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The 1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division Icollege basketball. It began on March 8 and ended with the championship game on March 20 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 28 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.
Of note, Kentucky, the top-ranked team in the nation (with a record of 25–0) did not participate in any post-season tournament. Since several key players had technically graduated the year before (when Kentucky was banned from playing a competitive schedule due to the point-shaving scandal a few years earlier), those players were ruled ineligible for the NCAA tournament. Despite the wishes of the players, Adolph Rupp ultimately decided his team would not play.
For the second straight year, and the fifth overall, Kansas City and the Municipal Auditorium hosted the Final Four. The tournament included five new venues. The city of Buffalo hosted games for the only time at the Aud; the tournament would not return to Western New York until 2000 when its replacement, HSBC Arena, would host. Also serving for the only time was Duke Indoor Stadium, the venerable home of the Duke Blue Devils in Durham, the second of the Tobacco Road schools to host games. For the first time, the tournament came to the state of Iowa, playing at the University of Iowa's Field House. The tournament also came to the city of Peoria for the only time to date, playing at Robertson Memorial Field House on the campus of Bradley University. And for the first time, the tournament came to the state of Oklahoma, playing at Gallagher Hall, home to the powerhouse teams of Hank Iba and Oklahoma A&M College.
