1996 WAC men's basketball tournament

1996 WAC men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1995–96
Teams	10
Site	The Pit Albuquerque, NM
Champions	New Mexico (2nd title)
Winning coach	Dave Bliss (2nd title)
MVP	Kenny Thomas (New Mexico)
WAC men's basketball tournaments

1995–96 WAC men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 12 Utah	15	–	3		.833			27	–	7		.794
No. 23 New Mexico †	14	–	4		.778			28	–	5		.848
Fresno State	13	–	5		.722			22	–	11		.667
Colorado State	11	–	7		.611			18	–	12		.600
BYU	9	–	9		.500			15	–	13		.536
Wyoming	8	–	10		.444			14	–	15		.483
San Diego State	8	–	10		.444			15	–	14		.517
Hawaii	7	–	11		.389			10	–	18		.357
UTEP	4	–	14		.222			13	–	15		.464
Air Force	1	–	17		.056			5	–	23		.179
† 1996 WAC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll[1]

The 1996 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 6–9 at The Pit at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[2]

Hosts New Mexico upset top-seeded, defending champions Utah in the championship game, 64–60, to clinch their second WAC men's tournament championship.

The Lobos, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Division I Tournament. They were joined in the tournament by WAC regular season champions Utah, who received an at-large bid.

Another important note, the Hawaii team would get a second chance and move on to face Utah in the Quarterfinals because UTEP forfeited due to an ineligible player.^[3]

Format

No changes were made to the tournament format from the previous year. The top six teams received byes into the quarterfinal round, leaving the lowest four-seeded teams to play in the first round. Teams were seeded based on regular season conference records.

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 6					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 7					Semifinals Friday, March 8					Championship Saturday, March 9
						1	#10 Utah	76
						8	Hawaii	63
	9	UTEP	77
	8	Hawaii	69
											1	#10 Utah	71
											4	Colorado State	69
						5	BYU	84
						4	Colorado State	100
																1	#10 Utah	60
																2	New Mexico	64
						3	Fresno State	91
						6	Wyoming	82
											3	Fresno State	99
											2	New Mexico	104
	7	San Diego State	80
	10	Air Force	69
						7	San Diego State	75
						2	New Mexico	94

References

1. sports-reference.com 1995-96 Western Athletic Conference Season Summary
2. "1995-96 Western Athletic Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
3. https://utepminers.com/news/2005/3/9/UTEP_Basketball_Notes_Versus_Hawaii