1st Dynasty Long Island 1939 Crushes Current NIT Champs

Thanks to sources such as the Kentucky Big Blue History box score of Long Island crushing the Wildcats in 1939, the Marquette Archives, and a New York Times account of Marquette coming closest to upsetting Long Island during their 24–0 season—when consensus All-American Irv Torgoff rallied LIU against Marquette’s Converse All-American Dave Quabius—we were able to put together player cards for our earliest dynasty team. Long Island was college basketball’s first true dynasty, winning national titles in 1937, 1939 (undefeated), and 1941.

We went to great detail researching the 1930s for oor book more than a decade ago pictured at the bottom - the Ultimate Hoops Guide: Marquette.

Their first championship was the Metropolitan Title in 1937, the year before the NIT started. LIU then skipped the first NIT tournament, came up just short of repeating as Metro champions, and returned to storm through the undefeated 1939 NIT title at 24–0 with the player cards pictured below. They wrapped their run with another title in 1941. One reason we try to play each new team is to catch any errors, and in this game realize a typo on the free throw range was showing 11- instead of 1-, so we will correct, but if the card show 11-15 that means 1-15, and 11-10 means 1-10 on a free throw made.

One long-time challenge with early-era teams is having enough stats to produce accurate Value Add Basketball Game player cards. We had great luck finding detailed material on the 1942 Wyoming team led by Kenny Sailors, who invented the modern jump shot and carried Wyoming to a national championship, and we have had them as a team all along. However, this is the first year we felt confident in having enough info to produce Long Island 1939. 

Their ranking as a 62nd all-time team of our 300 great teams in the game slotted them against a play-in winner—and they drew one of the newest teams, 2025 NIT Champion Chattanooga, who barely survived their play-in over 2001 Howard.

Back in the early Madison Square Garden era, a first draw to pack the arena was Irv Torgoff, as one of the first great New York Jewish basketball stars, dominating the early NIT years before the NCAA Tournament fully took hold. That legacy continued through occasional modern stars like Jon Scheyer, Duke’s current head coach and when we ran our Value Add Basketball calculations covered by Sports Illustrated years back, Scheyer rated as the most valuable college players of this century in his senior year—just edging out Anthony Davis’ 2012 season (if Davis was not a one-and-done he would have passed Scheyer as the most valuable college player of the century.

In this Value Add Basketball Game matchup, Chattanooga managed to hold Torgoff to single digits scoring—but he still posted 8 rebounds, 6 steals, and 2 blocks, anchoring a defense that held Chattanooga to just 57 points in an 81–57 win that was never in doubt. Long Island advances to the Sweet 16 as the 14th team to clinch a spot, moving from 62nd to 49th all-time based on our KenPom-style rating system.

Their preseason rating of +3.0 (meaning they were projected to be roughly three points better than a baseline “great” AP Top 10 AND Elite Eight–level team) jumped after earning a Game Score of +9.0, driven by a dominant 24-point win over a –18 opponent plus the three-point win bonus. That pushes LIU to +4.5, making them roughly a 10-point favorite in their Sweet 16 game against St. Louis, currently ranked 185th among our 300 great teams in the Value Add Basketball Game.

Point guard Oscar Shechtman shocked Chattanooga with a game-high 22 points, while Arthur Hillhouse controlled the glass with 11 rebounds. LIU also dominated the turnover battle 24–15, fueled by 13 steals and constant transition pressure.

Pos	Long Island 1939	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Oscar Shechtman	22	3	6	1	2	2	2	0	3
2-SG	Dan Kaplowitz	10	0	3	4	8	2	1	0	4
3-SG	Irving Torgoff	7	1	2	0	0	8	6	2	1
4-PF	John Bromberg	16	1	6	1	1	2	2	0	2
5-C	Arthur Hillhouse	11	0	3	5	6	11	2	1	2
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Si Lobello	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	2
2-SG	Myron Sewitch	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
3-SG	Irving Zeitlin	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
4-PF	Joe Shelly	7	1	2	0	0	3	0	0	1
5-C	Butch Schwartz	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
	15 Turnovers	81	6	26	11	17	33	13	3	18
Pos	Chattanooga 2025	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Trey Bonham	7	0	2	3	4	1	1	0	2
2-SG	Honor Huff	11	1	1	6	7	3	1	0	5
3-SG	Bash Wieland	14	0	7	0	0	3	2	0	1
4-PF	Garrison Keeslar	8	0	3	2	2	6	3	0	1
5-C	Collin Mulholland	6	1	1	1	2	3	0	1	3
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Frank Champion	3	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	2
2-SG	Jack Kostel	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1
3-SG	Makai Richards	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
4-PF	Sean Cusano	2	0	1	0	0	6	0	0	4
5-C	Latif Diouf	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
	24 Turnovers	57	2	19	13	17	27	7	1	21

Sweet 16

Group 1

Florida 2025 vs. Iona 1980

St. John's 2025 vs. Ball State 1990

Group 2

Duke 2025 vs. Fordham 1971

NC State 1983 vs Florida Gulf Coast 2013

Group 3

Oral Roberts 2021 or City College of New York 1950 vs Cleveland St. 1986 or Canisius 1957

Long Beach St. 1972 vs UC San Diego 2025

Group 4

UCLA 2008 vs idaho 1982

Long Island U 1939 vs St. Louis 1952