🏀 The 1948-49 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 · 18 conferences · 8-team tournament

← 1948 1950 →All seasons

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2000s

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1990s

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1980s

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1970s

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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

1919 1918Syracuse 1917Washington State 1916Wisconsin 1915Illinois 1914Wisconsin 1913Navy 1912Wisconsin 1911St. John's 1910

1900s

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1890s

1899 1898 1897 1896

1949season

← 1948 1950 →

1948-49 national champion

The NCAA tournament winner.

National champion

Kentucky

32-2Final AP #1

Title gameKentucky 46, Oklahoma A&M 36 (Mar 26)

Final FourKentuckyOklahoma A&MIllinoisOregon State

The 1949 NCAA tournament

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

8-team field · 2 regions

First Round

Arkansas38

Oregon State56

Oklahoma A&M40

Wyoming39

West region

First Round

Arkansas38

Oregon State56

Oklahoma A&M40

Wyoming39

East region

First Round

Illinois71

Yale67

Kentucky85

Villanova72

Final Four and the title game

Final Four

Mar 19

East · Mar 22

Championship game: Kentucky

Kentucky46

Oklahoma A&M36

Mar 26

Third-place games

Arkansas61

Wyoming48

Regional Third Place · West · Mar 19

Villanova78

Yale67

Regional Third Place · East · Mar 22

Illinois57

Oregon State53

Third Place Game · East vs West · Mar 26

Conference tournaments

The champion and the other finalist of each of the 3 conference tournaments held in 1948-49.

Conference	Champion	Runner-up
Ohio Valley	Western Kentucky State	Louisville
Southeastern	Kentucky	Tulane
Southern	North Carolina State	George Washington

The 1948-49 AP poll, week by week

Each team's rank in every poll. Tap a rank to read it.

Team	Jan20	25	Feb1	8	15	22	Mar1	8
Kentucky	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Oklahoma A&M	5	3	3	3	3	3	2	2
Saint Louis	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3
Illinois	7	6	4	4	4	4	4	4
Western Kentucky State	3	4	6	6	7	7	6	5
Minnesota	4	5	5	7	6	5	5	6
Bradley	16	19	18		12	10	10	7
San Francisco	6	9	10	9	8	8	8	8
Tulane	11	12	11	8	5	6	7	9
Bowling Green	15		14	14	10	9	9	10
Yale					20	13	18	11
Utah	10	10	12	12	14	16	13	12
North Carolina State		15	17		18		15	13
Villanova	9	8	7	13	15		17	14
UCLA								15
Loyola-Chicago	12	13	13	11	13	12	14	16
Wyoming				19	19	14	12	17
Butler	19	17	16	16	11	11	11	18
Hamline	8	7	8	5	9	15	16	19
Ohio State				18		18	19	20
Arkansas							20
Duquesne				20	20	17
USC						19
Texas						20
Oklahoma					16
DePaul		16			17
Stanford	17	11	9	10	20
Holy Cross	14	20	19	15
Washington State	18	14		17
NYU	20		15
Eastern Kentucky			20
Baylor		18
Cincinnati	13

Tap a rank to read it.

1949 final AP Top 19

The last Associated Press ranking of the season, with each team's record.

1949 final AP Top 19AP

11Yale22-8
12Utah24-8
13North Carolina State25-8
14Villanova23-4
15UCLA22-7
16Loyola-Chicago25-6
17Wyoming25-10
18Butler18-5
20Ohio State14-7

1949 standings by conference

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

1949 standings by conference18 conferences

Big Seven7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Nebraska	16-10	9-3	★
Oklahoma	14-10	9-3	★
Kansas State	13-11	8-4
Missouri	11-13	6-6
Colorado	6-12	4-8
Kansas	12-12	3-9
Iowa State	7-14	3-9

Big Ten10 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Illinois	21-4	10-2	★ NCAA AP 4
Minnesota	18-3	9-3	AP 6
Michigan	15-6	7-5
Ohio State	14-7	6-6	AP 20
Indiana	14-8	6-6
Purdue	13-9	6-6
Wisconsin	12-10	5-7
Iowa	10-10	3-9
Northwestern	5-16	2-10
Michigan State	9-12

Border9 teams

School	W-L	Note
Texas Tech	21-9
West Texas State	16-8
Arizona	17-11	★
Hardin-Simmons	13-10
Northern Arizona	11-10
New Mexico	11-12
Arizona State	12-16
Texas Western	8-12
New Mexico A&M	9-15

Eastern Intercollegiate7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Yale	22-8	9-3	★ NCAA AP 11
Columbia	14-6	8-4
Pennsylvania	15-8	8-4
Princeton	13-9	8-4
Cornell	11-15	5-7
Dartmouth	15-11	4-8
Harvard	3-20	0-12

Metropolitan New York7 teams

School	W-L	Conf
Manhattan	18-8	5-1
St. John's	15-9	5-1
CCNY	17-8	3-2
NYU	12-8	3-2
St. Francis (NY)	20-13	2-2
Fordham	9-16	1-5
Brooklyn	8-14	0-6

