Desi Wilson
Desi Bernard Wilson is a former professional baseball player. He played part of one season in Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants in 1996 as a first baseman, he played one season in Japan with the Hanshin Tigers in 1998. He is the hitting coach of the Iowa Cubs, an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. Wilson was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 1991 amateur draft. In 1994, he was traded to the Giants, along with Rich Aurilia, for pitcher John Burkett. Wilson played part of one season with a. 271 batting average over 41 games. He played in Japan for the Hanshin Tigers in 1998. Wilson played in the affiliated minor leagues until 2002 went on to play in the independent leagues until 2007. Overall, he hit.312 in his minor league career. In 2005, while playing for the Surprise Fightin' Falcons, Desi had a 30-game hitting streak and batted.411, setting a Golden Baseball League record. In 2007, Wilson began the season as the manager of the Anderson Joes of the independent South Coast League.
Midway through the season, he was activated as a player. He was traded to the South Georgia Peanuts where he served as a player-coach for the remainder of the season and was part of the club's SCL championship, he joined the Cubs organization in 2009 as a hitting coach, joining Daytona in 2012. He was promoted to the hitting coach of the Tennessee Smokies in 2013. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference Warning: Template:Baseballstats cube= parameter should be updated to a numeric value. Or Retrosheet, or Pura Pelota
St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers men's basketball
The St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers men's basketball program represents St. Francis College in intercollegiate men's basketball; the team is a member of the Division I Northeast Conference. The Terriers play on the Peter Aquilone Court at the Generoso Pope Athletic Complex located on the St. Francis College Brooklyn Heights campus; the Terriers have hosted home games at Madison Square Garden and at the Barclays Center. The St. Francis Brooklyn men's basketball program was founded in 1896 and is the oldest collegiate program in New York City; the Terriers have an overall record of 1211–1281, 48.6 W–L%, over a 98-year span from the 1920–1921 to the 2018–2019 season. The program has won 6 regular season championships and has participated in 5 National Invitational Tournaments; as of 2010, Glenn Braica was announced as the 17th head coach in the history of the St. Francis Terriers men's basketball program. Braica was an assistant under Norm Roberts at St. John's University. Braica, in his sixth year with the team, has qualified for the NEC tournament six consecutive years and in 2015 led the team to its first post season tournament in 52 years.
The Terriers are one of only seven NCAA Division I programs in New York City and in 2011 attending a Terriers game was named one reason to love New York by New York Magazine in their seventh annual Reasons to Love New York 2011 piece. The Terriers are one of only four original Division I programs to have never participated in the NCAA tournament; the Terriers have been one win away from participating on three occasions, first in the 2000–01 season in the 2002–03 season, again in the 2014–15 season. Beginning on November 27, 2012, St. Francis College rebranded its Athletics programs from St. Francis to St. Francis Brooklyn; the change reflects the move of the Nets to Brooklyn and putting Brooklyn back on the map as a basketball mecca. The St. Francis College's men's basketball program was founded in 1896 and is the oldest collegiate program in New York City; the program had players on the court only 5 years after Dr. James Naismith invented the game in 1891; the College's first official game came in 1901 against Brown University.
The Boys from Brooklyn, as they were referred to, finished the 1901 season with a 13–1 mark. From the 1902 to the 1920 season the Terrier basketball records are incomplete. From 1920 to 1940 the Terriers compiled a 246–187 record and established themselves as a premier basketball program in New York City, playing their home games in Brooklyn; the Terriers had played as Independents for most of these years, but in 1933 they were a founding member of the now defunct Metropolitan New York Conference. The Terriers had 6 head coaches during this period, the most successful of, Rody Cooney. Who in his 9 years at the helm of the program didn't have a single losing season and compiled a 116–77 record. During this period the Terriers had their first 20-win season, head coach Frank Brennan led the 1922–23 Terrier squad to a 21–8 record. Joseph Brennan is the Terriers head coach with the highest winning percentage and he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975. Brennan helped make the Terriers into a popular team during New York City's Basketball glory days of the 1940s and 50s.
Due to their popularity the Terriers would play around 2 or 3 games a year at Madison Square Garden and the Terrier's were one of the few programs hosting big Division I games in Brooklyn at the Park Slope Armory, their home court. Brennan's 1942 squad averaged 59 points per game, quite high during those years; the Terriers had the first college player to score 20 or more points at Madison Square Garden, Vincent T. Agoglia, he did it twice in the 1941–1942 season, first against LaSalle College of Philadelphia. Brennan ended his head coaching career with a 90–46 record over 7 seasons; the greatest head coach in the programs history is Daniel Lynch. Lynch was a graduate of St. Francis College and played basketball at his alma mater from 1934–38 under head coach Rody Cooney; when Lynch took over in 1948 the Terriers became the first team in the New York City area to have a game televised. The Terriers defeated Seton Hall in its inaugural telecast on WPIX. Lynch is the Terrier head coach with the most wins in the programs history.
