1980 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament

The 1980 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament of the Ohio Valley Conference during the 1979–80 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. It was held February 28–29, 1980. The semifinals and finals took place at E. A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Two seed Western Kentucky won the tournament, defeating Murray State in the championship game, and received the Ohio Valley's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Hilltoppers drew a 10 seed in the Mideast region, facing the 7 seed Virginia Tech Hokies.

1980 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1979–80
Teams	4
Site	E. A. Diddle Arena Bowling Green, Kentucky
Champions	Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (9th title)
Winning coach	Gene Keady (1st title)
Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournaments

1979–80 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Western Kentucky †	10	–	2		.833			21	–	8		.724
Murray State	10	–	2		.833			23	–	8		.742
Morehead State	7	–	5		.583			15	–	12		.556
Eastern Kentucky	7	–	5		.583			15	–	12		.556
Middle Tennessee	5	–	7		.417			13	–	13		.500
Austin Peay State	2	–	10		.167			8	–	18		.308
Tennessee Tech	1	–	11		.083			5	–	21		.192
† 1980 OVC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Format

The top four eligible men's basketball teams in the Ohio Valley Conference received a berth in the conference tournament. After the 14-game conference season, teams were seeded by conference record. The bottom four teams in the standings did not participate.

Bracket

	Semifinals February 28					Finals February 29
	1	Murray State	77
	4	Morehead State	74
						1	Murray State	51
						2	Western Kentucky	54
	3	Eastern Kentucky	83
	2	Western Kentucky	84