1988 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament

The 1988 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament (now known as the Big West Conference men's basketball tournament) was held March 10–13 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. This was the final tournament while the conference was still known as the PCAA; it would change to the Big West for the following season.

1988 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1987–88
Teams	10
Site	The Forum Inglewood, CA
Champions	Utah State (1st title)
Winning coach	Rod Tueller (1st title)
MVP	Wayne Engelstad (UC Irvine)
Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournaments

1987–88 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 12 UNLV	15	–	3		.833			28	–	6		.824
UC Santa Barbara	13	–	5		.722			22	–	8		.733
Utah State †	13	–	5		.722			21	–	10		.677
Long Beach State	11	–	7		.611			17	–	12		.586
UC Irvine	9	–	9		.500			16	–	14		.533
New Mexico State	8	–	10		.444			16	–	16		.500
San Jose State	8	–	10		.444			14	–	15		.483
Cal State Fullerton	7	–	11		.389			12	–	17		.414
Fresno State	6	–	12		.333			9	–	19		.321
Pacific	0	–	18		.000			5	–	24		.172
† 1988 PCAA tournament winner

Utah State defeated UC Irvine in the final, 86–79, and captured their first PCAA/Big West championship. The fifth-seeded Anteaters upset three-time defending champions UNLV in the semifinal round.

The Aggies, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1988 NCAA tournament. Fellow PCAA members UNLV and UC Santa Barbara (the Gauchos' first-ever tournament appearance) joined them in the field with at-large bids.

Format

The tournament field expanded beyond eight teams for the first time, with all ten conference members in participation. The ten teams were seeded in the bracket based on regular season record.

The top six seeds were given a bye into the quarterfinal round while the four lowest-seeded teams were placed into the first round.

Bracket

	First round Thursday, March 10					Quarterfinals Friday, March 11					Semifinals Saturday, March 12					Championship Sunday, March 13
						1	No. 7 UNLV	61
						8	Cal State Fullerton	56
	9	Fresno State	59
	8	Cal State Fullerton	73
											1	#7 UNLV	70
											5	UC Irvine	74
						5	UC Irvine	74
						4	Long Beach State	69
																5	UC Irvine	79
																2	Utah State	86
						3	UC Santa Barbara	56
						6	New Mexico State	52
											3	UC Santa Barbara	66
											2	Utah State	73
	7	San José State	76
	10	Pacific	60
						7	San José State	72
						2	Utah State	80