The 1947 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 19, 1947, and ended with the championship game on March 25 in New York City. A total of 10 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.
| Teams | 8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | Madison Square Garden New York City | ||||
| Champions | Holy Cross Crusaders (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Oklahoma Sooners (1st title game, 2nd Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| Winning coach | Doggie Julian (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | George Kaftan (Holy Cross) | ||||
| Attendance | 72,959 | ||||
| Top scorer | George Kaftan (Holy Cross) (63 points) | ||||
| |||||
Holy Cross, coached by Doggie Julian, won the national title with a 58–47 victory in the final game over Oklahoma, coached by Bruce Drake. George Kaftan of Holy Cross was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was on a roster that included future Los Angeles Lakers coach Joe Mullaney and Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Cousy.
Locations
The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1947 tournament:
Regionals
- March 19 and 22
- West Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)
- March 20 and 22
- East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: Metropolitan New York Conference)
Championship Game
- March 25
- Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (Host: Metropolitan New York Conference)
Teams
| Region | Team | Coach | Conference | Finished | Final Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | ||||||
| East | CCNY | Nat Holman | MNYC | Fourth Place | Texas | L 54–50 |
| East | Holy Cross | Doggie Julian | Independent | Champion | Oklahoma | W 58–47 |
| East | Navy | Ben Carnevale | Independent | Regional Fourth Place | Wisconsin | L 50–49 |
| East | Wisconsin | Bud Foster | Big Ten | Regional third place | Navy | W 50–49 |
| West | ||||||
| West | Oklahoma | Bruce Drake | Big Six | Runner-up | Holy Cross | L 58–47 |
| West | Oregon State | Slats Gill | Pacific Coast | Regional third place | Wyoming | W 63–46 |
| West | Texas | Jack Gray | Southwest Conference | Third Place | CCNY | W 54–50 |
| West | Wyoming | Everett Shelton | Skyline Conference | Regional Fourth Place | Oregon State | L 63–46 |
Bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| Holy Cross | 55 | |||||||||||||
| Navy | 47 | |||||||||||||
| Holy Cross | 60 | |||||||||||||
| CCNY | 45 | |||||||||||||
| CCNY | 70 | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin | 56 | |||||||||||||
| Holy Cross | 58 | |||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | 47 | |||||||||||||
| Texas | 42 | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming | 40 | |||||||||||||
| Texas | 54 | Third place | ||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | 55 | |||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | 56 | CCNY | 50 | |||||||||||
| Oregon State | 54 | Texas | 54 | |||||||||||
Regional third place games
| West Regional third place | ||||
| Wyoming | 46 | |||
| Oregon State | 63 | |||