🏀 The 1949-50 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 · 17 conferences · 8-team tournament

← 1949 1951 →All seasons

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2000s

2009North Carolina 2008Kansas 2007Florida 2006Florida 2005North Carolina 2004Connecticut 2003Syracuse 2002Maryland 2001Duke 2000Michigan State

1990s

1999Connecticut 1998Kentucky 1997Arizona 1996Kentucky 1995UCLA 1994Arkansas 1993North Carolina 1992Duke 1991Duke 1990UNLV

1980s

1989Michigan 1988Kansas 1987Indiana 1986Louisville 1985Villanova 1984Georgetown 1983North Carolina State 1982North Carolina 1981Indiana 1980Louisville

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

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

1900s

1909Chicago 1908 1907 1906 1905Columbia 1904Columbia 1903 1902Minnesota 1901 1900

1890s

1899 1898 1897 1896

1950season

← 1949 1951 →

1949-50 national champion

The NCAA tournament winner.

National champion

CCNY

24-5

Title gameBradley 68, CCNY 71 (Mar 28)

Final FourCCNYBradleyBaylorNorth Carolina State

The 1950 NCAA tournament

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

8-team field · 2 regions

First Round

BYU55

Baylor56

Bradley73

UCLA59

West region

First Round

BYU55

Baylor56

Bradley73

UCLA59

East region

First Round

CCNY56

Ohio State55

Holy Cross74

North Carolina State87

Final Four and the title game

Final Four

Baylor66

Bradley68

West · Mar 25

CCNY78

North Carolina State73

East · Mar 25

Championship game: CCNY

Bradley68

CCNY71

West vs East · Mar 28

Third-place games

Holy Cross52

Ohio State72

Regional Third Place · East · Mar 25

BYU83

UCLA62

Regional Third Place · West · Mar 25

Baylor41

North Carolina State53

Third Place Game · West vs East · Mar 28

Conference tournaments

The champion and the other finalist of each of the 3 conference tournaments held in 1949-50.

Conference	Champion	Runner-up	Final
Ohio Valley	Eastern Kentucky	Western Kentucky State
Southeastern	Kentucky 95-58, Mar 5	Tennessee	95-58, Mar 5
Southern	North Carolina State 67-47, Mar 4	Duke	67-47, Mar 4

The 1949-50 AP poll, week by week

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

Team	Jan5	10	17	24	30	Feb7	14	21	28	Mar7
Bradley	3	6	4	6	3	2	2	1	1	1
Ohio State		15	11	13	7	4	3	3	2	2
Kentucky	2	2	5	4	6	7	5	5	4	3
Holy Cross	6	5	1	1	1	1	1	2	3	4
North Carolina State	7	9	12	10	9	8	8	9	8	5
Duquesne	8	8	6	2	2	3	7	4	5	6
UCLA	9	10	9	11	13	12	10	7	6	7
Western Kentucky State		14	14	17	14	11	9	8	7	8
St. John's	1	1	2	5	5	4	4	6	10	9
La Salle	18	13	10	7	8	9	11	12	9	10
Villanova	13	17	18	19			15		11	11
San Francisco						15	12	11	13	12
Long Island	4	3	3	3	4	6	6	10	14	13
Kansas State	20		13	12	11	10	14	13	12	14
Arizona						18	17	19	15	15
Wisconsin	15			15	17					16
San Jose State								18	19	17
Washington State						17	16			18
Kansas										19
Indiana	5	4	8	9	12	16		17		20
Nebraska									16
Toledo								14	17
Wyoming				14	20				18
Vanderbilt					18		20		20
Saint Louis	11					19	18	15
USC							19	16
CCNY	14	7	7	8	10	14	13	20
Louisville			19		15	13
Hamline						20
Notre Dame					16
Oklahoma A&M					19
Washington		20		16
Minnesota	10	11	16	18
Illinois	16			20
Tulane			15
Tennessee			17
Cincinnati		12	20
Missouri	12	16
Siena		18
Oklahoma	17	19
Bowling Green	19

Tap a rank to read it.

