1950 NAIA basketball tournament
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]
| 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 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.
Awards and honors
Many of the records set by the 1950 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:
- Leading scorer est. 1963
- Leading rebounder est. 1963
- Charles Stevenson Hustle Award est. 1958
- All-Tournament Team: Len Rzeszewski, Dan Dimich, Don McDonald - Indiana State; Stacey Howell, Claude Overton - East Central (Okla)
- Coach of the Year est. 1954
- Player of the Year est. 1994
- All-time scoring leaders; first appearance: Lloyd Thorgaard, 10th, Hamline (Minn.) (1950,51,52,53), 15 games, 111 field goals, 61 free throws, 283 total points, 18.9 average per game; James Fritsche, 14th, Hamline (Minn.) (1950,51,52,53), 15 games, 113 field goals, 46 free throws, 272 total points, 18.1 average per game.
- All-time scoring leader; final appearance: Harold Haskins, 12th, Hamline (Minn.) (1947,48,49,50), 14 games, 104 field goals, 72 free throws, 280 total points, 20.0 average per game.[2]
Bracket
| 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 | ||||||||||||||||||
- * Denotes overtime.