Part of that wins total came during a 6-year span from 1950 to 1956, where Lynch guided the Terriers to five consecutive winning seasons going 121–43. From 1949–1951 the Terriers participated in 4 National Catholic Invitational Tournaments; the NCIT was a premier post-season tournament in those years. The Terriers went to the NCIT finals three consecutive times and won the Championship in 1951. Lynch's 1950–51 squad defeated the Seattle University Redhawks 93–79 in the Championship game. Ray Rudzinski scored 26 points, Vernon Stokes scored 22 and Roy Reardon scored 21 points in the NCIT Championship that took place in Albany, New York; the Terriers appeared in the 1955 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, losing in the first round to Quincy University. St. Francis first participated in the NAIA District 31 playoffs to qualify for the tournament, in it they defeated St. Peter's and Panzer College, their record in the tournament have only made one appearance in their history. Lynch led the Terriers to 3 NIT appearances.
Lynch's 1953–54 squad won the Metropolitan New York Conference Regular Season Championship and were invited to the 1954 NIT where they defeated Louisville in the first round before losing to Holy Cross in the Quarterfinals. The 1955–56 squad won the Metropolitan New York Conference Regular Season Championship and participated in the 1956 NIT, they went as far as the 3rd place game where th
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is a men's professional basketball league in North America. It is considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world; the NBA is an active member of USA Basketball, recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player; the league was founded in New York City on June 1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League; the league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in New Jersey; the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada.
On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now refers to as the first game played in NBA history. The first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title. Prior to the 1948–49 season, however, NBL teams from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Rochester jumped to the BAA, which established the BAA as the league of choice for collegians looking to turn professional.
On August 3, 1949, the remaining NBL teams–Syracuse, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan and Waterloo–merged into the BAA. In deference to the merger and to avoid possible legal complications, the league name was changed to the present National Basketball Association though the merged league retained the BAA's governing body, including Podoloff. To this day, the NBA claims the BAA's history as its own, it now reckons the arrival of the NBL teams as an expansion, not a merger, does not recognize NBL records and statistics. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1953–54, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, Syracuse Nationals, all of which remain in the league today.
The process of contraction saw. The Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, to St. Louis in 1955; the Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Pistons relocated from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit in 1957. Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, he remained the only non-white player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signing with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Hunter was cut from the team during training camp, but several African-American players did play in the league that year, including Chuck Cooper with the Celtics, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton with the Knicks, Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty. To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954.
If a team does not attempt to score a field goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped and the ball given to its opponent. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, which featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, setting new single game records in scoring and rebounding. Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports; the 1960s were dominated by the Celtics. Led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966; this championship streak is the longest in NBA history. They did not win the title in 1966–67, but regained it in the 1967–68 season and repeated in 1969; the domination totaled nine of the ten championship banners of the 1960s.
Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises; the Chicago Packers (now Wa
Center (basketball)
The center known as the five, or the big man, is one of the five positions in a regular basketball game. The center is the tallest player on the team, has a great deal of strength and body mass as well. In the NBA, the center is 6 feet 10 inches or taller and weighs 240 pounds or more, they traditionally have played close to the basket in the low post. A center with the ability to shoot outside from three-point range is known as stretch five; the center is considered a necessary component for a successful team in professional leagues such as the NBA. Great centers have been the foundation for most of the dynasties in both the NBA and NCAA; the 6'10" George Mikan pioneered the Center position, shattering the held perception that tall players could not develop the agility and coordination to play basketball well, ushering in the role of the dominant big man. He led DePaul University to the NIT title after turning professional, won seven National Basketball League, Basketball Association of America and NBA Championships in his ten-year career, nine of them with the Minneapolis Lakers.
