2021 WAC men's basketball tournament explained

Year:2021
Conference:WAC
Division:I
Gender:Men's
Teams:6
Arena:Orleans Arena
City:Paradise, Nevada
Champions:Grand Canyon
Titlecount:1st
Coach:Bryce Drew
Coachcount:1st
Mvp:Jovan Blacksher Jr.
Mvpteam:Grand Canyon
Television:ESPN+, ESPNU

The 2021 WAC men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Western Athletic Conference during the 2020–21 season. All tournament games were played at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada, from March 11–13, 2021. The tournament champion received the WAC's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA tournament.

Seeds

6 of the 9 teams in the WAC were eligible to compete in the conference tournament. Dixie State and Tarleton State were ineligible due to their transition from Division II to Division I. California Baptist is eligible for the WAC basketball tournament this year after a change in rules from the WAC Board of Directors, which changed the transition period from four years to two years to compete in the conference tournament.[1] CBU would still have to wait two more years to be able to compete in the NCAA Tournament. Chicago State cancelled their season after going 0–9, so they did not compete in the conference tournament.[2] Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.

SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreaker Tiebreaker 2
1Grand Canyon9–3
2Utah Valley9–4
3New Mexico State7–6
4California Baptist6–6
5Seattle4–5
6UTRGV2–5

Schedule and results

GameTimeMatchup ScoreTelevision
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 11
14:30 pmNo. 4 California Baptist vs No. 5 Seattle66–83ESPN+
28:00 pmNo. 3 New Mexico State vs No. 6 UTRGV77–61
Semifinals – Friday, March 12
35:00 pmNo. 1 Grand Canyon vs. No. 5 Seattle81–47ESPN+
48:00 pmNo. 2 Utah Valley vs. No. 3 New Mexico State62–78
Final – Saturday, March 13
57:00 pmNo. 1 Grand Canyon vs. No. 3 New Mexico State74–56ESPNU
Game times in PST. Rankings denote tournament seed.

Notes and References

  1. Lancers Eligible For 2021 WAC Basketball Tournament . . April 27, 2020 . December 31, 2020.
  2. Chicago State University Athletics Suspends Men’s Basketball Competition-Related Activities . . December 23, 2020 . December 31, 2020.