1997 WAC men's basketball tournament

August 2023 1997 WAC I Men's 12 Thomas & Mack Center Paradise, NV Utah 2nd Rick Majerus 2nd Keith Van Horn Utah The 1997 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 4–8 at the Thomas & Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada.1996-97 Western Athletic Conference Season Summary sports-reference.com Sports Reference LLC 2016 https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/conferences/wac/1997.html April 16, 2016 Top-seeded Utah easily defeated tenth-seeded 1996 men TCU Horned Frogs TCU in the championship game, 89–68, to clinch their second WAC men's tournament championship. The Utes, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1997 NCAA Division I tournament. Utah would ultimately defeat Navy, UNC Charlotte, and Stanford on their way to the Elite Eight, where they lost to Kentucky. They were joined in the tournament by Tulsa and New Mexico, who earned at-large bids. Format Prior to the 1997 season, the WAC added six new members: Rice, SMU, San Jose State, TCU, Tulsa, and UNLV. With the additions, total conference membership increased to sixteen teams. The regular season schedule was re-arranged so that teams were placed into one of two eight-team divisions, the Mountain and Pacific Divisions, generally determined by geography. The tournament field was subsequently expanded from ten to twelve teams, with the top six teams from each of the two divisions qualifying for the tournament. Teams' seeds were determined based on their finish in the standings, and were seeded one to six within their division. The teams who finished in the top two in either of the divisions received byes to the second round while the remaining eight teams were placed in the first round. Each team was initially matched up with a team from the other division (3rd versus 6th and 4th versus 5th). Bracket First round Tuesday, March 4 Quarterfinals Thursday, March 6 Semifinals Friday, March 7 Championship Saturday, March 8 30px M5 1996 men SMU Mustangs SMU 93 P4 1996 men Colorado State Rams Colorado State 89 M3 #14 New Mexico 103 P6 1996 men San Jose State Spartans San Jose State 70 M6 1996 men Rice Owls Rice 61 P3 1996 men UNLV Runnin' Rebels UNLV 71 P5 1996 men Wyoming Cowboys Wyoming 61 M4 1996 men TCU Horned Frogs TCU 72 M1 #3 Utah 59 M5 SMU 58 M3 #14 New Mexico 65 P2 1996 men Hawaii Rainbow Warriors Hawaii 57 M2 Tulsa 68 P3 UNLV 65 M4 TCU 106 P1 1996 men Fresno State Bulldogs Fresno State 81 M1 #3 Utah 72 M3 #14 New Mexico 70 M2 Tulsa 59 M4 TCU 64 M1 #3 Utah 89 M4 TCU 68 References Category:United Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament Tournament WAC men's basketball tournament WAC men's basketball tournament