1945 NAIA basketball tournament
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| 1945 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament | |||||
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| Teams | 16 | ||||
| Finals Site | Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri |
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| Champions | Loyola (La.) (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four) |
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| Runner-Up | Pepperdine (Calif.) (1st title game, 1st Final Four) |
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| Semifinalists | Eastern Kentucky (1st Final Four) Southern Illinois (1st Final Four) |
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| Chuck Taylor MVP | Fred Lewis (Eastern Kentucky) |
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The 1945 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 8th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 16 teams playing in a single-elimination format,[1] instead of the normal 32. The NAIA Semifinals featured four new teams for the first time since the inaugural year, 1937. The championship game featured Loyola University (La.) defeating Pepperdine University (Calif.) 49 to 35.
Awards and honors
Many of the records set by the 1945 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
- Coach of the Year est. 1954
- Player of the Year est. 1994[2]
1945 NAIA bracket
| First Round | Elite Eight | NAIA National Semifinals | NAIA National Championship | ||||||||||||||||
| - | Central College (Mo.) | 54 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Eau Claire (Wisc.) | 36 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Central College (Mo.) | 48* | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Eastern Kentucky | 50 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Eastern Kentucky | 64 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Simpson (Iowa) | 42 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Eastern Kentucky | 34 | |||||||||||||||||
| TOP TIER | |||||||||||||||||||
| - | Pepperdine | 52 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | West Texas State | 54 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Wichita (Kan.) | 43 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | West Texas State | 45 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Pepperdine | 52 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Pepperdine (Calif.) | 77 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Peru State (Neb.) | 42 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Pepperdine | 35 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Loyola | 49 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Central Normal (Ind.) | 53 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Catawba (N.C) | 39 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Central Normal | 43 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Loyola | 50 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Loyola (La.) | 53 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Phillips (Okla.) | 31 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Loyola | 37 | |||||||||||||||||
| BOTTOM TIER | |||||||||||||||||||
| - | Southern Illinois | 35 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Southern Illinois | 64 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Washburn (Kan.) | 49 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Southern Illinois | 61 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Doane | 44 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Doane (Neb.) | 54 | |||||||||||||||||
| - | Eastern Washington State | 51 | |||||||||||||||||
- * denotes overtime.
3rd place game
The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.
| NAIA Third Place Game | ||||
| - | Eastern Kentucky | 45 | ||
| - | Southern Illinois | 49 | ||
