The PAC 12 basketball tournament schedule starts on March 7th and concludes with the championship game on March 10th, 2012. The tournament will be held at the Staples Center in LA, California again this season. The 2012 conference tourney will be the first one that includes 12 teams vice the traditional 10 due to conference expansion. The winner of the PAC 12 basketball tournament obtains the conference’s automatic bid to 2012 March Madness.
PAC 12 Basketball Tournament History
The Pacific Coast Conference (predecessor to the Pac-10 and now Pac-12) began play during the 1915-16 season. The conference split into North and South Divisions with the 1922-23 season with the winners of each of the divisions playing a best 2 of 3 game series to determine the conference champion. Starting with the inaugural NCAA Men’s basketball tournament in 1939, the champion of the playoff was awarded an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 1939 PCC champs, Oregon, also won the 1939 NCAA championship.
The final PCC divisional playoff occurred at the conclusion of the 1954-55 season. Through 1985-86, the regular season champion was awarded the automatic bid of the conference. The modern PAC-12 tournament started in 1986 through 1990 being hosted at different school sites. Due to poor attendance, the tournament was dropped from 1990-2001 where the regular season champion was again awarded the automatic NCAA Tournament bid. Starting in 2002 the tournament was again restarted with the permanent host made the LA Staples Center. Due to extremely low attendance during the 2011 conference tournament, the location of future tournaments may be determined based on city bid.
Past PAC 12 Basketball Tournament Champions (Since 1987)
Year Champion Score Runner-Up Arena (City)
1987 UCLA 76–64 Washington Pauley Pavilion (Los Angeles, California)
1988 Arizona 93–67 Oregon State McKale Center (Tucson, Arizona)
1989 Arizona 73–51 Stanford Great Western Forum (Inglewood, California)
1990 Arizona 94–78 UCLA Activity Center (Tempe, Arizona)
2002 Arizona 81–71 USC Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2003 Oregon 74–66 USC Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2004 Stanford 77–66 Washington Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2005 Washington 81–72 Arizona Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2006 UCLA 71–52 California Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2007 Oregon 81–57 USC Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2008 UCLA 67–64 Stanford Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2009 USC 66–63 Arizona State Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2010 Washington 79–75 California Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
2011 Washington 77–75 (OT) Arizona Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
Changes in PAC 12 Basketball Tournament
The biggest change in the 2012 PAC 12 Tournament is the addition of an 11th and 12 team this season with Colorado and Utah. The top four seeds in the conference will receive byes for the opening round of the tournament this season similar to other conference tournament formats with 12 or more teams. All tournament games will be held in the Staples Center again this and next season.
2012 PAC 12 Basketball Tournament Schedule
*Times listed are PST, last updated March 5th, 2012
2012 PAC 12 Tournament Schedule – First Round
Date: March 7, 2012
#9 Oregon State 69, #8 Washington St 64
#5 UCLA 55, #12 USC 40
#7 Stanford 85, #10 Arizona State 65
#6 Colorado vs. #11 Utah, 11:40 p.m. (FSN)
2012 PAC 12 Basketball Tournament Schedule – Quarter Finals
Date: March 8, 2012
#9 Oregon State 86, #1 Washington 84
#4 Arizona 66, #5 UCLA 58
#2 California 77, #7 Stanford 71
#6 Colorado 63, #3 Oregon 62
2012 PAC 12 Basketball Tournament – Semi Finals
Date: March 9, 2012
#9 Oregon State 61 vs. #4 Arizona 72, 9:10 p.m. (FSN)
#2 California 59 vs. #6 Colorado 70, 11:40 p.m. (FSN)
2012 PAC 12 Basketball Tournament – Championship Game
Date: March 10, 2012
#4 Arizona 51 vs #6 Colorado 53
2012 PAC 12 Basketball Tournament Championship 3:00 PM CBS
