| Year: | 2016 |
| Conference: | Conference USA |
| Division: | I |
| Gender: | Men's |
| Teams: | 13 |
| Arena: | Legacy Arena |
| City: | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Champions: | Middle Tennessee |
| Titlecount: | 1st |
| Coach: | Kermit Davis |
| Coachcount: | 1st |
| Mvp: | Reggie Upshaw |
| Mvpteam: | Middle Tennessee |
| Attendance: | 33,438 |
| Television: | ASN, CBSSN, FS1 |
The 2016 Conference USA men's basketball tournament was held from March 8–12, 2016, in Birmingham, Alabama, at Legacy Arena.[1] [2] Southern Miss did not participate in the tournament due to a self-imposed a postseason ban for pending NCAA violations.[3] Middle Tennessee won the tournament, receiving the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Only 13 conference teams were eligible for the tournament. As a result, the top 11 teams received a bye to the Second Round of the tournament. The top 4 teams received a double bye to the Quarterfinals of the tournament.
Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.
| Seed | School | Conference | Tiebreaker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UAB | 16–2 | |
| 2 | Middle Tennessee | 13–5 | |
| 3 | Marshall | 12–6 | 2–1 vs. LA Tech & Old Dominion |
| 4 | Louisiana Tech | 12–6 | 1–1 vs. Marshall & Old Dominion |
| 5 | Old Dominion | 12–6 | 1–2 vs. LA Tech & Marshall |
| 6 | UTEP | 10–8 | |
| 7 | Charlotte | 9–9 | |
| 8 | Western Kentucky | 8–10 | |
| 9 | North Texas | 7–11 | 2–1 vs. Rice & FIU, 1-1 vs. Louisiana Tech |
| 10 | Rice | 7–11 | 2–1 vs. North Texas & FIU, 0-2 vs. Louisiana Tech |
| 11 | FIU | 7–11 | 0–2 vs. Rice & North Texas |
| 12 | Florida Atlantic | 5–13 | |
| 13 | UTSA | 3–15 | |
| Game | Time* | Matchup# | Final Score | Television | Attendance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round – Tuesday, March 8 | ||||||
| 1 | 4:00 pm |
| 82–58 | ASN | 220 | |
| Second round – Wednesday, March 9 | ||||||
| 2 | 12:00 pm |
| 84–76 | ASN | 3,888 | |
| 3 | 2:30 pm |
| 72–46 | |||
| 4 | 6:00 pm |
| 79–69 | 3,905 | ||
| 5 | 8:30 pm |
| 85–77 | |||
| Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 10 | ||||||
| 6 | 12:00 pm |
| 77–88 | ASN | 9,797 | |
| 7 | 2:30 pm |
| 52–68 | |||
| 8 | 6:00 pm |
| 79–61 | 3,933 | ||
| 9 | 8:30 pm |
| 87–85 | |||
| Semifinals – Friday, March 11 | ||||||
| 10 | 3:00 pm |
| 89–77 | CBSSN | 6,176 | |
| 11 | 5:30 pm |
| 99–90 | |||
| Championship – Saturday, March 12 | ||||||
| 12 | 1:30 pm |
| 55–53 | FS1 | 5,519 | |
| ||||||