1987 WAC men's basketball tournament


The 1987 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 5–8 at the Pit at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[1]

1987 WAC men's basketball tournament
ClassificationDivision I
Season1986–87
Teams9
SiteThe Pit
Albuquerque, NM
ChampionsWyoming (1st title)
Winning coachJim Brandenburg (1st title)
MVPEric Leckner (Wyoming)
← 1986
1988 →
1986–87 WAC men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
UTEP 13 3   .813 25 7   .781
Brigham Young 12 4   .750 21 11   .656
New Mexico 11 5   .688 25 10   .714
Wyoming 11 5   .688 24 10   .706
Utah 9 7   .563 17 13   .567
Colorado State 7 9   .438 13 16   .448
Air Force 5 11   .313 12 15   .444
Hawaii 2 14   .125 7 21   .250
San Diego State 2 14   .125 5 25   .167
1987 WAC tournament winner
Rankings from AP Poll

Wyoming defeated tournament hosts New Mexico in the championship game, 64–62, to clinch their first WAC men's tournament championship.

The Cowboys, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1987 NCAA tournament. The tournament's top two seeds, UTEP and BYU, also earned at-large bids to the tournament.

Format

edit

The tournament field remained fixed at nine teams, and teams were again seeded based on regular season conference records. All teams were entered into the quarterfinal round with the exception of the two lowest-seeded teams, who played in the preliminary first round to determine who would then play against the tournament's top seed.

Bracket

edit
First round
Thursday, March 5
Quarterfinals
Friday, March 6
Semifinals
Saturday, March 7
Championship
Sunday, March 8
1 UTEP 85
9 San Diego State 93 9 San Diego State 65
8 Hawaii 90 1 UTEP 74
4 Wyoming 77
5 Utah 54
4 Wyoming 56
4 Wyoming 64
3 New Mexico 62
3 New Mexico 92
6 Colorado State 77
3 New Mexico 93
2 BYU 86
7 Air Force 79
2 BYU 92

References

edit
  1. ^ "1986-87 Western Athletic Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.