1957 NAIA basketball tournament explained

Type:NAIA men's basketball tournament
Year:1957
Teams:32
Fabfourarena:Municipal Auditorium
Fabfourcity:Kansas City, Missouri
Champions:Tennessee State
Titlecount:1st
Champgamecount:1st
Champffcount:1st
Runnerffcount:3rd
Runnerup:Southeastern State
Gamecount:2nd
Semifinal1:Pacific Lutheran
Finalfourcount1:1st
Semifinal2:Eastern Illinois
Finalfourcount2:1st
Coty:Bloomer Sullivan
Cotyschool:Southeastern Oklahoma State
Mvp:Jim Spivey
Mvpteam:Southeastern Oklahoma State
Attendance:unknown

The 1957 NAIA basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 20th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format.[1]

This would be the first tournament to have seeded teams. This also means that this is the first tournament to have an 'upset'. The first upset in tournament history was when the 3 seeded West Virginia Tech lost to Villa Madonna, predecessor to today's Thomas More of Kentucky, 93–91. There were three upsets this year, including the championship game. The NAIA seeded teams 21 years prior to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The NAIA would adjust seeding to 16 seed system, in 1959. In 2016 the seeds would be adjust again, each bracket would be ranked 1-8, with the overall number 1 in the Naismith Bracket.

The championship game featured Tennessee State and Southeastern State (OK). With Tennessee State's win, they became the first historically black institution to win a collegiate basketball national championship.[2] This would be the first of three national championship titles for Tennessee State.

The 3rd place game featured Pacific Lutheran defeating Eastern Illinois.

Awards and honors

Many of the records set by the 1957 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:

Bracket

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: NAIA.org . 2020-05-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090501033134/http://naia.cstv.com/ . 2009-05-01 . dead .
  2. http://www.naiahoops.com/page/history.php NAIA History
  3. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/naia/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/mensd1champhistory.pdf NAIA Championship History