The 1940 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

. The 4th annual NAIA

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...

 basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format . This year the National College Basketball Tournament (NCBT) changed its name to the National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB).

The championship game featured Tarkio College (Mo.) beating the Aztecs of San Diego State

San Diego State Aztecs men's basketball

The San Diego State Aztecs basketball team is the basketball team that represent San Diego State University Aztecs in San Diego, California. The school's team currently competes in the Mountain West Conference, and play their home games in Viejas Arena...

 52-42. San Diego State became the first team to lose back to back title games.

Awards and honors

Many of the records set by the 1940 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:

• Leading scorer est. 1963
• Leading rebounder est. 1963
• Charles Stevenson Hustle Award est. 1958
• Coach of the Year est. 1954
• Player of the Year est. 1994

1940 NAIA bracket

Third place game

The third place game featured the losing team from the national semifinalist to determine third and fourth places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.