Sport College basketball Number of teams 10 Current location Paradise, Nevada | Conference West Coast Conference Current stadium Orleans Arena | |
Format Single-elimination tournament | ||
The West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament is the annual concluding tournament for the NCAA college basketball in the West Coast Conference. Through 2008, the tournament was played on a rotating basis at the home courts of member teams. The 2009 edition was the first played at a neutral site, namely Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. The semifinals are broadcast nationally on ESPN2 and the championship is broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Contents
The current format, adopted in 2012, rewards performance during the regular season. Seeding is based on conference record, and the top seeds receive byes into the later rounds. The #1 and #2 seeded teams are automatically placed into the semifinal round and the #3 and #4 seeds are placed into the quarterfinals. The 5, 6, and 7 seeds are placed in the 2nd round while the 8/9 teams play in the 1st round. This format was an adjusted format from the format started in 2003. Before 2003 no byes were awarded. From the tournament's inception in 1987, the bracket was reseeded with the highest remaining seed playing the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals. This was changed in 2012, where the 1 seed automatically played the winner of the quarterfinal game featuring the 4-seed and the 2-seed automatically played the winner of the quarterfinal game featuring the 3-seed.
Beginning in 2014, the WCC adopted a new format to incorporate a tenth team (Pacific). The new format is a traditional 10-team tournament. Seeds 1-6 receive a bye into the quarterfinals while 7 plays 10 and 8 plays 9 in the first round. The second round has the winner of the 7/10 match playing the 2-seed while the winner of the 8/9 match plays the 1 seed. The 3 seed plays the 6 seed and the 4 seed plays the 5 seed. In 2014, the first round games aired on BYUtv Sports. The afternoon quarterfinal games aired on BYUtv, and the evening quarterfinals were on ESPN2. One semifinal aired on ESPN and the other on ESPN2, and the championship game was carried by ESPN.
List of finals
Note: The 1990 tournament final was canceled following the on-court death of Loyola Marymount player Hank Gathers during the Lions' semifinal game against Portland. LMU was given the league's automatic bid to that year's NCAA tournament by virtue of its regular-season league championship.