Mid-American6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Cincinnati	23-5	9-1	★
Butler	18-5	8-2	AP 18
Western Michigan	12-10	4-6
Western Reserve	9-15	4-6
Miami (OH)	8-13	3-7
Ohio	6-16	2-8

Middle Atlantic States5 teams

School	W-L	Conf
Lafayette	20-9	6-2
Muhlenberg	17-8	6-2
Gettysburg	16-10	5-3
Lehigh	7-11	3-5
Bucknell	2-18	0-8

Missouri Valley6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Oklahoma A&M	23-5	9-1	★ NCAA AP 2
Saint Louis	22-4	8-2	AP 3
Bradley	27-8	6-4	AP 7
Drake	13-13	4-6
Wichita	10-16	3-7
Tulsa	4-20	0-10

Mountain States6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Wyoming	25-10	15-5	★ NCAA AP 17
Utah	24-8	14-6	AP 12
Denver	18-15	13-7
BYU	21-13	11-9
Utah State	10-21	4-16
Colorado A&M	14-21	3-17

Ohio Valley8 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Western Kentucky State	25-4	8-2	★ 🏆 AP 5
Eastern Kentucky	16-4	7-3
Louisville	23-10	6-3
Marshall	16-12	2-2
Evansville	13-12	4-5
Murray State	13-12	3-9
Morehead State	4-9	2-7
Tennessee Tech	10-10	0-1

Pacific Coast9 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
UCLA	22-7	10-2	AP 15
Oregon State	24-12	12-4	★ NCAA
USC	14-10	8-4
Washington State	21-9	8-8
Idaho	17-15	7-9
Oregon	12-18	7-9
Stanford	19-9	5-7
Washington	11-15	6-10
California	14-19	1-11

Rocky Mountain4 teams

School	W-L	Note
Colorado State College	13-4	★
Montana State	18-9
Colorado College	7-9
Colorado Mines	4-14

Southeastern12 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Kentucky	32-2	13-0	★ 🏆 NCAA AP 1
Tulane	24-4	12-3	AP 9
Tennessee	19-7	8-3
Vanderbilt	14-8	9-5
LSU	15-10	7-6
Alabama	13-12	9-9
Georgia Tech	11-13	7-9
Georgia	17-13	6-9
Florida	11-16	4-8
Auburn	9-15	5-11
Mississippi	8-13	4-12
Mississippi State	4-13	3-12

Southern16 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
North Carolina State	25-8	14-1	★ 🏆 AP 13
William & Mary	24-10	10-3
North Carolina	20-8	13-5
George Washington	18-8	9-4
Davidson	18-8	11-6
South Carolina	10-12	7-6
Wake Forest	11-13	7-7
Maryland	9-17	7-7
Virginia Tech	10-13	6-8
Duke	13-9	5-7
Clemson	10-11	6-9
Washington & Lee	10-12	5-9
Richmond	8-15	5-10
VMI	3-16	3-8
Furman	8-14	4-11
Citadel	1-17	0-11

Southwest7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Baylor	14-10	9-3	★
Arkansas	15-11	9-3	★ NCAA
Rice	13-11	9-3	★
Texas	17-7	7-5
SMU	11-13	5-7
Texas A&M	5-19	2-10
TCU	4-20	1-11

Western N.Y. Little 33 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Niagara	24-7	3-1	★
Canisius	16-12	2-2
St. Bonaventure	18-8	1-3

Yankee6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Rhode Island	16-6	5-1
Connecticut	19-6		★
Vermont	15-5
New Hampshire	7-10
Massachusetts	6-12
Maine	4-14

Independent44 teams

School	W-L	Note
Villanova	23-4	NCAA AP 14
San Francisco	25-5	AP 8
Loyola-Chicago	25-6	AP 16
Bowling Green	24-7	AP 10
Duquesne	17-5
Siena	22-7
La Salle	21-7
West Virginia	18-6
Akron	16-6
Syracuse	18-7
Notre Dame	17-7
Holy Cross	19-8
Miami (FL)	19-8
Seton Hall	16-8
DePaul	16-9
Brown	13-8
Xavier	16-10
Colgate	11-7
Temple	14-9
Long Island	18-12
Baldwin-Wallace	13-9
Washington University	13-9
Navy	12-9
Virginia	13-10
Detroit	12-10
Rutgers	14-12
Dayton	16-14
St. Joseph's	12-11
Toledo	13-12
Boston College	9-9
Pittsburgh	12-13
Seattle	12-14
Wayne State	11-13
St. Mary's	13-17
Army	7-10
Penn State	7-10
Creighton	9-14
Marquette	8-13
Georgetown	9-15
Santa Clara	8-15
Boston University	6-12
Valparaiso	8-17
John Carroll	7-17
Providence	7-19

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.