Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament


The Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as the Pac-12 Tournament, is the annual concluding tournament for the NCAA college basketball in the Pac-12, taking place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena.

History

The predecessor conference of the Pac-12, the Pacific Coast Conference, began playing basketball in the 1915–16 season. The PCC was split into North and South Divisions for basketball beginning with the 1922–23 season. The winners of the two divisions would play a best of three series of games to determine the PCC basketball champion. If two division teams tied, they would have a one-game playoff to produce the division representative. Starting with the first edition of the event now known as the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in 1939, the winner of the PCC divisional playoff was given the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Oregon, the 1939 PCC champion, won the championship game in the 1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
The last divisional playoff was in the 1954–55 season. After that, there was no divisional play and all teams played each other in a round robin competition. From the 1955–56 season through the 1985–86 season, the regular season conference champion was awarded the NCAA tournament berth from the PCC, later AAWU, Pac-8 and Pac-10.
Beginning with the 1975 NCAA Tournament, the league would usually place at least one other at-large team in the tournament. Following the end of UCLA's dominance in the 1970s, the Pac-10 would struggle to get out of the early rounds of the NCAA tournament.
By the 1985–86 season, the Pac-10 was one of three remaining conferences that gave their automatic NCAA tournament bid to the regular season round-robin champion. The other two conferences were the Ivy League and the Big Ten Conference.

1987–1990

The modern tournament format began in 1987. The first incarnation of the tournament ran from 1987 to 1990, hosted at different school sites. UCLA was awarded the inaugural tournament, which was won by the Bruins, and the Arizona Wildcats took the next three. Citing academic concerns, it was dropped after 1990 upon opposition from coaches, poor revenue, and poor attendance. The Pac-10 went back to having the regular season champion get awarded the automatic NCAA tournament bid for the 1990–2001 seasons. During that time, Arizona and UCLA both won NCAA championships.

2002 to the present

In 1998, the Big Ten began to hold a conference tournament, leaving the Pac-10 and Ivy League the lone conferences without postseason tournaments. The Pac-10 tournament was restarted by an 8–2 vote of the athletic directors of the conference in 2000 after determining that a tournament would help increase exposure of the conference and help the seeding of the schools in the NCAA tournament. Stanford University and the University of Arizona opposed the tournament, while UCLA's and USC's votes, considered the deciding votes, were swayed by permanently hosting the tournament at Staples Center. Los Angeles is the second largest media market in the United States. The championship game has been broadcast nationally by CBS Sports.
With the 2011 championship game attracting only 12,074 paid attendees, less than two-thirds the capacity of Staples Center, commissioner Larry Scott reopened bids from other cities to host the Pac-12 Tournament. Other models including a round-robin model and hosting the tournament at conference sites have also been considered. Ultimately, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle submitted bids for consideration.
On March 13, 2012, the Pac-12 Tournament was officially moved to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, for a three-year term. The tournament moved to T-Mobile Arena once it opened during the 2016–17 basketball season; the hosting contract between the Pac-12 and the arena runs through 2020.

Television coverage

Effective with the 2012–13 season, as part of the new television contract signed with Fox Sports and ESPN, one quarterfinal game, one semifinal game, and the championship game will rotate between Fox Sports and ESPN, with ESPN obtaining odd year tournaments and Fox Sports even numbered tournaments. All other games are broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.

Format

From 1987 to 1990 and 2006 to 2011, all ten teams participated in the tournament, with the top six teams receiving a bye in the opening round. Between 2002 and 2005, only the top eight teams in the conference participated in the tournament. Of the Pac-12 schools, only Washington State has never played in the championship game. In 2010 with USC on probation, only nine teams participated. Since 2012, all 12 teams have participated with the top four teams getting byes into the quarterfinals.

Results

Venues

VenueCityStateAppearancesLastYearsNotes
T-Mobile ArenaParadiseNevada320192017–2020
MGM Grand Garden ArenaParadiseNevada420162013–2016
Staples CenterLos AngelesCalifornia1120122002–2012
Pauley PavilionLos AngelesCalifornia119871987
McKale CenterTucsonArizona119881988
Great Western ForumInglewoodCalifornia119891989
University Activity CenterTempeArizona119901990

Tournament championships by school

MemberWinnersWinning Years
Arizona71988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2015, 2017, 2018
Oregon52003, 2007, 2013, 2016, 2019
UCLA41987, 2006, 2008, 2014
Washington32005, 2010, 2011
Colorado12012
Stanford12004
USC12009

Note: No tournament held between 1990 and 2002.

Coaches with championships

– Mark Fox ,
– Kyle Smith ,
– Dana Altman ,
– Walt Hazzard,
– Sean Miller ,

– Lute Olson,
– Tim Floyd,
– Bill Frieder,

– Steve Alford,
– Tad Boyle ,
– Jim Harrick,
– Ben Howland,
– Lorenzo Romar,
– Henry Bibby,
– Cuonzo Martin,
– Ernie Kent,
– Ben Braun,
– Andy Enfield ,
– Tony Bennett,
– Steve Lavin,
– Ralph Miller,
– Andy Russo,
– Murry Bartow,
– Mike Montgomery,
– Johnny Dawkins,
– Larry Krystkowiak ,
– Mike Hopkins ,
– Kevin O’Neill,
– Kelvin Sampson,
– Wayne Tinkle ,
– Craig Robinson,
– Lou Campanelli,
– Jay John,
– Don Monson,
– George Ravelling,
– Bobby Hurley ,
– Herb Sendek,
– Jerod Haase ,
– Mick Cronin ,
Note: Coaches with at least one win are listed here. Current coaches are in bold.

Coaches by tournament wins

19 – Dana Altman,

18 – Sean Miller,
16 – Lute Olson,
15 – Lorenzo Romar,
14 – Tad Boyle,
11 – Ben Howland,
11 – Ernie Kent,
10 – Mike Montgomery,

7 – Ben Braun,
6 – Steve Alford,
6 – Tim Floyd,
6 – Johnny Dawkins,
6 – Larry Krystkowiak,
5 – Andy Enfield ,
4 – Henry Bibby,
4 – Cuonzo Martin,
3 – Walt Hazzard,
3 – Jim Harrick,
3 – Steve Lavin,
3 – Andy Russo,
3 – Wayne Tinkle,
3 – Craig Robinson,
3 – Herb Sendek,
2 – Bobby Hurley,
2 – Mike Hopkins,
2 – Bill Frieder,
2 – Kelvin Sampson,
2 – Lou Campanelli,
2 – Don Monson,
2 – Jay John,
1 – Mark Fox,
1 – Kyle Smith,
1 – Jerod Haase,
1 – Murray Bartow,
0 – Mick Cronin,
Note''': Only coaches with 1 or more wins listed here.
As of March 11, 2020

All-Time Records by Team

SchoolRecordWinning PctChampionshipsRunners-Up
Arizona34–1574
Oregon32–1652
Colorado13–810
UCLA25–1742
Washington20–1933
USC18*–1814
California17–2202
Stanford16–2212
Utah6–901
Oregon State11–2001
Arizona State8–2101
Washington State6–2000

*USC vacated its win vs. ASU in the 2008 Pac-10 Tournament.

All-Time Records by Seed

SeedRecordWinning PctChampionships
143–139
233–175
324–193
420–21*1
517–211
621–203
718–230
816–220
97–190
107–170
111–80
121–90

*USC vacated its win vs. ASU in the 2008 Pac-10 Tournament.

Pac-12 Tournament records

Pac-12 Tournament team records