1989 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament

1989 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1988–89
Teams	10
Site	Long Beach Arena Long Beach, CA
Champions	UNLV (5th title)
Winning coach	Jerry Tarkanian (5th title)
MVP	Stacey Augmon (UNLV)
Big West Conference men's basketball tournaments

1988–89 Big West men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 15 UNLV †	16	–	2		.889			29	–	8		.784
New Mexico State	12	–	6		.667			21	–	11		.656
UC Santa Barbara	11	–	7		.611			21	–	9		.700
Cal State Fullerton	10	–	8		.556			16	–	13		.552
Long Beach State	10	–	8		.556			13	–	15		.464
Utah State	10	–	8		.556			12	–	16		.429
Fresno State	9	–	9		.500			15	–	14		.517
UC Irvine	8	–	10		.444			12	–	17		.414
Pacific	3	–	15		.167			7	–	21		.250
San Jose State	1	–	17		.056			5	–	23		.179
† 1989 Big West tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 1989 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 8–11 at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California. This was the first tournament after the Big West Conference renamed itself from the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) in July 1988.

Top-seeded UNLV defeated New Mexico State in the final, 68–62, and captured their fifth PCAA/Big West championship. This was the Runnin' Rebels' fifth title in seven seasons.

The Rebels, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1989 NCAA tournament, where they would advance to the Elite Eight.

Format

There were no changes to the tournament format from 1988. All ten conference members participated in the field, with teams seeded in the bracket based on regular season conference records.

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

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 8					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 9					Semifinals Friday, March 10					Championship Saturday, March 11
						1	#18 UNLV	102
						8	UC Irvine	82
	9	Pacific	62
	8	UC Irvine	68
											1	#18 UNLV	99
											5	Cal State Fullerton	83
						5	Cal State Fullerton	87
						4	Utah State	86
																1	#18 UNLV	68
																2	New Mexico State	62
						3	UC Santa Barbara	87
						6	Long Beach State	86
											3	UC Santa Barbara	63
											2	New Mexico State	67
	7	Fresno State	64
	10	San José State	60
						7	Fresno State	59
						2	New Mexico State	60