1981 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament

Last updated

1981 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification Division I
Season 198081
Teams6
First round siteCampus Sites
Campus Arenas
Finals site Beaumont Civic Center
Beaumont, TX
Champions Lamar (1st title)
Winning coach Pat Foster (1st title)
MVP Mike Olliver (Lamar)
1982  
1980–81 Southland Conference men's basketball standings
Conf.Overall
TeamW L PCTW L PCT
Lamar82 .800255  .833
Texas-Arlington 73 .700208  .714
Louisiana Tech 73 .7002010  .667
Southwestern Louisiana 64 .6001513  .536
Arkansas State 28 .2001215  .444
McNeese State 010 .0001121  .344
Southland Tournament winner
Rankings from AP poll [1]

The 1981 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament was held from March 3 to March 5 at a combination of on-campus gymnasiums and the Beaumont Civic Center in Beaumont, Texas. [2] This was the first edition of the tournament.

Contents

Lamar defeated Louisiana Tech in the championship game, 83–69, to win their first Southland men's basketball tournament.

The Cardinals, in turn, received a bid to the 1981 NCAA Tournament. They were the only Southland member invited to the NCAA tournament. Regular season runner-up Texas–Arlington received an invitation to the 1981 NIT Tournament.

Format

All six of the conference's members participated in the tournament field. They were seeded based on regular season conference records, with the top two teams earning byes into the semifinal round. The other four teams entered into the preliminary first round. A third-place game was held on the last day.

First Round games were played at the home court of the higher-seeded team. All remaining games were played at the Beaumont Civic Center in Beaumont, Texas, the home court of regular season champion Lamar.

Bracket

First round
Tuesday, March 3
Semifinals
Wednesday, March 4
Championship
Thursday, March 5
         
1 Lamar 83
4 SW Louisiana 68
5 Arkansas State 73
4 SW Louisiana 91
1 Lamar83
2 Louisiana Tech 69
3 Texas–Arlington 74
6 McNeese State 79
6 McNeese State 52 Third Place
Thursday, March 5
2 Louisiana Tech 64
4 SW Louisiana79
6 McNeese State 73

References

  1. "Men's Basketball 2018-19" (PDF). Southland Conference. p. 105. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  2. "1980-81 Southland Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2016.