1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament


The 1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament was held February 23–25 at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1]

1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament
ClassificationDivision I
Season1978–79
Teams6
SiteCharlotte Coliseum
Charlotte, NC
ChampionsJacksonville (1st title)
Winning coachTates Locke (1st title)
MVPJames Ray (Jacksonville)
← 1978
1980 →
1978–79 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
South Alabama 10 0   1.000 20 7   .741
South Florida 6 4   .600 14 14   .500
UNC Charlotte 6 4   .600 16 11   .593
Jacksonville 5 5   .500 19 11   .633
New Orleans 3 7   .300 11 16   .407
Georgia State 0 10   .000 7 20   .259
1979 Sun Belt Conference tournament winner
Rankings from AP Poll

Jacksonville defeated South Florida in the championship game, 68–54, to win their first Sun Belt men's basketball tournament.

The Dolphins, in turn, received a bid for the 1979 NCAA tournament, where they lost to Virginia Tech in the first round. Top-seeded South Alabama, who lost to Jacksonville in the semifinal round, still received an at-large bid, falling to Louisville in the second round.

ESPN televised every game of the tournament. It was the first time that all the games of a college basketball conference championship tournament were televised.[2]

Format

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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 to the semifinal round.

All of the games were played at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Bracket

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Quarterfinals
Friday, February 23
Semifinals
Saturday, February 24
Championship
Sunday, February 25
         
1 South Alabama 77
4 Jacksonville 85
5 New Orleans 47
4 Jacksonville 56
4 Jacksonville 68
2 South Florida 54
3 UNC Charlotte 51
6 Georgia State 47
2 South Florida 50
3 UNC Charlotte 47

References

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  1. ^ "1978-79 Sun Belt Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  2. ^ "Playing Rules History" (PDF). ncaa.org. NCAA. p. 11. Retrieved June 25, 2024.