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1979 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament

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1979 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament
ClassificationDivision I
Season1978–79
Teams8
SiteAnaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, CA
ChampionsPacific (1st title)
Winning coachStan Morrison (1st title)
MVPRon Cornelius (Pacific)
Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournaments
← 1978
1980 →
1978–79 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
Pacific 11 3   .786 18 12   .600
Utah State 9 5   .643 19 11   .633
Fresno State 9 5   .643 16 12   .571
Cal State Fullerton 7 7   .500 16 11   .593
Long Beach State 7 7   .500 16 12   .571
UC Santa Barbara[note 1] 6 8   .429 12 15   .444
San Jose State 4 10   .286 7 20   .259
UC Irvine[note 2] 3 11   .214 9 19   .321
1979 PCAA tournament winner
Rankings from AP Poll[1]


The 1979 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament (now known as the Big West Conference men's basketball tournament) was held March 1–3 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.[2]

Top-seeded Pacific topped PCAA-newcomers Utah State in the championship game, 82–73, to win its first PCAA/Big West men's basketball tournament.

The Tigers, in turn, received a bid to the 1979 NCAA tournament. They were joined in the tournament by Utah State, who earned an at-large bid.

Format

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The tournament field expanded once more, this time increasing from seven to eight teams (UC Irvine and Utah State participated in their first PCAA tournament). Previous member San Diego State had departed for the Western Athletic Conference prior to the 1978–79 season.

All eight PCAA members qualified for the event and were seeded based on regular season conference records. All teams began play in the tournament bracket's first round.

Bracket

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First round
Thursday, March 1
Semifinals
Friday, March 2
Championship
Saturday, March 3
         
1 Pacific 57
8 UC Irvine 52
1 Pacific 74
5 Long Beach State 69
5 Long Beach State 79
4 Cal State Fullerton 70
1 Pacific 82
2 Utah State 73
3 Fresno State 75
6 UC Santa Barbara 62
3 Fresno State 74
2 Utah State 81
7 San José State 78
2 Utah State 85

Notes

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  1. ^ UC Santa Barbara was forced to vacated all wins during the 1978–79 season due to the use of ineligible players. UC Santa Barbara Record Book still includes win and loss totals.
  2. ^ Two losses against UC Santa Barbara included in win count per UC Irvine Record Book.

References

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  1. ^ "1978-79 Pacific Coast Athletic Association Season Summary". Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  2. ^ "1978-79 Pacific Coast Athletic Association Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2016.