Using his height to dominate opposing players, Mikan invented the shot block. In the 1960s, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain further transformed basketball by combining height with a greater level of athleticism than previous centers. Following the retirement of George Mikan, the rivalry of the two big men came to dominate the NBA. Between the two of them and Russell won nine of the eleven MVP awards in the eleven-year period between 1958 and 1969. Many of the records set by these two players have endured today. Most notably and Russell hold the top eighteen season averages for rebounds. Bill Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA Championships, he joined the Boston Celtics and helped make them one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history, winning eleven championships over his thirteen-year career as well as five MVP awards. Russell revolutionized defensive strategy with his shot-blocking and physical man-to-man defense. While he was never the focal point of the Celtics offense, much of the team's scoring came when Russell grabbed defensive rebounds and initiated fast breaks with precision outlet passes to point guard Bob Cousy.
As the NBA's first African-American superstar, Russell struggled throughout his career with the racism he encountered from fans in Boston after the 1966–67 season, when he became the first African-American in any major sport to be named player-coach. His principal rival, Wilt Chamberlain, listed at 7'1", 275 pounds, lacked Russell's supporting cast. Chamberlain played college ball for the Kansas Jayhawks, leading them to the 1957 title game against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Although the Jayhawks lost by one point in triple overtime, Chamberlain was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. A member of the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA in 1959, Chamberlain won two Championships, in 1967 with the Philadelphia 76ers and 1972 with the Los Angeles Lakers, although his teams were defeated by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals, he won seven scoring titles, eleven rebounding titles, four regular season Most Valuable Player awards, including the distinction, in 1960, of being the first rookie to receive the award.
Stronger than any player of his era, he was capable of scoring and rebounding at will. Although he was the target of constant double- and triple-teaming, as well as fouling tactics designed to take advantage of his poor free-throw shooting, he set a number of records that have never been broken. Most notably, Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average more than 50 points in a season and score 100 points in a single game, he holds the NBA's all-time records for rebounding average, rebounds in a single game, career rebounds. A lesser-known center of the era was Nate Thurmond, who played the forward position opposite Wilt Chamberlain for the San Francisco Warriors but moved to center after Chamberlain was traded to the new Philadelphia franchise. Although he never won a Championship, Thurmond was known as the best screen setter in the league, his averages of 21.3 and 22.0 rebounds per game in 1966–67 and 1967–68, are exceeded only by Chamberlain and Russell. In contrast to the Celtics dynasty of the 1960s, the 1970s were a decade of parity in the NBA, with eight different champions and no back-to-back winners.
At the college level, the UCLA Bruins, under Coach John Wooden, built the greatest dynasty in NCAA basketball history, winning seven consecutive titles between 1967 and 1973. UCLA had won two consecutive titles in 1964 and 1965 with teams that pressed and emphasized guard play. After not winning in 1966, Wooden's teams changed their style, he led UCLA to three championships-in 1967, 68' and 69'-while winning the first Naismith College Player of the Year Award. During his college career, the NCAA enacted a ban on dunking because of Alcindor's dominant use of the shot, his entrance into the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969 was timely, as Bill Russell had just retired and Wilt Chamberlain was 33 years old and plagued by injuries. After leading the Bucks to the 1971 NBA championship, te
Rik Smits
Rik Smits, nicknamed The Dunking Dutchman, is a retired Dutch professional basketball player who spent his entire professional career with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association. The 7'4" center was drafted by the Pacers out of Marist College with the second overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft. An NBA All-Star in 1998, Smits reached the NBA Finals in 2000. Smits was born in Eindhoven, he started playing basketball at age fourteen at PSV/Almonte in Eindhoven. Smits left for the United States in 1984, he got drafted 2nd overall in the 1988 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers. With the Pacers, Smits backed up Steve Stipanovich, but when Stipanovich suffered a career-ending injury, Smits ended up starting 71 games in his rookie year, averaging 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and earning All-Rookie First Team honors. Smits continued to average double-digit point totals in every year of his career, but it wasn't until the 1993–94 NBA season that Smits came into his own as a team leader.
Throughout the Pacers' playoff runs in the mid and late 1990s, Smits was considered the number two player, behind Reggie Miller, on the talented Pacers team. Smits' highest point-per-game average was in 1995–96 when he averaged 18.5 points per game modest by NBA "superstar" standards, but the Dutchman endeared himself to Pacers fans with outstanding playoff performances, most notably in Game 4 of the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals where he made a buzzer-beating shot to tie the series. Smits was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team in 1998, delivering 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, including a spectacular behind-the-back pass to New Jersey Nets forward Jayson Williams who followed with a slam dunk. Smits developed nerve damage in his feet from wearing tight shoes as a teenager. Foot problems hobbled Smits for the majority of his career, he retired at the conclusion of the Pacers' 1999–2000 season, after Indiana was defeated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals 4 games to 2.
