1996 Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament

1996 Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament
Classification Division I
Season 1995–96
Teams 11
Site The Pyramid
Memphis, Tennessee
Champions Cincinnati (1st title)
Winning coach Bob Huggins (1st title)
MVP Danny Fortson (Cincinnati)

The 1996 Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament was held March 6–9 at The Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee.[1] This was the first edition of the tournament.

Top-seeded Cincinnati defeated Marquette in the inaugural championship game, 85–84, to clinch their first Conference USA men's tournament championship.

The Bearcats, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Tournament. They were joined in the tournament by fellow C-USA members Louisville, Marquette, and Memphis, who all earned at-large bids.

Format

Conference USA was formed in 1995 by eleven former members the Metro Conference and the Great Midwest Conference (Dayton, VCU, and Virginia Tech were excluded). The conference's twelfth member, Houston, was to join for the 1996–97 season. For scheduling purposes, the eleven teams were placed into one of three three- or four-team divisions (Red, White, and Blue).

All eleven teams participated in the tournament and were seeded based on their regular season conference records, regardless of division. The top five teams were given byes into the quarterfinal round, and the bottom six teams were entered into the preliminary first round.

Bracket

  First Round
Wednesday, March 6		 Quarterfinals
Thursday, March 7		 Semifinals
Friday, March 8		 Championship
Saturday, March 9
                                     
       
  1 Cincinnati 62  
    9 Saint Louis 59  
9 Saint Louis 61
8 Southern Miss 44  
  1 Cincinnati 92  
  4 Louisville 81  
       
       
  5 Tulane 79
    4 Louisville 98  
     
       
  1 Cincinnati 85
  3 Marquette 84
       
       
  3 Marquette 65
    11 South Florida 56  
11 South Florida 73
6 UAB 57  
  3 Marquette 72
  2 Memphis 60  
7 UNC Charlotte 60  
10 DePaul 66  
  10 DePaul 69
    2 Memphis 92  
     

References

  1. ↑ "1995-96 Conference USA Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2016.


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