1997 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament

1997 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Classification Division I
Teams 10
Site Barton Coliseum
Little Rock, AR
Champions South Alabama (2nd title)
Winning coach Bill Musselman (1st title)
MVP Rusty Yoder (South Alabama)

The 1997 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was held February 28–March 4 at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas.[1]

South Alabama defeated Louisiana Tech in the championship game, 44–43, to win their second Sun Belt men's basketball tournament.

The Jaguars, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1997 NCAA Tournament. No other Sun Belt members were invited to the tournament.

Format

No teams left or joined the Sun Belt before the season, leaving conference membership fixed at ten teams.

All teams participated in the tournament, maintaining its ten-team format. With all teams seeded based on regular-season conference records, the top six teams were all placed directly into the quarterfinal round while the four lowest-seeded teams were placed into the preliminary first round.

Bracket

  First Round
Friday, February 28		 Quarterfinals
Saturday, March 1		 Semifinals
Sunday, March 2		 Championship
Tuesday, March 4
                                     
       
  1 New Orleans 76  
    9 Jacksonville 63  
9 Jacksonville 101
8 Arkansas State 80  
  1 New Orleans 53  
  5 Louisiana Tech 59  
       
       
  5 Louisiana Tech 64
    4 Lamar 62  
     
       
  5 Louisiana Tech 43
  2 South Alabama 44
       
       
  3 Arkansas–Little Rock 68
    6 Western Kentucky 62  
     
       
  3 Arkansas–Little Rock 52
  2 South Alabama 71  
7 SW Louisiana 56  
10 Texas–Pan American 53  
  7 SW Louisiana 39
    2 South Alabama 66  
     

See also

References

  1. ↑ "1996–97 Sun Belt Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
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