1969 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
The 1969 NCAA University Division Men's Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division Icollege basketball. It began on March 8, 1969, and ended with the championship game on March 22 in Louisville, Kentucky. Including consolation games in each of the regions and an overall consolation game, a total of 29 games were played. UCLA, coached by John Wooden, won the national title with a 92–72 victory in the final game over Purdue, coached by George King. Lew Alcindor of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. In the game, John Vallely, the "Money Man", scored 22 points and Alcindor had 37 points, to give UCLA a win over Purdue, which is Wooden's alma mater. Purdue was hampered due to injuries to starting point guard Billy Keller and forward Herm Gilliam; Purdue had also lost 7'0" center Chuck Bavis to a broken collarbone during the Mideast Regionals against Miami,. In earlier matchups, Bavis had provided an ample challenge to Alcindor. Wooden was an All-American guard for the Boilermakers from 1928 to 1932.
Locations
For the sixth and final time, Freedom Hall and the city of Louisville would host the Final Four. The Final Four would not return to the state of Kentucky again until 1985, when Rupp Arena hosted. For the 1969 tournament, the Midwest & West first round games got their own sites, with the East continuing to have two sites of its own. There were three new venues used, all in the first round. The tournament came to Southern Illinois Universityfor the first time, at SIU Arena, the home of the Salukis. The tournament returned to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and for the first time games were held in Fort Worth, at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on the campus of Texas Christian University. In the West, the tournament returned to Las Cruces, with games held at the Pan American Center for the first time. This would be the only time the tournament would come to Carbondale, and would be the last tournament for three other arenas - Ahearn Field House, Keaney Gym and Wisconsin Field House. The tournament has yet to return to Manhattan; future games in the state of Rhode Island have been held at the Providence Civic Center; and while the tournament would come to Wisconsin again in 1984 at Milwaukee, it would not return to Madison until 2002, when the Kohl Center, the replacement for the Field House, would host.
