1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament

1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1978–79
Teams	6
Site	Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC
Champions	Jacksonville (1st title)
Winning coach	Tates Locke (1st title)
MVP	James Ray (Jacksonville)
Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournaments

1978–79 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
South Alabama	10	–	0		1.000			20	–	7		.741
South Florida	6	–	4		.600			14	–	14		.500
UNC Charlotte	6	–	4		.600			16	–	11		.593
Jacksonville †	5	–	5		.500			19	–	11		.633
New Orleans	3	–	7		.300			11	–	16		.407
Georgia State	0	–	10		.000			7	–	20		.259
† 1979 Sun Belt Conference tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

The 1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament was held February 23–25 at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[1]

Jacksonville defeated South Florida in the championship game, 68–54, to win their first Sun Belt men's basketball tournament.

The Dolphins, in turn, received a bid for the 1979 NCAA tournament, where they lost to Virginia Tech in the first round. Top-seeded South Alabama, who lost to Jacksonville in the semifinal round, still received an at-large bid, falling to Louisville in the second round.

ESPN televised every game of the tournament. It was the first time that all the games of a college basketball conference championship tournament were televised.^[2]

Format

All six of the conference's members participated in the tournament field. They were seeded based on regular season conference records with the top two teams earning byes to the semifinal round.

All of the games were played at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals Friday, February 23					Semifinals Saturday, February 24					Championship Sunday, February 25
						1	South Alabama	77
						4	Jacksonville	85
	5	New Orleans	47
	4	Jacksonville	56
											4	Jacksonville	68
											2	South Florida	54
	3	UNC Charlotte	51
	6	Georgia State	47
						2	South Florida	50
						3	UNC Charlotte	47

References

1. "1978-79 Sun Belt Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
2. "Playing Rules History" (PDF). ncaa.org. NCAA. p. 11. Retrieved June 25, 2024.