The 1971 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 34th 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 .

The championship game featured Kentucky State University

Kentucky State University

Kentucky State University is a four-year institution of higher learning, located in Frankfort, Kentucky, United States, the Commonwealth's capital. The school is an historically black university, which desegregated in 1954...

 for the second time.

Awards and honors

• Leading scorer:
• Leading rebounder:
• Player of the Year: est. 1994

1971 NAIA bracket

•  * denotes overtime.

3rd place game

The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.

See also

• 1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
  1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
  The 1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 13, 1971, and ended with the championship game on March 27 in Houston, Texas...
  
  
• 1971 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament
  1971 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament
  The 1971 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament involved 32 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball as a culmination of the 1970-1 NCAA Division II men's basketball season...
  
  
• 1971 National Invitation Tournament
  1971 National Invitation Tournament
  The 1971 National Invitation Tournament was the 1971 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. 1971 was unique because it is the only time that major rivals Duke and North Carolina have played each other after the ACC Tournament. Eventual ACC member Georgia Tech also made the...