1950 final AP Top 19

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

1950 final AP Top 19AP

11Villanova25-4
12San Francisco19-7
13Long Island20-5
14Kansas State17-7
15Arizona26-5
16Wisconsin17-5
18Washington State19-13
19Kansas14-11
20Indiana17-5

1950 standings by conference

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

1950 standings by conference17 conferences

Big Seven7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Kansas State	17-7	8-4	★ AP 14
Nebraska	16-7	8-4	★
Kansas	14-11	8-4	★ AP 19
Colorado	14-8	6-6
Oklahoma	12-10	6-6
Missouri	14-10	4-8
Iowa State	6-17	2-10

Big Ten10 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Ohio State	22-4	11-1	★ NCAA AP 2
Wisconsin	17-5	9-3	AP 16
Indiana	17-5	7-5	AP 20
Illinois	14-8	7-5
Iowa	15-7	6-6
Minnesota	13-9	4-8
Michigan	11-11	4-8
Northwestern	10-12	3-9
Purdue	9-13	3-9
Michigan State	4-18

Border9 teams

School	W-L	Note
Arizona	26-5	★ AP 15
West Texas State	19-10
Hardin-Simmons	15-10
Texas Western	17-13
Texas Tech	14-12
New Mexico A&M	15-13
Arizona State	12-14
New Mexico	5-19
Northern Arizona	3-19

Eastern Intercollegiate7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Princeton	14-9	11-1	★
Columbia	21-7	9-3
Cornell	18-7	7-5
Yale	17-9	7-5
Pennsylvania	11-14	4-8
Harvard	9-15	3-9
Dartmouth	8-17	1-11

Metropolitan New York6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
CCNY	24-5	6-0	NCAA
Fordham	15-12	3-2
St. John's	24-5	3-3	AP 9
Manhattan	14-11	3-3
NYU	8-11	1-4
St. Francis (NY)	6-18	0-4

Mid-American6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Cincinnati	20-6	10-0	★
Western Michigan	12-10	6-4
Butler	12-12	6-4
Ohio	6-14	3-7
Miami (OH)	5-15	3-7
Western Reserve	7-17	2-8

Missouri Valley7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Bradley	32-5	11-1	★ NCAA AP 1
Saint Louis	17-9	8-4
Detroit	20-6	7-5
Oklahoma A&M	18-9	7-5
Drake	14-12	5-7
Tulsa	12-11	3-9
Wichita	7-17	1-11

Mountain States6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
BYU	22-12	14-6	★ NCAA
Wyoming	25-11	13-7
Denver	18-13	13-7
Utah State	17-17	10-10
Utah	16-18	8-12
Colorado A&M	7-23	2-18

Ohio Valley7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Western Kentucky State	25-6	8-0	★ AP 8
Eastern Kentucky	16-6	7-3	🏆
Marshall	15-9	5-4
Morehead State	12-10	5-6
Murray State	18-13	5-7
Evansville	14-14	2-7
Tennessee Tech	9-12	1-6

Pacific Coast9 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
UCLA	24-7	10-2	★ NCAA AP 7
Washington State	19-13	11-5	AP 18
USC	16-8	7-5
Washington	19-10	8-8
Oregon State	13-14	8-8
Idaho	15-17	7-9
Oregon	9-19	6-10
California	10-17	4-8
Stanford	11-14	3-9

Rocky Mountain5 teams

School	W-L	Note
Colorado State College	13-8
Montana State	14-15	★
Colorado College	9-11
Colorado Mines	8-17
Idaho State	5-25

Southeastern12 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Kentucky	25-5	11-2	★ 🏆 AP 3
Vanderbilt	17-8	11-3
Auburn	17-7	12-6
Tulane	15-7	8-4
Alabama	9-12	8-9
Georgia	15-9	6-7
Tennessee	15-11	5-6
Georgia Tech	14-13	7-9
LSU	13-12	5-8
Mississippi State	7-11	6-10
Florida	9-14	4-10
Mississippi	8-17	4-13

