🏀 The 1944-45 men’s college basketball season

What the record holds for this season: the champion, the tournament bracket, the AP poll week by week, the conference tables, and the Elo ratings with the biggest upsets.

Source: Citizen of Nowhere college basketball database · 12 conferences · 8-team tournament

← 1944 1946 →All seasons

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1960s

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1950s

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1940s

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1930s

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1900s

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1890s

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1945season

← 1944 1946 →

1944-45 national champion

The NCAA tournament winner.

National champion

Oklahoma A&M

27-4

Title gameNYU 45, Oklahoma A&M 49 (Mar 27)

Final FourOklahoma A&MNYUArkansasOhio State

The 1945 NCAA tournament

8 teams. Winners in bold, seeds before each team.

8-team field · 2 regions

First Round

Arkansas79

Oregon76

Oklahoma A&M62

Utah37

West region

First Round

Arkansas79

Oregon76

Oklahoma A&M62

Utah37

East region

First Round

Kentucky37

Ohio State45

NYU59

Tufts44

Final Four and the title game

Final Four

Arkansas41

Oklahoma A&M68

Mar 24

NYU70

Ohio State65

East · Mar 24

Championship game: Oklahoma A&M

NYU45

Oklahoma A&M49

Mar 27

Third-place games

Oregon69

Utah66

Regional Third Place · West · Mar 24

Kentucky66

Tufts56

Regional Third Place · East · Mar 24

Conference tournaments

The champion and the other finalist of each of the 2 conference tournaments held in 1944-45.

Conference	Champion	Runner-up
Southeastern	Kentucky	Tennessee
Southern	North Carolina	Duke

1945 standings by conference

Overall and conference record. A star marks the regular-season champion, a trophy the conference-tournament champion.

1945 standings by conference12 conferences

Big Six6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Iowa State	11-5	8-2	★
Kansas	12-5	7-3
Oklahoma	12-13	5-5
Missouri	8-10	5-5
Kansas State	10-13	4-6
Nebraska	2-17	1-9

Big Ten10 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Iowa	17-1	11-1	★
Ohio State	15-5	10-2	NCAA
Illinois	13-7	7-5
Purdue	9-11	6-6
Michigan	12-7	5-7
Wisconsin	10-11	4-8
Minnesota	8-13	4-8
Northwestern	7-12	4-8
Indiana	10-11	3-9
Chicago	7-8

Border9 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
New Mexico	14-2	12-0	★
West Texas State	16-10	9-3
Northern Arizona	5-6	4-2
New Mexico A&M	9-5	4-3
Texas Tech	10-14	7-6
Arizona	7-11	3-4
Arizona State	5-9	3-5
Texas Western	10-13	4-11
Hardin-Simmons	7-23	2-14

Eastern Intercollegiate4 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Pennsylvania	12-5	5-1	★
Cornell	12-5	4-2
Dartmouth	6-8	2-4
Columbia	9-10	1-5

Missouri Valley5 teams

School	W-L	Note
Oklahoma A&M	27-4	★ NCAA
Saint Louis	10-4
Washington University	10-9
Drake	11-13
Tulsa	4-8

Mountain States7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Utah	17-4	8-0	★ NCAA
Colorado	13-3	9-1
Wyoming	10-18	7-5
BYU	11-12	5-5
Utah State	9-10	3-7
Colorado A&M	7-11	1-5
Denver	7-16	1-11

Pacific Coast8 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
UCLA	12-12	3-1	★
Oregon	30-15	11-5	★ NCAA
Washington State	23-13	11-5
Oregon State	20-8	10-6
USC	15-9	2-2
Washington	22-18	5-11
California	7-8	1-3
Idaho	13-20	3-13

Rocky Mountain4 teams

School	W-L	Note
Colorado College	5-5	★
Colorado Mines	6-7
Montana State	10-14
Colorado State College	0-12

Southeastern12 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Kentucky	22-4	4-1	★ 🏆 NCAA
Tennessee	18-5	8-2
Mississippi	14-8	3-1
Florida	7-12	4-2
Georgia Tech	11-6	7-4
Alabama	10-5	5-3
LSU	15-9	3-3
Tulane	8-11	3-3
Auburn	3-14	2-6
Mississippi State	5-13	2-9
Georgia	5-16	2-9
Vanderbilt	6-6

Southern14 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
South Carolina	19-3	9-0	★
Richmond	3-4	2-0
Duke	13-9	6-1
North Carolina	22-6	11-3	🏆
Citadel	16-7	8-4
North Carolina State	10-11	7-5
William & Mary	7-11	3-4
Clemson	8-8	3-5
Maryland	2-14	2-5
Virginia Tech	6-8	1-3
Davidson	9-9	2-7
VMI	2-10	1-4
Wake Forest	3-14	0-6
Furman	2-15	0-8

Southwest7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Rice	20-1	12-0	★
Arkansas	17-9	9-3	NCAA
SMU	11-10	7-5
TCU	9-20	7-5
Texas	10-10	5-7
Texas A&M	3-18	2-10
Baylor	0-17	0-12

Independent66 teams

School	W-L	Note
Army	14-1
RPI	13-1
Akron	21-2
Lafayette	16-2
DePaul	21-3
St. John's	21-3
Valparaiso	21-3
Bowling Green	24-4
Muhlenberg	24-4
Navy	12-2
Louisville	16-3
Hamline	20-4
Rhode Island	20-5
Brown	15-4
Rutgers	11-3
Yale	14-4
Virginia	13-4
CCNY	12-4
Indiana State	18-6
Notre Dame	15-5
Long Island	14-5
Butler	14-6
Wichita State	14-6
Temple	16-7
Toledo	9-4
NYU	14-7	NCAA
Pittsburgh	8-4
West Virginia	12-6
Marshall	17-9
Western Kentucky State	17-10
Tufts	10-6	NCAA
Bucknell	10-7
Penn State	10-7
La Salle	11-8
Ohio	11-8
Michigan State	9-7
Niagara	7-6
Miami (OH)	8-7
Canisius	12-11
St. Joseph's	12-11
St. Francis (NY)	9-9
Cincinnati	8-9
Nevada	8-9
Northeastern	7-8
Loyola (MD)	10-12
St. Mary's	5-6
Western Michigan	8-10
Marquette	7-10
Boston University	4-6
Detroit	8-12
Princeton	7-12
Syracuse	7-12
Villanova	6-11
Colgate	5-10
Loyola-Chicago	4-8
Maine	4-8
Connecticut	5-11
Holy Cross	4-9
St. Bonaventure	3-7
Fordham	5-15
Montana	7-22
Kent State	3-11
Brooklyn	3-15
Harvard	2-13
Lehigh	2-16
Santa Clara	0-11

Where these numbers come from

Enough to disbelieve this page on purpose rather than by accident.

Champions, brackets, polls and standings are read from the Citizen of Nowhere college basketball database, one season at a time. A section appears only where the database holds its data: the NCAA tournament began in 1939 (earlier champions are retroactive selections), the AP poll in 1949, and game-by-game results, and so the Elo ratings and upsets, in 1950.

Elo ratings and upsets come from the site’s own men’s college basketball Elo, built from every game since 1950. An upset’s win chance is the winner’s pre-game probability from those ratings.