The 1950 NAIA basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 13th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. The championship game featured Indiana State and East Central State. It was the first time these two teams had met in the tournament history. The Sycamores defeated the Tigers, 61-57. This would be Indiana State's highest finish in their 12 career appearances in the NAIA tournament. Winning the championship puts them in a unique group to place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Also Indiana State finally gets a win after 2 times as runner-up. Uniquely, Indiana State has finished as the National Runner-up in the NAIA (1946 and 1948), the NCAA Division I (1979) and the NCAA Division II (1968) tournaments.

Awards and honors

Many of the records set by the 1950 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:

Bracket