1988 American South Conference men's basketball tournament
The 1988 American South Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 4–6 at the Montagne Center at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.[2] This was the inaugural edition of the tournament after the league's establishment in 1987.
| 1988 American South Conference men's basketball tournament | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Season | 1987–88 |
| Teams | 6 |
| Finals site | Montagne Center Beaumont, TX |
| Champions | Louisiana Tech (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Tommy Joe Eagles (1st title) |
| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech † | 7 | – | 3 | .700 | 22 | – | 9 | .710 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New Orleans | 7 | – | 3 | .700 | 21 | – | 11 | .656 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lamar | 5 | – | 5 | .500 | 20 | – | 11 | .645 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arkansas State | 4 | – | 6 | .400 | 21 | – | 14 | .600 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pan American | 4 | – | 6 | .400 | 14 | – | 14 | .500 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Southwestern Louisiana | 3 | – | 7 | .300 | 12 | – | 16 | .429 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| † 1988 American South tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Louisiana Tech defeated New Orleans in the championship game, 69–66, to take home the first American South men's basketball tournament.
The Bulldogs, however, did not receive an automatic invitation to the 1988 NCAA Tournament. They ultimately participated in the 1988 NIT.
Format edit
All six of the conference's founding members participated in the tournament field. They were seeded based on regular season conference records. The top two teams were given byes into the semifinals while the bottom four teams were placed and paired into the initial quarterfinal round.
All games were played at Lamar's home court at the Montagne Center in Beaumont, Texas.
Bracket edit
| Quarterfinals Friday, March 4 | Semifinals Saturday, March 5 | Championship Sunday, March 6 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Louisiana Tech | 63 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Arkansas State | 61 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Pan American | 62 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Arkansas State | 67 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Louisiana Tech | 69 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | New Orleans | 66 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Lamar | 76 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Southwestern Louisiana | 75 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Lamar | 59 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | New Orleans | 75 | ||||||||||||