After four surgeries to repair nerve damage to his feet, Smits underwent intensive back surgery in November 2009 to correct cracks in one joint that link his vertebrae. Smits has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and had bone chips removed from his left ankle. Smits was selected to the Pacers' 40th Anniversary Team, chosen by the fans, he ended up with the fourth most votes, trailing only Reggie Miller, Mel Daniels and Jermaine O'Neal. After his retirement, Smits is devoting his time to collecting and racing vintage motocross motorcycles. On November 30, 2011, Smits was featured in Yahoo! Sports, about his formal participation in competitive motocross racing. In 2008 Smits won the AHRMA Vintage National Premier 500 Intermediate Class riding a BSA 500. In 1998, near the end of his playing career, he bought a home in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville and continued to live in the home for nearly 20 years, expanding it in 2014 to include a regulation-size basketball half-court. Smits used two barns on the 12.5-acre property to house his motorcycles and cars, built a dedicated motorcycle track in the rear of the property.
He and his girlfriend put the property up for sale in the summer of 2017, shortly after they moved to Arizona. Rik Smits has a son named Derrik Smits, now listed at 7 feet 2 inches, part of the Valparaiso University men's basketball team since 2015. Derrik was forced to redshirt the 2015–16 season due to injury, began play the following season. List of tallest players in National Basketball Association history Rik Smits' NBA Bio & Stats Where Are They Now? Rik Smits - ESPN Video
John R. Wooden Award
The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players; the program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award and recognizes the All–America Teams. The awards, given by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, are named in honor of John Wooden, the 1932 national collegiate basketball player of the year from Purdue. Wooden taught and coached men's basketball at Indiana State and UCLA. Coach Wooden, whose teams at UCLA won ten NCAA championships, was the first man to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, his 1948 Indiana State team was the NAIB National Finalist. The award, given only to male athletes, was first given in 1977. Starting in 2004, the award was extended to women's basketball. Additionally, the Legends of Coaching Award was presented first in 1999; the 2015 presentation was broadcast on ESPN2 and the show was presented by Wendy's at Los Angeles' Club Nokia on Friday, April 10, 2015.
Each year, the Award's National Advisory Board, a 26-member panel, selects 20 candidates for Player of the Year and All-American Team honors. The candidates must be full-time students and have a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 or higher throughout their college career. Players who are nominated must have made outstanding contributions to team play, both offensively and defensively, be model citizens, exhibiting strength of character both on and off the court; the selection ballot is announced prior to the NCAA basketball tournament. The voters sportscasters representing the 50 states; the top ten vote-getters are selected to the All-American Team, the results are announced following the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament. The person who receives the most votes is named the Player of the Year, the winner is announced following the NCAA championship game; the Player of the Year is awarded a trophy consisting of five bronze figures. The player's school receives a duplicate trophy, as well as a scholarship grant.
The other top four members of the All-American Team receive an All-American Team trophy, a jacket, a scholarship grant which goes to their school. Each coach of the top five All-American Team members receives a jacket; the All-American Team members ranked six through ten receive an All-American Team trophy and a jacket, but their schools do not receive a scholarship. The criteria for the women's Player of the Year award and All-American Team honors are similar to those for the men. For the women's award, the National Advisory Board consists of 12 members, 15 candidates are selected for the ballot; the voters are 250 sportscasters. In contrast to the men's All-American Team, only five members are selected for the women's team; the Player of the Year receives a trophy, her school receives a duplicate trophy and a scholarship grant. The trophy features five bronze figures, each depicting one of the five major skills that Wooden believed that "total" basketball player must exhibit: rebounding, shooting and defense.
The concept for the trophy originated with Richard "Duke" Llewellyn. Work began on the trophy in 1975, sculptor Don Winton, who had sculpted many top sports awards, was given the task of designing the model of the trophy; the figures are bronze attached to a pentagonal base plate. The tallest figure is 10¼ inches high; the trophy's base is 7½ inches high, is made from solid walnut. The total height of the trophy is 17 3⁄4 inches, it weighs 25 lb; the Wooden family announced in August 2005 that he would no longer participate because of a trademark dispute concerning the use of his name. However, he never contested the use of his name prior to his death in 2010, the award continues to bear his name. “I don’t want anything to interfere with the continuation of the award,” told The Associated Press at the time. In 2011 the Wooden Family began participation. Coach John Wooden’s son, presented the Wooden Award to Brigham Young senior Jimmer Fredette. In 2012 John Wooden’s grandson, Greg, on behalf of The Los Angeles Athletic Club, presented the Wooden Award to University of Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis.
