1919–20 NCAA men's basketball season

1919–20 NCAA men's basketball season
1919–20 NCAA men's basketball season
Helms National Champions	Penn Quakers (retroactive selection in 1943)
Player of the Year; (Helms)	Howard Cann, NYU (retroactive selection in 1944)
NCAA Division I basketball seasons
«1918–19	1920–21»

The 1919–20 NCAA men's basketball season began in December 1919, progressed through the regular season, and concluded in March 1920.

Season headlines[]

Penn of the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League met Chicago of the Big Ten Conference in a three-game national championship playoff, with the first game at Chicago, the second at Penn, and the third at Princeton University. Chicago won the first game 28–24, and Penn the second game, 29-18, after which Penn students celebrated all night and threw bricks and fired shots at policemen. Penn also won the third game, 23-21, to win the championship.^[1]^[2] On February 25, 1921, the Atlanta Constitution ran an article by sportswriter Walter Camp in which Camp observed that the Chicago-Penn championship series had demonstrated the need for a national standardization of college basketball rules and the interpretation of them and expressed the view that no way of determining a national champion yet existed in college basketball.^[2]
NYU, led by Howard Cann, won the post-season Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national championship tournament by defeating Rutgers, 49-24. NYU became the second of only four collegiate teams to win the tournament — in which a mix of collegiate and non-collegiate amateur teams competed — and the only one to do so between 1916 and 1924.^[2]
In February 1943, the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively selected Penn as its national champion for the 1919–20 season.^[2]
In 1995, the Premo-Porretta Power Poll retroactively selected Penn as its national champion for the 1919–20 season.^[3]

Conference membership changes[]

School	Former Conference	New Conference
Nebraska Cornhuskers	Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association	Independent
Oklahoma Sooners	Independent	Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Phillips Haymakers	No major basketball program	Southwest Conference

Regular season[]

Conference winners[]

Conference	Regular Season Winner^[4]	Conference Player of the Year	Conference Tournament
Big Ten Conference	Chicago	None Selected	No Tournament
Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League	None^[a]	None Selected	No Tournament
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association	Missouri	None Selected	No Tournament
Pacific Coast Conference	Stanford	None Selected	No Tournament
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference	Colorado		No Tournament
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association	Vanderbilt	None Selected	No Tournament
Southwest Conference	Texas A&M	None Selected	No Tournament

^a Dartmouth was unable to field a team, so Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League conference play was informal in 1919–20 and no official champion was declared. However, had a champion been named, Penn would have won the regular-season championship with a 7–1 conference record.^[5]

Conference standings[]

1919–20 Pacific Coast Conference men's basketball standings
v t	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Stanford	9	–	1	.900	8	–	3	.727
California	5	–	5	.500	8	–	5	.615
Washington State	6	–	7	.462	10	–	11	.476
Oregon State	5	–	7	.417	7	–	12	.368
Washington	5	–	7	.417	7	–	8	.467
Oregon	5	–	8	.385	8	–	9	.471

As of 1920^[6]; Rankings from AP Poll

1919–20 Southwest Conference men's basketball standings
v t	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
	16	–	0	1.000	19	–	0	1.000
	2	–	1	.667	0	–	0	–
Texas	4	–	6	.400	10	–	6	.625
	2	–	5	.286	5	–	6	.455
	2	–	8	.200	4	–	9	.308
	1	–	7	.125	8	–	13	.381

Rankings from AP Poll

Premo-Porretta Power Poll[]

St. Bonaventure University accounting professor Patrick M. Premo and computer programmer Phil Porretta researched teams from the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons, reviewing results, opponents, and margins of victory to create retroactive polls for the seasons predating the debut of the AP Poll. In 1995, they released their retroactive annual rankings as the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. Their poll for the 1919–20 season is below.^[7]

1920 Premo-Porretta Power Poll
Ranking	Team
1	Penn (22–1)
2	Missouri (17–1)
3	NYU (16–1)
4	Penn State (12–1)
5	Texas A&M (19–0)
6	Georgetown (13–1)
7	Purdue (16–4)
8	Chicago (27–8)
9	Delaware (13–2)
10	Southwestern (Kan.) (20–0)
11	Navy (14–3)
12	VMI (11–1)
13	Westminster (Mo.) (17–0)
14	Army (12–2)
15	Montana State (13–0)
16	Nebraska (22–2)
17	Buffalo (9–1)
18	Syracuse (15–3)
19	DePauw (13–3)
20	Nevada (7–2)
21	North Dakota (16–0)
22	CCNY (13–3)
23	Millikin (24–1)
24	Stevens Tech (12–3)
25	Worcester Polytechnic Institute (14–2)

Statistical leaders[]

Award winners[]

Helms College Basketball All-Americans[]

The practice of selecting a Consensus All-American Team did not begin until the 1928–29 season. The Helms Athletic Foundation later retroactively selected a list of All-Americans for the 1919–20 season.^[8]

Player	Team
Howard Cann	New York University
Chuck Carney	Illinois
	Washington
Forrest DeBernardi	Westminster (Mo.)
George Gardner	Southwestern (Kan.)
Tony Hinkle	Chicago
	Pennsylvania
	Pennsylvania
	Pennsylvania
George Williams	Missouri

Major player of the year awards[]

Helms Foundation Player of the Year: Howard Cann, New York University

Coaching changes[]

A number of teams changed coaches during the season and after it ended.

Team	Former Coach	Interim Coach	New Coach	Reason
Rhode Island State	Fred Murray		Frank Keaney

References[]

^ 2009-10 Penn Men’s Basketball Media Guide (PDF). p. 93. Retrieved 2010-04-12.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Scott, Jon (Nov 9, 2010). "The truth behind the Helms Committee". Retrieved 10 May 2021.
^ ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 526, 529–587. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
^ "2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Record Book – Conferences Section" (PDF). NCAA. 2009. Retrieved 2010-12-24.
^ ESPN Editors (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: Random House, Inc. p. 534. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
^ "2017-18 Men's Basketball Media Guide". Pac-12 Conference. p. 70. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
^ ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia. Ballantine Books. 2009. p. 526, 535. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
^ The Association for Professional Basketball Research "NCAA All-American Teams, 1919–20 to 1998–99"

[1] 2009-10 Penn Men’s Basketball Media Guide (PDF). p. 93. Retrieved 2010-04-12.

[jps-2] Scott, Jon (Nov 9, 2010). "The truth behind the Helms Committee". Retrieved 10 May 2021.

[ESPN_526-3] ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 526, 529–587. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[4] "2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Record Book – Conferences Section" (PDF). NCAA. 2009. Retrieved 2010-12-24.

[ENCY-5] ESPN Editors (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: Random House, Inc. p. 534. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)

[6] "2017-18 Men's Basketball Media Guide". Pac-12 Conference. p. 70. Retrieved April 12, 2019.

[7] ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia. Ballantine Books. 2009. p. 526, 535. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[8] The Association for Professional Basketball Research "NCAA All-American Teams, 1919–20 to 1998–99"

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v t NCAA Division I men's basketball seasons
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