Here's how men's basketball postseason tournaments were created and covered in the sport's infancy

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Well before Nike and its co-founder Phil Knight helped reshape the University of Oregon's athletic department, the school's men's basketball team won the first-ever NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1939, shortly after Knight's first birthday. As Matt covered in Monday's newsletter, Oregon defeated Ohio State, 46-33, in Evanston, Ill., and today, the record books indisputably credit the school with the '39 national title.

Pretty straightforward, right? That's what happens when you win the NCAA tournament.

Well, despite Oregon winning the first NCAA tournament, there was some debate at the time as to who was really the best team in the country, and not in the sense that a better team lost in an upset in the tournament or wasn't even invited in the first place. There were just other tournaments.

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