1998 Conference USA men's basketball tournament
| 1998 Conference USA men's basketball tournament | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Season | 1997–98 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Site | Myrl H. Shoemaker Center Cincinnati, OH |
| Champions | Cincinnati (2nd title) |
| Winning coach | Bob Huggins (2nd title) |
| MVP | Kenyon Martin (Cincinnati) |
The 1998 Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament was held March 4–7 at the Myrl H. Shoemaker Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.[1]
Top-seeded Cincinnati defeated UNC Charlotte in the championship game, 71–57, to clinch their second Conference USA men's tournament championship.
The Bearcats, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1998 NCAA Tournament. They were joined in the tournament by fellow C-USA members UNC Charlotte and Saint Louis, who earned at-large bids.
Format
Prior to the season, Conference USA dropped their old regular season scheduling format of three divisions of four teams (Red, White, and Blue) in favor of two six-team divisions (American and National). Teams were largely divided based on geography.
However, since division standings were not utilized for seeding teams in the conference tournament, no changes were made to the tournament format from the previous year. The top four teams were given byes into the quarterfinal round, and the remaining eight teams were entered into the preliminary round. All seeds were determined by overall regular season conference records.
Bracket
| First Round Wednesday, March 4 | Quarterfinals Thursday, March 5 | Semifinals Friday, March 6 | Championship Saturday, March 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Cincinnati | 64 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Louisville | 50 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Louisville | 75 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | South Florida | 64 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Cincinnati | 100 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | UAB | 85 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Saint Louis | 71 | |||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Tulane | 53 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Saint Louis | 74 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | UAB | 76 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Cincinnati | 71 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | UNC Charlotte | 57 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Memphis | 57 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Southern Miss | 85 | |||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Houston | 57 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Southern Miss | 73 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Southern Miss | 53 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | UNC Charlotte | 65 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Marquette | 52 | |||||||||||||||||
| 10 | DePaul | 50 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Marquette | 55 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | UNC Charlotte | 63 | |||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ "1997-98 Conference USA Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 18, 2016.