1973 NCAA University Division basketball tournament
The 1973 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA University Division (now Division I, created later in 1973) college basketball. It began on Saturday, March 10, and ended with the championship game on Monday, March 26, in St. Louis, Missouri. A total of 29 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.
NCAA logo from 1971 to 1979 | |||||
| Teams | 25 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri | ||||
| Champions | UCLA Bruins (9th title, 9th title game, 10th Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Memphis State Tigers (1st title game, 1st Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | John Wooden (9th title) | ||||
| MOP | Bill Walton (UCLA) | ||||
| Attendance | 163,160 | ||||
| Top scorer | Ernie DiGregorio (Providence) (128 points) | ||||
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Led by longtime head coach John Wooden, the UCLA Bruins won their seventh consecutive national title with an 87–66 victory in the final game over Memphis State, coached by Gene Bartow, a future head coach at UCLA. Junior center Bill Walton of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
This was the first year that the championship game was held on a Monday night, with Saturday semifinals. Previously, the championship game was on Saturday, with the semifinals on either Thursday or Friday. Also, this was the first year matchups in the semifinals rotated; previously, it was East vs. Mideast and West vs. Midwest every year.