Greg Wooden made the announcement on ESPN College GameDay. The John R. Wooden High School Player of the Year awards are given to the most valuable player in each of the five divisions of the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section, one Los Angeles City division; the Legends of Coaching Award recognizes the lifetime achievement of coaches who exemplify Coach Wooden's high standards of coaching success and personal achievement. When selecting the individual, the Wooden Award Committee considers a coach's character, success rate on the court, graduating rate of student athletes, his or her coaching philosophy, identification with the goals of the John R. Wooden Award. List of U. S. men's college basketball national player of the year awards John R. Wooden Classic Official website
College basketball
College basketball today is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including the United States's National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Junior College Athletic Association, the National Christian College Athletic Association. Governing bodies in Canada include the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association; each of these various organizations are subdivided into from one to three divisions based on the number and level of scholarships that may be provided to the athletes. Each organization has different conferences to divide up the teams into groups. Teams are selected into these conferences depending on the location of the schools; these conferences are put in due to the regional play of the teams and to have a structural schedule for each to team to play for the upcoming year. During conference play the teams are ranked not only through the entire NCAA, but the conference as well in which they have tournament play leading into the NCAA tournament.
The history of basketball can be traced back to a YMCA International Training School, known today as Springfield College, located in Springfield, Massachusetts. The sport was created by a physical education teacher named James Naismith, who in the winter of 1891 was given the task of creating a game that would keep track athletes in shape and that would prevent them from getting hurt; the date of the first formal basketball game played at the Springfield YMCA Training School under Naismith's rules is given as December 21, 1891. Basketball began to be played at some college campuses by 1893; the first known college to field a basketball team against an outside opponent was Vanderbilt University, which played against the local YMCA in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 7, 1893. The second recorded instance of an organized college basketball game was Geneva College's game against the New Brighton YMCA on April 8, 1893, in Beaver Falls, which Geneva won 3–0; the first recorded game between two college teams occurred on February 9, 1895, when Hamline University faced Minnesota A&M. Minnesota A&M won the game, played under rules allowing nine players per side, 9–3.
The first intercollegiate match using the modern rule of five players per side is credited as a game between the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, Iowa, on January 18, 1896. The Chicago team won the game 15-12, under the coaching of Amos Alonzo Stagg, who had learned the game from James Naismith at the Springfield YMCA. However, some sources state the first "true" five-on-five intercollegiate match was a game in 1897 between Yale and Penn, because although the Iowa team that played Chicago in 1896 was composed of University of Iowa students, it did not represent the university, rather it was organized through a YMCA. By 1900, the game of basketball had spread to colleges across the country; the Amateur Athletic Union's annual U. S. national championship tournament featured collegiate teams playing against non-college teams. Four colleges won the AAU tournament championship: NYU, Butler and Washburn. College teams were runners-up in 1915, 1917, 1920, 1921, 1932 and 1934.
The first known tournament featuring college teams was the 1904 Summer Olympics, where basketball was a demonstration sport, a collegiate championship tournament was held. The Olympic title was won by Hiram College. In March 1908, a two-game "championship series" was organized between the University of Chicago and Penn, with games played in Philadelphia and Bartlett, Illinois. Chicago swept both games to win the series. In March 1922, the 1922 National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament was held in Indianapolis – the first stand-alone post-season tournament for college teams; the champions of six major conferences participated: Pacific Coast Conference, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Western Pennsylvania League, Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Western Conference and Eastern Intercollegiate League declined invitations to participate. Wabash College won the 1922 tournament.
The first organization to tout a occurring national collegiate championship was the NAIA in 1937, although it was surpassed in prestige by the National Invitation Tournament, or NIT, which brought six teams to New York's Madison Square Garden in the spring of 1938. Temple defeated Colorado in the first NIT tournament championship game, 60–36. In 1939, another national tournament was implemented by the National Collegiate Athletic Association; the location of the NCAA Tournament varied from year to year, it soon used multiple locations each year, so more fans could see games without traveling to New York. Although the NIT was created earlier and was more prestigious than the NCAA for many years, it lost popularity and status to the NCAA Tournament. In 1950, following a double win by the 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team, the NCAA ruled that no team could compete in both tournaments, indicated that a team eligible for the NCAA tournament should play in it. Not long afterward, assisted by the 1951 scandals based in New York City, the NCAA tournament had become more prestigious than before, with conference champions and the majority of top-ranked teams competing there.
The NCAA tournament overtook the NIT by 1960. Through the 1960s and 1970s, with UCLA leading the way as winner
