The 2005

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

men's basketball tournament was played at

Pepsi Center Ball Arena (formerly known as Pepsi Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. It is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by two nearby exits off Interstate 25. A light r ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

from March 9–12, 2005. Second-seeded

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

upset regular season league champion

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

60–56 in the championship game to win the Mountain West Conference tournament and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was the first time in the history of the tournament that the league's top two seeds advanced to the title tilt. This marked the final conference tournament played under the league's original 8-team format. TCU joined the Mountain West in the 2005–06 athletic year. From that point on, the tournament adopted a first round play-in game, pitting the 8th and 9th place teams against each other for the right to play the regular season MWC champion in the tournament quarterfinals.

Bracket

{{2005 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournament

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournament The Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournament is held annually to determine the men's basketball champion from the Mountain West Conference. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Basketball tournament, although th ...

Basketball competitions in Denver College sports tournaments in Colorado