The 2021 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Pac-12 Conference, which was played March 10–13, 2021, at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.[1] The winner was Oregon State,[2] which was the first for the Beavers in the history of the tournament.[3] They received the conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.[4] The 2020 Tournament had been cancelled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 tournament was played, but with only family of student-athletes as spectators in attendance.[5][6]
Seeds
Eleven of the 12 Pac-12 teams competed in the tournament. The Arizona Wildcats did not compete in the tournament; the university self-imposed a postseason ban for the 2020-21 season due to ongoing NCAA investigations into corruption within the program.[7] Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with tiebreakers in place to seed teams with identical conference records.[8] The top five teams received a bye to the quarterfinals.
Game times in PT. Rankings denote tournament seed.
^According to the Pac-12, family members were allowed to attend, but the general public was not allowed. As a result, the Pac-12 has not released official attendance numbers.
Bracket
First round Wednesday, March 10
Quarterfinals Thursday, March 11
Semifinals Friday, March 12
Championship Saturday, March 13
1
Oregon
91
8
Arizona State
73
8
Arizona State
64
9
Washington State
59
1
Oregon
64
5
Oregon State
75
4
UCLA
79
5
Oregon State
83*
5
Oregon State
70
3
#23 Colorado
68
2
#24 USC
91**
7
Utah
85
7
Utah
98
10
Washington
95
2
#24 USC
70
3
#23 Colorado
72
3
#23 Colorado
61
11
California
58
6
Stanford
58
11
California
76
* denotes overtime period
** denotes double overtime period
Five teams were extended invitations to the 2021 NCAA tournament: Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, and USC.[9] The five bids marks the most for the Conference since securing a record seven in 2015-16.[10] Oregon State was not expected to be invited to the tournament, and changed the number of predicted bids of the Pac-12 from four to five.[11] The team first out originally predicted in the field was Louisville.[12][13]
In the NCAA tournament, UCLA won the 11 seed play-in game, and then all five teams advanced to the round of 32 on the opening weekend.[14] Four teams advanced to round of sixteen.[15] Three teams advanced to the round of eight: Oregon State, UCLA, and USC.[16] USC and Oregon played each other for the final Elite 8 spot. UCLA reached the Final Four as a 11-seed First Four team.[17]
Each win in the NCAA tournament by a conference team gains a payout "unit" for the conference over six years.[18] The Pac-12 team wins in the 2021 tournament gained a record 19 units, which will cause almost US$40 million to be paid to the conference by 2027.[18]
