, were undefeated and the number one team in the nation, when leading scorer Scott May suffered a broken arm in a win over arch-rival Purdue. This was the only loss Indiana would suffer between March 1974 and December 1976. In the national semifinals, UCLA defeated Louisville, coached by former Wooden assistant Denny Crum, 75-74 in overtime, rallying late in regulation to force overtime and coming from behind in overtime to win on a last second shot by Richard Washington.

Both games made USA Today's list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time, with the former at #8 and the latter at #28.^[5]

Locations

Region	Site	Other Locations
East	Providence, Rhode Island	Charlotte, North Carolina, Philadelphia
Mideast	Dayton, Ohio	Lexington, Kentucky, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Midwest	Las Cruces, New Mexico	Lubbock, Texas, Tulsa, Oklahoma
West	Portland, Oregon	Pullman, Washington, Tempe, Arizona
Finals	San Diego, California

Teams

Region	Seed	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
West
West	n/a	Alabama	C. M. Newton	Round of 32	Arizona State	L 97-94
West	n/a	Arizona State	Ned Wulk	Regional Runner-up	UCLA	L 89-75
West	n/a	Michigan	Johnny Orr	Round of 32	UCLA	L 103-91
West	n/a	Montana	Jud Heathcote	Regional Fourth Place	UNLV	L 75-67
West	n/a	UNLV	Jerry Tarkanian	Regional Third Place	Montana	W 75-67
West	n/a	San Diego State	Tim Vezie	Round of 32	UNLV	L 90-80
West	n/a	UCLA	John Wooden	Champion	Kentucky	W 92-85
West	n/a	Utah State	Dutch Belnap	Round of 32	Montana	L 69-63
Midwest
Midwest	n/a	Cincinnati	Gale Catlett	Regional Third Place	Notre Dame	W 95-87
Midwest	n/a	Creighton	Tom Apke	Round of 32	Maryland	L 83-79
Midwest	n/a	Kansas	Ted Owens	Round of 32	Notre Dame	L 77-71
Midwest	n/a	Louisville	Denny Crum	Third Place	Syracuse	W 96-88
Midwest	n/a	Maryland	Lefty Driesell	Regional Runner-up	Louisville	L 96-82
Midwest	n/a	Notre Dame	Digger Phelps	Regional Fourth Place	Cincinnati	L 95-87
Midwest	n/a	Rutgers	Tom Young	Round of 32	Louisville	L 91-78
Midwest	n/a	Texas A&M	Shelby Metcalf	Round of 32	Cincinnati	L 87-79
Mideast
Mideast	n/a	Central Michigan	Dick Parfitt	Regional Third Place	Oregon State	W 88-87
Mideast	n/a	Georgetown	John Thompson	Round of 32	Central Michigan	L 77-75
Mideast	n/a	Indiana	Bob Knight	Regional Runner-up	Kentucky	L 92-90
Mideast	n/a	Kentucky	Joe B. Hall	Runner-up	UCLA	L 92-85
Mideast	n/a	Marquette	Al McGuire	Round of 32	Kentucky	L 76-54
Mideast	n/a	Middle Tennessee State	Jimmy Earle	Round of 32	Oregon State	L 78-67
Mideast	n/a	Oregon State	Ralph Miller	Regional Fourth Place	Central Michigan	L 88-87
Mideast	n/a	UTEP	Don Haskins	Round of 32	Indiana	L 78-53
East
East	n/a	Boston College	Bob Zuffelato	Regional Fourth Place	North Carolina	L 110-90
East	n/a	Furman	Joe Williams	Round of 32	Boston College	L 82-76
East	n/a	Kansas State	Jack Hartman	Regional Runner-up	Syracuse	L 95-87
East	n/a	La Salle	Paul Westhead	Round of 32	Syracuse	L 87-83
East	n/a	New Mexico State	Lou Henson	Round of 32	North Carolina	L 93-69
East	n/a	North Carolina	Dean Smith	Regional Third Place	Boston College	W 110-90
East	n/a	Penn	Chuck Daly	Round of 32	Kansas State	L 69-62
East	n/a	Syracuse	Roy Danforth	Fourth Place	Louisville	L 96-88

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Syracuse

87

La Salle

83*

Syracuse

78

North Carolina

76

North Carolina

93

New Mexico St.

69

Syracuse

95

Kansas St.

87*

Kansas St.

69

Pennsylvania

62

Kansas St.

74

Boston College

65

Boston College

82

Furman

76

Mideast region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
		Indiana	78
		UTEP	53
							Indiana	81
							Oregon St.	71
		Oregon St.	78
		Middle Tennessee St.	67
												Indiana	90
												Kentucky	92
		Central Michigan	77
		Georgetown	75
							Central Michigan	73
							Kentucky	90
		Kentucky	76
		Marquette	54

Midwest region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
		Maryland	83
		Creighton	79
							Maryland	83
							Notre Dame	71
		Notre Dame	77
		Kansas	71
												Maryland	82
												Louisville	96
		Cincinnati	87
		Texas A&M	79
							Cincinnati	63
							Louisville	78
		Louisville	91
		Rutgers	78

West region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
		UCLA	103
		Michigan	91*
							UCLA	67
							Montana	64
		Montana	69
		Utah St.	63
												UCLA	89
												Arizona St.	75
		Arizona St.	97
		Alabama	94
							Arizona St.	84
							UNLV	81
		UNLV	90
		San Diego St.	80

Final Four

	National Semifinals					National Championship Game
	E	Syracuse	79
	ME	Kentucky	95
						ME	Kentucky	85
						W	UCLA	92
	MW	Louisville	74*
	W	UCLA	75			National Third Place Game
						MW	Louisville	96
						E	Syracuse	88*

References

1. Bill Free – This Overtime Lasts 25 Years The 1974 team left it all out on the floor. Baltimore Sun, hosted at University of Maryland Terrapins athletic site, February 20, 1999
2. Varsity Pride: ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments
3. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: The Beginnings of the Big East
4. Maffei, John (July 6, 2013). "Sports site No. 3: San Diego Sports Arena". U-T San Diego. MLIM Holdings. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
5. Mike Douchant – Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002