Trisha Shetty (Editor)

1970 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

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Teams
  
32

Finals Site
  
Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri

Champions
  
Kentucky State (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four)

Runner-Up
  
Central Washington (1st title game, 3rd Final Four)

Semifinalists
  
Eastern New Mexico (2nd Final Four) Guilford (1st Final Four)

Coach of the Year
  
Dean Nicholson (Central Washington)

The 1970 NAIA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 33rd annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format.

Contents

Kentucky State would win the first of three straight National Championship titles, becoming the second team to win three in a row, and the third team to win three titles.

The 3rd place game would go into overtime for second time in tournament history. The 6th seeded Eastern New Mexico State Greyhounds beat the 8th seeded Guilford Quakers 77-72 in one overtime.

Awards and honors

  • Leading scorer: Travis Grant, Kentucky State; 5 games, 57 field goals, 23 free throws, 137 total points (27.4 average points per game)
  • Leading rebounder: Elmore Smith, Kentucky State & Greg Hyder, Eastern New Mexico; 5 games, 65 rebounds, (13 average rebounds per game)
  • Player of the Year: est. 1994
  • Most field goals made; career; 223; Travis Grant, Kentucky State, (1970, 71, 72)
  • Most career points; individual: 518, Travis Grant, Kentucky State, (1970, 71, 72)
  • All-time leading scorer; first appearance: Travis Grant, 1st (1970, 71, 72) 15 games, 223 field goals, 72 free throws, 518 points (34.5 average points per game)

    • 1970 NAIA bracket

  •  * denotes overtime.

    • 3rd place game

    The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.

    References

    1970 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA