| National championship game | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | March 25, 1961[1] | |||||||||||||||
| Venue | Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri | |||||||||||||||
| MVP | Jerry Lucas, Ohio State[2] | |||||||||||||||
The 1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship Game was the finals of the 1961 NCAA University Division basketball tournament and it determined the national champion for the 1960-61 NCAA University Division men's basketball season. The game was played on March 25, 1961, at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. It featured the top-ranked and defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten Conference, and the second-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats of the Missouri Valley Conference in an all-Ohio matchup.
The Bearcats upset the defending national champion Buckeyes to win their first national championship in program history. This marked the first of what is currently three consecutive losses in the national championship for Ohio State, as the Buckeyes would lose in the championship game again the next year in 1962, and in 2007.