1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

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

Teams

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

East region

Mideast region

Midwest region

West region

Final Four

References