1986 WAC men's basketball tournament

The 1986 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 4–8 at the Arena-Auditorium at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming.

1986 WAC men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1985–86
Teams	9
Site	Arena-Auditorium Laramie, WY
Champions	UTEP (2nd title)
Winning coach	Don Haskins (2nd title)
MVP	Eric Leckner (Wyoming)
WAC men's basketball tournaments

1985–86 WAC men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Wyoming	12	–	4		.750			24	–	12		.667
No. 20 UTEP †	12	–	4		.750			27	–	6		.818
Utah	12	–	4		.750			20	–	10		.667
Brigham Young	11	–	5		.688			18	–	14		.563
New Mexico	8	–	8		.500			17	–	14		.548
San Diego State	7	–	9		.438			10	–	19		.345
Colorado State	6	–	10		.375			11	–	18		.379
Air Force	3	–	13		.188			10	–	19		.345
Hawaii	1	–	15		.063			4	–	24		.143
† 1986 WAC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

UTEP defeated top-seeded Wyoming in the championship game, 65–64, to clinch their second WAC men's tournament championship.

The Miners, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1986 NCAA tournament. Third-seeded Utah, who lost in the quarterfinal round, also earned an at-large bid.

Format

Even though the tournament field remained fixed at nine teams, there were some changes to the tournament structure. Teams were again seeded based on regular season conference records, although the previous double-bye structure for the top two seeds was eliminated. Instead, all teams were entered into the quarterfinal round with the exception of the two lowest-seeded teams, who played in the preliminary first round to determine who would then play against the tournament's top seed.

Bracket

	First round Tuesday, March 4					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 6					Semifinals Friday, March 7					Championship Saturday, March 8
						1	Wyoming	67
	9	Hawaii	58			8	Air Force	65
	8	Air Force	64								1	Wyoming	56
											5	New Mexico	54
						5	New Mexico	79
						4	BYU	68
																1	Wyoming	64
																2	UTEP	65
						3	Utah	71
						6	San Diego State	73
											6	San Diego State	76
											2	UTEP	78
						7	Colorado State	50
						2	UTEP	58