2009 Western Athletic Conference Tournament
Printable & Viewable Bracket Link: 2009 Western Athletic Conference Mens Basketball Tournament Bracket
Participants/Overview: The 2009 Western Athletic Conference will be hosted at the Lawlor Events Center, home of the #2 seeded Nevada Wolf Pack. 2 of the last 3 WAC tournaments have been won by the host team which bodes well for Nevada who coming into the tournament is starting to peak playing its best basketball of the season. Nevada has won 6 of its last 7 games to earn the second best conference record. Nevada finished with a 11-5 conference record, but surprisingly won more conference road games than home contests.
The Wolf Pack's stiffest competition will come from Stu Morril's Utah State club. The Aggies posted a 14-2 conference record and a 27-4 overall mark including a perfect 17-0 at home. They were rewarded with the regular season conference title and #1 seed in the tournament. At this point the WAC looks like a one bid league but depending on how the rest of the major conference tournaments play out Utah State will likely have a 50% shot at an at large bid if they were to lose to Nevada in the finals in basically a true road game.
Although the WAC tournament is normally pretty unpredictable, (#4 seed Boise State beat #3 New Mexico State on their home gym last year) Nevada and Utah State look to be on a collision course in the finals setting up one hell of a battle for the 2009 automatic tournament birth.
Venue: Lawlor Events Center
Sponsor: Verizon Wireless
Dates: March 10th-March 14th
TV: The 2 early quarterfinal games will be broadcast on ESPNU. The late semifinal game will be broadcast on ESPN2. The championship game can be seen on ESPN2 at 9:00 eastern time on March 14th. All other games can be watched online at the conference's website. Check out www.wac.tv for more information.
WAC Tournament Schedule
March 10th - Opening Round
March 12th - Quarterfinals
March 13th - Semifinals
March 14th - Championship
Click
here for the updated Western Athletic Conference tournament bracket
Last Years Winner
Boise State Broncos. In one of the greatest conference tournament
games of all time, Boise State defeated New Mexico State 107-102
in triple overtime to secure the WAC's automatic birth into the
2008 NCAA Basketball tournament. Not only was it a phenomenal back
and forth contest that had all the drama, scoring, and overtimes,
it was a very impressive performance by Boise State to even hang
around with the Aggies. Having to play against a much better team
on their home floor in the championship was quite a daunting feat
but the Broncos found a way to pull it out. In the semi's #4 seed
Boise State knocked off the top seed in the conference Utah State
while the number 3 seeded New Mexico State beat #2 seed Nevada.
Previous Years WAC Tournament Bracket
2008 Champion: Boise State
2007
Champion: New Mexico State
2006
Champion: Nevada
2005
Champion: UTEP
Off Site Links
Western Athletic Conference Official
Website
Lawlor Events Center Venue
Website
For more conference tourney coverage check out the 2009 march madness section of Maddux Sports. Bringing you brackets, march madness picks, and daily articles, we know you will enjoy the tournament following along aside our websites coverage.
