| Season | 1949–50 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 32 | ||||
| Finals site | Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri | ||||
| Champions | Indiana State (1st title, 3rd title game, 4th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | East Central State (1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| MVP | Clemens "Lenny" Rzeszewski (Indiana State) | ||||
| |||||
The 1950 NAIA basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 13th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. [1]
The championship game featured Indiana State and East Central State. It was the first time these two teams had met in the tournament history. The Sycamores defeated the Tigers, 61-57.
This would be Indiana State's highest finish in their 12 career appearances in the NAIA tournament. Winning the championship puts them in a unique group to place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Also Indiana State finally gets a win after 2 times as runner-up. Uniquely, Indiana State has finished as the National Runner-up in the NAIA (1946 and 1948), the NCAA Division I (1979) and the NCAA Division II (1968) tournaments.
Many of the records set by the 1950 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:
| First round | Second round | Elite Eight | NAIA national semifinals | NAIA national championship | |||||||||||||||
| Hamline | 74 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Regis | 66 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hamline | 66 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Central College | 76 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Central (MO) | 68 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Peru State | 59 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Central College | 65 | ||||||||||||||||||
| TOP TIER | |||||||||||||||||||
| Central Washington State | 55 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Portland | 48 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Montana | 47 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Portland | 43 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Central Washington State | 51 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Central Washington State | 61 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Murray State | 55 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Central College | 54 | ||||||||||||||||||
| East Central State | 57 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brooklyn | 79 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Appalachian State | 75 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brooklyn | 64 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Puget Sound | 47 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Puget Sound | 70 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Southeastern Louisiana | 68* | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brooklyn | 52 | ||||||||||||||||||
| TOP TIER | |||||||||||||||||||
| East Central State | 84 | ||||||||||||||||||
| East Central State (OK) | 70 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kansas Wesleyan | 68 | ||||||||||||||||||
| East Central State | 75 | ||||||||||||||||||
| River Falls State | 64 | ||||||||||||||||||
| River Falls State) | 80 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Eastern Illinois State | 68 | ||||||||||||||||||
| East Central State | 57 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana State | 61 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Westminster (PA) | 70 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Connecticut Teachers | 62 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Westminster | 75 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Davis & Elkins | 85 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Davis & Elkins | 79 | ||||||||||||||||||
| St. Thomas (MN) | 55 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Davis & Elkins | 69 | ||||||||||||||||||
| BOTTOM TIER | |||||||||||||||||||
| Tampa | 81 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tampa | 85 | ||||||||||||||||||
| New Mexico A&M | 75 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tampa | 69 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pepperdine | 61 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pepperdine | 54 | ||||||||||||||||||
| American | 53 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tampa | 69 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana State | 73 | ||||||||||||||||||
| East Texas State | 55 | ||||||||||||||||||
| South Dakota | 54 | ||||||||||||||||||
| East Texas State | 62 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Baldwin-Wallace | 82 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Baldwin-Wallace | 84 | NAIA third-place game | |||||||||||||||||
| Kalamazoo | 83 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Baldwin-Wallace | 39 | Central College | 80 | ||||||||||||||||
| BOTTOM TIER | |||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana State | 61 | Tampa | 67 | ||||||||||||||||
| Arkansas Tech | 75 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Morningside | 74 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Arkansas Tech | 79 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana State | 87 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana State | 65 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Delta State | 59 | ||||||||||||||||||
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