In an article appearing Jan 10th, 1935 Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp is quoted as saying, “"At the end of each season four or five teams throughout the country lay claim to a mythical national title. If the leading teams of each section would agree to play a round robin tournament in some centrally located city, like Chicago, a sort of Rose Bowl champion in basketball would be crowned each year." Five days later, Allen chimed in to support the idea.
http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/Graphics/Articles/1935_01_15AllenNationalTourney.jpg
As you said:
http://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/phog-allen-sparked-basketball-and-march-madness/
"The tournament was his idea. He was the one who put it all together, who got all the different conferences to have a tournament. He was always looking ahead.''