The 1st National College Basketball Tournament was the NIT Tournament in 1938 There were six teams invited to the tournament Ben Carnevale played for New York University (NYU).
NYU would win the quarterfinal verses Long Island 39-37 Ben Carnevale scored 10 points
NYU would lose the semi-final to Colorado 48-47 Ben Carnevale made a shot with 25 seconds left to give NYU the lead. But Colorado won in dramatic fashion in the very last seconds
Temple won the NIT Final while NYU lost the game for 3rd Place
All articles above are from The New York Times
From his playing days at NYU, only the (very unique) photo above survives. That is Ben leaning over - wearing number 3.