Southern16 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
North Carolina State	27-6	12-2	★ 🏆 NCAA AP 5
William & Mary	23-9	12-4
George Washington	17-8	12-4
South Carolina	13-9	12-5
North Carolina	17-12	13-6
Virginia Tech	16-9	9-5
Wake Forest	14-16	11-8
Duke	15-15	9-7
Clemson	10-10	8-8
Furman	9-12	4-8
Davidson	10-16	6-12
Washington & Lee	8-12	4-9
Maryland	7-18	5-13
Richmond	8-16	4-13
Citadel	4-16	2-10
VMI	4-17	2-11

Southwest7 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Baylor	14-13	8-4	★ NCAA
Arkansas	12-12	8-4	★
SMU	10-13	7-5
Texas	13-11	6-6
Texas A&M	10-14	6-6
TCU	13-11	5-7
Rice	8-15	2-10

Western N.Y. Little 33 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
St. Bonaventure	17-5	2-2	★
Niagara	20-7	2-2	★
Canisius	17-8	2-2	★

Yankee6 teams

School	W-L	Conf	Note
Rhode Island	18-8	6-1	★
Maine	13-6
Connecticut	17-8
Vermont	9-11
Massachusetts	8-11
New Hampshire	4-11

Independent47 teams

School	W-L	Note
Holy Cross	27-4	NCAA AP 4
Villanova	25-4	AP 11
La Salle	21-4	AP 10
Long Island	20-5	AP 13
Duquesne	23-6	AP 6
Toledo	22-6
Dayton	24-8
Lafayette	18-6
Muhlenberg	17-6
Washington University	17-6
San Francisco	19-7	AP 12
Navy	14-7
Syracuse	18-9
Louisville	21-11
Valparaiso	15-8
Akron	16-9
Santa Clara	14-8
Bowling Green	19-11
Notre Dame	15-9
Miami (FL)	14-9
Temple	14-10
Loyola-Chicago	17-13
Penn State	13-10
Colgate	10-8
Boston College	11-9
West Virginia	13-11
Army	9-8
Creighton	13-13
Georgetown	12-12
Gettysburg	12-12
DePaul	12-13
Virginia	12-13
Rutgers	13-15
John Carroll	9-11
Baldwin-Wallace	11-14
Brown	11-14
Xavier	12-16
Seton Hall	11-15
Seattle	12-17
St. Joseph's	10-15
Loyola Marymount	9-17
Wayne State	7-15
Marquette	6-17
Bucknell	5-16
Lehigh	4-14
Pittsburgh	4-14
St. Mary's	3-22

Elo ratings and upsets use the games in our record for this season, which is incomplete before 1995-96; team records come from the season standings.

1950 Elo and upsets

The ten highest-rated teams when the season ended, and the results the ratings gave the winner the least chance of.

1950 Elo and upsetsElo

Elo, top 10

Biggest upsets

Xavier 54, Cincinnati 53
Mar 9 · regular season · 10.1% win chance
Idaho 50, Washington State 45
Mar 4 · regular season · 11.1% win chance
Colgate 65, Syracuse 63
Mar 4 · regular season · 11.2% win chance
California 56, San Francisco 44
Jan 28 · regular season · 11.7% win chance
Idaho 51, Washington State 50
Feb 10 · regular season · 13.7% win chance
Missouri 58, Kansas State 55
Mar 4 · regular season · 13.9% win chance
Niagara 68, CCNY 61
Feb 16 · regular season · 16.0% win chance
Iowa 59, Indiana 53
Feb 25 · regular season · 16.1% win chance
Pennsylvania 66, Army 45
Jan 18 · regular season · 17.1% win chance
Stanford 66, Santa Clara 60
Jan 21 · regular season · 17.1% win chance

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.