1953 NCAA basketball tournament
The 1953 NCAA basketball tournament involved 22 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of NCAA college basketball. The 15th edition of the tournament began on March 10, 1953, and ended with the championship game on March 18 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 26 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.
| Season | 1952–53 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 22 | ||||
| Finals site | Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri | ||||
| Champions | Indiana Hoosiers (2nd title, 2nd title game, 2nd Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Kansas Jayhawks (3rd title game, 3rd Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Branch McCracken (2nd title) | ||||
| MOP | B. H. Born (Kansas) | ||||
| Attendance | 127,149 | ||||
| Top scorer | Bob Houbregs (Washington) (139 points) | ||||
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Indiana, coached by Branch McCracken, won the tournament title with a 69–68 victory in the final game over Kansas, coached by Phog Allen. B. H. Born of Kansas was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The Hoosiers became the third team, after Oklahoma A&M in 1945-46 and Kentucky in 1948-49, to win two titles and the second of three teams to win titles in their first two tournament appearances (after Oklahoma A&M); however, unlike Oklahoma A&M before them and San Francisco after, their first two tournament appearances were 13 years apart.