2024 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament explained

Year:2024
Conference:Big West Conference
Division:I
Gender:Men's
Teams:8
Arena:Dollar Loan Center
City:Henderson, Nevada
Champions:Long Beach State
Titlecount:6th
Coach:Dan Monson
Coachcount:2nd
Mvp:Lassina Traoré
Mvpteam:Long Beach State
Television:ESPN+
ESPNU
ESPN2

The 2024 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big West Conference of the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. It was held March 13–16, 2024, at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada. The winner, #4 seed Long Beach State, received the conference's automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA tournament.

Seeds

In June 2023, the Big West Conference board of directors voted to reduce the tournament field from 10 teams to 8 teams. In the new format, the top two seeds would receive automatic berths in the semifinals, the next two seeds would be placed in the quarterfinals, and the remaining four seeds would play each other in the first round. Big West commissioner Dan Butterly stated that the decision was made to improve the regular season champion's odds of winning the tournament and thus receiving the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[1]

Of the 11 conference teams, 10 were eligible for tournament spots. UC San Diego was ineligible for the tournament, as it was in the final year of the four-year transition required for teams transferring to Division I from Division II. Teams were seeded based on their performance within the conference, and teams with identical conference records were seeded using a tiebreaker system.

As was the case with tournaments since 2020, reseeding of teams did not occur at any point.

SeedSchoolRecordTiebreaker
1UC Irvine17–3
2UC Davis14–6
3Hawai'i11–9
4Long Beach State10–102–0 vs. UC Riverside
5UC Riverside10–100–2 vs. Long Beach State
6UC Santa Barbara9–112–0 vs. Hawai'i
7Cal State Northridge9–111–1 vs. Hawai'i
8Cal State Bakersfield8–12
DNQCal State Fullerton7–13
DNQCal Poly0–20

Schedule and results

GameTime[2] MatchupScoreTelevision
First round – Wednesday, March 13
16:00pmNo. 5 UC Riverside vs. No. 8 Cal State Bakersfield83–78ESPN+
28:30pmNo. 6 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 7 Cal State Northridge84–87ESPN+
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 14
36:00pmNo. 3 Hawai'i vs. No. 7 Cal State Northridge75–68ESPN+
48:30pmNo. 4 Long Beach State vs. No. 5 UC Riverside86–67ESPN+
Semifinals – Friday, March 15
56:00pmNo. 1 UC Irvine vs. No. 4 Long Beach State79–83ESPN+ (live), ESPNU (delayed)
68:30pmNo. 2 UC Davis vs. No. 3 Hawai'i68–65ESPN2/ESPN+
Final – Saturday, March 16
76:30pmNo. 4 Long Beach State vs. No. 2 UC Davis74-70ESPN2/ESPN+
  • Game times in PDT. Rankings denote tournament seed.

Bracket

Notes and References

  1. News: Big West Board of Directors Approves New Initiatives at Annual Spring Meeting . November 9, 2023 . Big West Conference . June 9, 2023.
  2. Web site: 2024 Hercules Tires Big West Men's Basketball Championship . Big West Conference . November 9, 2023 . September 28, 2023.