Emmett B. "Branch" McCracken was an American basketball player and coach. He served as the head basketball coach at Ball State University from 1930 to 1938 and at Indiana University Bloomington from 1938 to 1943 and again from 1946 to 1965. McCracken's Indiana Hoosiers teams twice won the NCAA Championship, in 1940 and 1953. McCracken was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1960.

The Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers play at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on the Branch McCracken Court in Bloomington, Indiana on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. Indiana has won five National Championships in men's basketball – two coming under Branch McCracken and three under Bob Knight. For forty-seven years and counting, Indiana's 1976 squad remains the last undefeated NCAA men's basketball champion.