The 2009 Pacific Life Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament began with the first round on March 11, 2009 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, with quarterfinals on March 12, semifinals on March 13, and the finals on March 14 (3:00 p.m. PT). In front of a crowd of 16,988, #6 seed USC defeated #4 seed Arizona State for the Pac-10 Tournament Championship, which was the first and only time for their program. This was also the first time a team seeded sixth in the tournament went on to win the championship, although it would happen again three years later. The Trojans received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA National Tournament.
Seeds
All Pacific-10 schools played in the tournament. Teams are seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records.
SeedSchoolConference (Overall)Tiebreaker1Washington 14–4 (24–7)1-1 vs. UCLA2UCLA 13–5 (24–7)1-1 vs. UW3California 11–7 (22–9)1-1 vs. ASU4Arizona State 11–7 (22–8)1-1 vs. Cal5Arizona 9–9 (19–12)1-1 vs USC6USC 9–9 (18–12)1-1 vs. Arizona7Washington State 8–10 (16–14)8Oregon State 7–11 (13–16)9Stanford 6–12 (17–12)10Oregon 2–16 (8–22)
2009 Pac-10 tournament Game time: First round – March 11, 6:00 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.; Quarterfinals – March 12, 12:00 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.; Semi-finals – March 13, 6:00 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.; Championship game – March 14, 3:00 p.m. (Pacific time)
Tournament notes Washington Huskies won the Pac-10 regular season title with a win over Arizona, 83–78, on Saturday, February 28, 2009, ending UCLA's three-year reign. They then went on to defeat Washington State, 67–60, for their first outright conference title since 1953. The Oregon State Beavers were coached by President Obama's brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, who, in his first season, improved them from 5–25 last season to 13 regular season wins this year. As a part of the tournament, a Pride of the Pac-10 luncheon was held on Friday, March 13, to honor the 2007-2008 Pac-10 Medal Winners, male and female athletes from each school for their excellence in athletics, academics and community service. Regular season honors: James Harden, Arizona State, player of the year; Isaiah Thomas, Washington, freshman of the year; Taj Gibson, USC, defensive player of the year; Justin Dentmon, Washington, most improved player of the year; Lorenzo Romar, Washington, coach of the year. Game officials for the championship game were Dick Cartmell, Dave Libbey and Michael Reed. This tournament had not one but two pairs of arch-rivals meet (a first). Arizona and ASU met (for the 2nd time in tournament history) in the second round and UCLA met USC (also for the 2nd time in tournament history) in the third round. Six teams were invited to play in the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Division I Championship: Washington, UCLA, California, Arizona State, USC, and Arizona.
All-Tournament Team Daniel Hackett, USC Taj Gibson, USC Derek Glasser, Arizona State James Harden, Arizona State Jeff Pendergraph, Arizona State
Most Outstanding Player DeMar DeRozan, USC
2009 Hall of Honor inductees
Pac-10 men’s basketball Hall of Honor banquet was held on Saturday, March 14, 2009 to honor the following individuals from each of the Pac-10 member schools. Lute Olson – Arizona Royce Youree – Arizona State Nibs Price – Cal Michael Warren – UCLA Greg Ballard – Oregon Paul Valenti – Oregon State Gus Williams – USC Jim Pollard – Stanford Detlef Schrempf – Washington Isaac Fontaine – Washington State
See also 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament 2008–09 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball standings
References
External links Pac-10 Basketball Tournament site