🏀 The 1945-46 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 · 15 conferences · 8-team tournament

← 1945 1947 →All seasons

Jump to any season1896–2027

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2000s

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1990s

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1980s

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1970s

1979Michigan State 1978Kentucky 1977Marquette 1976Indiana 1975UCLA 1974North Carolina State 1973UCLA 1972UCLA 1971UCLA 1970UCLA

1960s

1969UCLA 1968UCLA 1967UCLA 1966Texas Western 1965UCLA 1964UCLA 1963Loyola-Chicago 1962Cincinnati 1961Cincinnati 1960Ohio State

1950s

1959California 1958Kentucky 1957North Carolina 1956San Francisco 1955San Francisco 1954La Salle 1953Indiana 1952Kansas 1951Kentucky 1950CCNY

1940s

1949Kentucky 1948Kentucky 1947Holy Cross 1946Oklahoma A&M 1945Oklahoma A&M 1944Utah 1943Wyoming 1942Stanford 1941Wisconsin 1940Indiana

1930s

1939Oregon 1938Temple 1937Stanford 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932Purdue 1931Northwestern 1930

1920s

1929Montana State 1928Pittsburgh 1927 1926Syracuse 1925Princeton 1924North Carolina 1923 1922 1921 1920Pennsylvania

1910s

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1900s

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1890s

1899 1898 1897 1896

1946season

← 1945 1947 →

1945-46 national champion

The NCAA tournament winner.

National champion

Oklahoma A&M

31-2

Title gameNorth Carolina 40, Oklahoma A&M 43 (Mar 26)

Final FourOklahoma A&MNorth CarolinaCaliforniaOhio State

The 1946 NCAA tournament

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

8-team field · 2 regions

First Round

Baylor29

Oklahoma A&M44

California50

Colorado44

West region

First Round

Baylor29

Oklahoma A&M44

California50

Colorado44

East region

First Round

Harvard38

Ohio State46

NYU49

North Carolina57

Final Four and the title game

Final Four

Mar 23

East · Mar 23

Championship game: Oklahoma A&M

North Carolina40

Oklahoma A&M43

Mar 26

Third-place games

Harvard61

NYU67

Regional Third Place · East · Mar 23

Baylor44

Colorado59

Regional Third Place · West · Mar 23

California45

Ohio State63

Third Place Game · West vs East · Mar 26

Conference tournaments

The champion and the other finalist of each of the 2 conference tournaments held in 1945-46.

Conference	Champion	Runner-up
Southeastern	Kentucky	LSU
Southern	Duke	Wake Forest

1946 standings by conference

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

1946 standings by conference15 conferences

Big Nine10 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Ohio State	16-5	10-2	★ NCAA
Indiana	18-3	9-3
Iowa	14-4	8-4
Northwestern	15-5	8-4
Illinois	14-7	7-5
Minnesota	14-7	7-5
Michigan	12-7	6-6
Purdue	10-11	4-8
Wisconsin	4-17	1-11
Chicago	6-14	0-12

Big Six6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Kansas	19-2	10-0	★
Oklahoma	11-10	7-3
Iowa State	8-8	5-5
Missouri	6-11	3-7
Nebraska	7-13	3-7
Kansas State	4-20	2-8

Border9 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Arizona	25-5	13-2	★
West Texas State	19-8	9-2
Texas Tech	15-10	7-4
New Mexico	16-9	13-8
Arizona State	12-16	6-7
Northern Arizona	12-8	4-6
Texas Western	4-11	4-7
New Mexico A&M	5-16	2-12
Hardin-Simmons	2-10	0-10

Eastern Intercollegiate5 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Dartmouth	13-3	7-1	★
Cornell	12-5	6-2
Pennsylvania	7-10	4-4
Columbia	11-9	3-5
Princeton	7-12	0-8

Metropolitan New York7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
NYU	19-3	5-1	NCAA
St. John's	17-6	5-1
CCNY	14-4	4-1
St. Francis (NY)	12-6	3-2
Manhattan	15-8	2-4
Brooklyn	8-9	1-5
Fordham	4-17	0-6

