1937-38

The season began with the elimination of the center jump after each basket and ended with Temple winning the first National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York.

In between, Hank Luisetti closed out his sensational four-year career at Stanford with a season that featured an unheard of 50–point game against Duquesne and a third straight Pacific Coast Conference championship. After a 9–18 record his freshman year, Luisetti and Stanford went 68–12 over the next three seasons under coach John Bunn.

The Indians were 21–3 in 1938, but did not play in the inaugural NIT. Temple, at 20–2 the top team in the East, did play and trounced all three Midwestern teams in the tournament—Bradley, Oklahoma A&M and Colorado—to win the title.

One of the Colorado starters was football hero and future Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White, who had led the nation in scoring and total offense in the fall. He joined the basketball team in January after taking the football team to the Cotton Bowl.

Men's Division 1 National Champion:

NIT Tournament (6 Teams)

All games at Madison Sq. Garden, New York

Rules change:

Center jump after every basket is rescinded.

Helms All-America Team

** Meyer Bloom, Temple

** Hank Luisetti, Stanford*

** Paul Nowak, Notre Dame

** Fred Pralle, Kansas

** Jewell Young, Purdue

Bonnie Graham, Mississippi 

Hubert Kirkpatrick, Baylor 

John O'Brien, Columbia 

Ignatius Volpi, Manhattan

Major Conference Champions