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 | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Season | 1978–79 |
| Teams | 6 |
| Site | Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC |
| Champions | Jacksonville (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Tates Locke (1st title) |
| MVP | James Ray (Jacksonville) |
| 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
editAll 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
edit| 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
edit- ^ "1978-79 Sun Belt Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
- ^ "Playing Rules History" (PDF). ncaa.org. NCAA. p. 11. Retrieved June 25, 2024.