Classification Division I Teams 11 | Season 2000–01 | |
Site Mitchell Center
Mobile, AL Champions Western Kentucky (3rd title) Winning coach Dennis Felton (1st title) | ||
The 2001 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was held March 2–6 at the Mitchell Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.
Top-seeded Western Kentucky defeated hosts South Alabama in the championship game, 64–54, to win their third Sun Belt men's basketball tournament.
The Hilltoppers, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 2001 NCAA Tournament. No other Sun Belt members earned bids to the tournament.
Format
The Sun Belt added three new teams prior to the 2000–01 season: Middle Tennessee State (Ohio Valley), New Mexico State (Big West), and North Texas (Big West). The conference's total membership increased to twelve.
The tournament field expanded once again, increasing from nine to eleven teams (NMSU did not compete). With all eleven participating Sun Belt members seeded based on regular season conference records, the five highest-seeded teams were awarded byes into the quarterfinal round while the six lowest-seeded teams entered the bracket in the preliminary first round.