Middle Atlantic States5 teams

School	W-L	Conf
Lafayette	17-3	7-1
Muhlenberg	23-5	7-1
Gettysburg	11-6	3-5
Bucknell	6-11	2-6
Lehigh	3-13	1-7

Missouri Valley7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Oklahoma A&M	31-2	12-0	★ NCAA
Wichita	14-9	6-4
Saint Louis	13-11	6-5
Drake	11-15	5-7
Washington University	10-17	3-6
Creighton	9-10	3-7
Tulsa	6-12	3-9

Mountain States7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Wyoming	22-4	10-2	★
Colorado	12-6	9-3	NCAA
Utah	12-8	8-4
Colorado A&M	15-9	6-6
BYU	12-13	6-6
Utah State	7-12	2-10
Denver	9-15	1-11

Pacific Coast9 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
California	30-6	11-1	★ NCAA
Idaho	23-11	11-5
USC	14-7	8-4
Oregon State	13-11	10-6
Oregon	16-17	8-8
UCLA	8-16	5-7
Washington	14-14	6-10
Washington State	16-13	5-11
Stanford	6-18	0-12

Rocky Mountain4 teams

School	W-L	Note
Colorado College	8-4
Montana State	17-10
Colorado State College	9-12	★
Colorado Mines	3-11

Southeastern12 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Kentucky	28-2	6-0	★ 🏆
LSU	18-3	8-0
Tennessee	14-4	8-3
Alabama	11-5	8-4
Auburn	7-9	7-6
Georgia	12-9	6-6
Georgia Tech	10-11	7-7
Tulane	15-7	4-5
Vanderbilt	3-10	2-5
Florida	7-14	2-6
Mississippi	8-11	2-8
Mississippi State	5-14	3-13

Southern16 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
North Carolina	30-5	13-1	★ NCAA
Duke	21-6	12-2	🏆
Virginia Tech	11-8	7-3
Wake Forest	12-6	8-5
Maryland	9-12	5-4
Furman	16-3	4-4
William & Mary	10-10	5-5
George Washington	7-8	4-5
Clemson	9-11	5-7
North Carolina State	6-12	5-7
South Carolina	9-11	4-7
Davidson	13-12	5-9
Richmond	8-12	3-7
Citadel	7-11	1-6
VMI	1-10	1-6
Washington & Lee	2-11	0-4

Southwest7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Baylor	25-5	11-1	★ NCAA
Arkansas	16-7	9-3
Texas	16-7	7-5
TCU	13-11	6-6
Rice	10-11	5-7
Texas A&M	9-14	4-8
SMU	7-16	0-12

Yankee5 teams

School	W-L	Conf
Rhode Island	21-3	4-0
Connecticut	11-6	4-2
Maine	10-4	4-4
Northeastern	4-13	2-4
New Hampshire	3-7	0-4

Independent54 teams

School	W-L	Note
Yale	14-1
West Virginia	24-3
Harvard	20-3	NCAA
Boston University	12-2
Loyola-Chicago	23-4
Syracuse	23-4
Nevada	28-5
Bowling Green	27-5
Notre Dame	17-4
Holy Cross	12-3
Navy	12-3
St. Bonaventure	12-3
DePaul	19-5
Louisville	22-6
Indiana State	21-7
Ohio	15-5
Toledo	20-7
Marshall	24-10
Virginia	12-5
Loyola (MD)	18-8
Western Michigan	15-7
Colgate	12-6
St. Mary's	10-5
Detroit	15-8
Rutgers	13-7
Temple	12-7
Marquette	11-7
Long Island	14-9
Valparaiso	17-11
Army	9-6
Butler	12-8
Hamline	12-8
Santa Clara	9-6
Niagara	11-8
Michigan State	12-9
Georgetown	11-9
Miami (OH)	10-9
Kent State	10-10
Pittsburgh	7-7
Bradley	11-12
St. Joseph's	9-11
Montana	13-16
Western Kentucky State	15-19
Penn State	7-9
Villanova	10-13
San Francisco	9-12
Canisius	8-11
La Salle	9-14
Cincinnati	8-13
Merchant Marine	5-10
Brown	5-15
Boston College	3-11
Dayton	3-13
Xavier	3-16

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.