1943–44 Army Cadets men's basketball team explained

Sport:Basketball
Year:1943–44
Prev Year:1942–43
Next Year:1944–45
Team:Army Cadets
Conference:Independent
Record:15–0
Hc Year:1st
Captain:Ed Christl
Champion:Helms Foundation National Champions[1]
Premo-Porretta National Champions

The 1943–44 Army Cadets men's basketball team represented the United States Military Academy (known as "Army" for their sports teams) during the 1943–44 intercollegiate basketball season in the United States. The head coach was Ed Kelleher, coaching in his first season with the Cadets. The team finished the season with a 15–0 record[2] and was named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation.[1] The Helms and NCAA Division I Tournament champions were the same except for 1939, 1940, 1944, and 1954 when Oregon, Indiana, Utah, and La Salle respectively won the tournament. The Cadets were later additionally named national champions by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.[3] [4]

Dale Hall was named a consensus All-American as well as the Sporting News National Player of the Year. Other players of note on the team included Doug Kenna '45, John Hennessey '44 (who served with the 70th Infantry Division in World War II and ultimately retired as a general officer), Robert Faas '44 (who flew in the Pacific theater as a P-47N pilot in the waning days of World War II), and Edward C. Christl '44, who was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross and for whom Army's Christl Arena is named.[5]

Schedule and results

|-!colspan=9 style="background:#000000; color:#D6C499;"| Regular seasonSource[6]

Notes and References

  1. News: Fraley . Oscar . . April 6, 1944 . In Cage Selections Made By Helms Foundation Army Is Voted Top Quintet . The Cincinnati Enquirer . New York . Cincinnati, Ohio . December 25, 2023 . Army was rated as the nation's No. 1 team despite the fact that Utah's Cinderella Kids won mythical national honors in postseason tournament play which was ruled out for the Cadets..
  2. Web site: Army season-by-season results. sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2014. May 15, 2014.
  3. Web site: NCAA Division I Men's Basketball – NCAA Division I Champions. Rauzulu's Street. 2004. May 15, 2014.
  4. Book: ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. ESPN. ESPN Books. New York, NY. 2009. 532. 978-0-345-51392-2.
  5. Book: Noles, Jim . Undefeated: From Basketball to Battle - West Point's Perfect 1944 Season . Casemate Publishers . 2018 . Philadelphia.
  6. Web site: 2013–14 Army Black Knights Men's Basketball Media Guide. History & Records (p. 82). United States Military Academy. 2009. PDF. May 12, 2014. May 17, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140517123547/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/army/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/2012_13_Records.pdf. dead.