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| Season | 1956–57 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 23 | ||||
| Finals site | Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri | ||||
| Champions | North Carolina Tar Heels (1st title, 2nd title game, 2nd Final Four) | ||||
| Runner-up | Kansas Jayhawks (4th title game, 4th Final Four) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| Winning coach | Frank McGuire (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Wilt Chamberlain (Kansas) | ||||
| Attendance | 108,891 | ||||
| Top scorer | Lennie Rosenbluth (North Carolina) (140 points) | ||||
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The 1957 NCAA University Division basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament involving 23 teams to determine the national champion of men's college basketball in the NCAA University Division, which was replaced in 1973 by NCAA Division I. The 1956–57 school year was the first in which NCAA members were formally divided into separate competitive levels, with larger and more competitive athletic programs placed in the University Division and smaller programs placed in the College Division (which would be replaced by NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III in 1973).
The 19th edition of the NCAA tournament began on March 11, 1957, and ended with the championship game on March 23 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 27 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game. North Carolina, coached by Frank McGuire, won the national title with a 54–53 triple-overtime victory in the final game over Kansas, coached by Dick Harp. Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas became the fourth player to be named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player despite not playing for the championship team.