Jump to content

1996 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1996 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament
ClassificationDivision I
Season1995–96
Teams10
SiteBarton Coliseum
Little Rock, AR
ChampionsNew Orleans (2nd title)
Winning coachTic Price (1st title)
MVPLewis Sims (New Orleans)
← 1995
1997 →
1995–96 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
New Orleans 14 4   .778 21 9   .700
Arkansas–Little Rock 14 4   .778 23 7   .767
Jacksonville 10 8   .556 15 13   .536
Western Kentucky 10 8   .556 13 14   .481
Southwestern Louisiana 9 9   .500 16 12   .571
Lamar 7 11   .389 12 15   .444
South Alabama 7 11   .389 12 15   .444
Arkansas State 7 11   .389 9 18   .333
Louisiana Tech 6 12   .333 11 17   .393
Texas–Pan American 6 12   .333 9 19   .321
1996 Sun Belt Conference tournament winner
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1996 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 1–5 at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas.[1]

New Orleans defeated hosts, and fellow regular season co-champions, Arkansas–Little Rock in the championship game, 57–56, to win their second Sun Belt men's basketball tournament. It was UNO's first Sun Belt title since 1978 and first since being re-admitted to the conference in 1992.

The Privateers, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA tournament. No other Sun Belt members were invited to the tournament.

Format

[edit]

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

With all teams participating in the tournament this year, the field increased from nine to ten teams. 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

[edit]
First round
Friday, March 1
Quarterfinals
Saturday, March 2
Semifinals
Sunday, March 3
Championship
Tuesday, March 5
            
1 New Orleans 67
9 Louisiana Tech 57
9 Louisiana Tech 70
8 Arkansas State 65
1 New Orleans 75
5 SW Louisiana 71
5 SW Louisiana 98
4 Western Kentucky 94
1 New Orleans 57
2 Arkansas–Little Rock 56
3 Jacksonville 63
6 Lamar 62
3 Jacksonville 60
2 Arkansas–Little Rock 67
7 South Alabama 48
10 Texas–Pan American 61
10 UTPA 71
2 Arkansas–Little Rock 89

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "1995–96 Sun Belt Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2016.