1981 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament

1981 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1980–81
Teams	7
Site	Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, CA
Champions	Fresno State (1st title)
Winning coach	Boyd Grant (1st title)
MVP	Sid Williams (Fresno State)
Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournaments

1980–81 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Fresno State†	12	–	2		.857			25	–	4		.862
San Jose State	10	–	4		.714			21	–	9		.700
UC Irvine	9	–	5		.643			17	–	10		.630
Long Beach State	9	–	5		.643			15	–	13		.536
Utah State	5	–	9		.357			12	–	16		.429
UC Santa Barbara	5	–	9		.357			11	–	16		.407
Pacific	4	–	10		.286			14	–	13		.519
Cal State Fullerton	2	–	12		.143			4	–	23		.148
† 1981 PCAA tournament winner

The 1981 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament (now known as the Big West Conference men's basketball tournament) was held March 5–7 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.^[1]

Top-seeded Fresno State topped defending champions San José State in the title game, 52–48, to win the Bulldogs' first PCAA/Big West men's basketball tournament.

The Bulldogs, in turn, received a bid to the 1981 NCAA tournament, their first-ever appearance.

Format

The format remained the same as 1979, with seven teams in the field. PCAA member UC Santa Barbara did not participate.

Withseven teams participating, the top-seeded team was given a bye into the semifinals while the remaining six teams were entered into the first round and seeded based on regular season conference records.

Bracket

	First round Thursday, March 5					Semifinals Friday, March 6					Championship Saturday, March 7
						1	Fresno State	71
						5	Utah State	57
	5	Utah State	93
	4	UC Irvine	90
											1	Fresno State	52
											2	San Jose State	48
	3	Long Beach State	83
	6	Pacific	77
						3	Long Beach State	50
						2	San Jose State	64
	7	Cal State Fullerton	54
	2	San José State	63

References

1. "1980-81 Pacific Coast Athletic Association Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2018.