The 1975 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 32 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division Icollege basketball. The 37th annual edition of the tournament began on March 15, 1975, and ended with the championship game on March 31, at the San Diego Sports Arena, now known as Pechanga Arena San Diego, 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. This was the first 32-team tournament.
The Bruins again had an advantage by playing the Final Four in their home state. It was the last time a team won the national championship playing in its home state.
Tournament notes
The bracket expanded to 32 teams;[1] the previous six editions had 25 teams, and had varied between 22 and 25 from 1953 through 1974.
With the expanded bracket, seven teams made their NCAA tournament debuts: Alabama, Central Michigan, Middle Tennessee, Montana, UNLV, Rutgers, and San Diego State. This was the most new teams since a then-record eleven new teams made the 25-team bracket in 1956.
Alabama had previously won the Southeastern Conference in 1956, but were deemed ineligible for the tournament due to their entire starting lineup having played as freshmen, which was not allowed at the time. They had also tied Vanderbilt for the 1974 SEC title, but lost the bid because Vanderbilt was ranked higher.
It was the last time until 2021 that Oregon State officially won an NCAA tournament game. (The Beavers won two tournament games in 1982, but those were later vacated by the NCAA.) Of the major conferences, only Nebraska, which has never won an NCAA tournament game, had a longer active winning drought.
This was the last tournament in which third-place games were contested in each regional; the national third-place game continued through 1981.
This was also the first NCAA tournament to allow more than one team per conference; previously, only one team from each conference was allowed.[1] Thischange was in response to a number of factors:
The USC Trojans were ranked fifth in both major polls in 1971,[2] their only two losses were to Pac-8 rival and top-ranked UCLA (the defending and eventual national champion), but were excluded from the 25-team NCAA tournament due to being runner-up in the conference.
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 continued through 1982.[4][5]
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 Saturday semifinal win over Louisville. Two days later, he won his tenth and final NCAA championship.[6]
Bob Wortman became the first person to officiate championship games in college basketball and the National Football League when he worked the UCLA-Kentucky final alongside Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame referee Hank Nichols. Wortman was the field judge for Super Bowl VI in January 1972, and later for Super Bowl XII at the same position.
The UCLA-Kentucky matchup was the first of six championship games officiated by Nichols (1979, '80, 82, '83, '86), who later became the NCAA's national coordinator of officiating.
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 2002 list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time, with the former at #8 and the latter at #28.[7]
Schedule and venues
The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1975 tournament:
Curt Gowdy, Billy Packer, Jim Simpson and Jerry Lucas (Final Four only) - First Round at Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Marquette-Kentucky); West Regional Final at Portland, Oregon; Final Four in San Diego, California
Jim Simpson and Tom Hawkins - First Round at Tempe, Arizona (Arizona State-Alabama); East Regional Final at Providence, Rhode Island
↑ Bill Free – This Overtime Lasts 25 YearsArchived 2008-09-12 at the Wayback Machine The 1974 team left it all out on the floor. Baltimore Sun, hosted at University of Maryland Terrapins athletic site, February 20, 1999
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