The 2001

Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament The Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament has been played every year since the formation of the Sun Belt Conference prior to the 1976–77 American collegiate academic year. The winner of the tournament is guaranteed an automatic berth i ...

was held March 2–6 at the

Mitchell Center The Mitchell Center is a 10,041-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. It was completed in 1998 and is the home to the University of South Alabama Jaguars basketball teams. The Center is na ...

at the

University of South Alabama The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May 1963 and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alaba ...

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

. Top-seeded

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

defeated hosts

South Alabama South Alabama and Lower Alabama are overlapping, poorly-defined terms for various parts of southern Alabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of the Black Belt. In that view ...

in the championship game, 64–54, to win their third Sun Belt men's basketball tournament. The Hilltoppers, in turn, received an automatic bid to the

2001 NCAA tournament The 2001 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball for the 2000–01 NCAA Division I men's basketball season ...

. No other Sun Belt members earned bids to the tournament.

Format

The Sun Belt added three new teams prior to the 2000–01 season:

Middle Tennessee State Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public research university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight undergraduate colleges as well as a college of graduate studies, to ...

(Ohio Valley),

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...

(Big West), and

North Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...

(Big West). The conference's total membership increased to twelve. The tournament field expanded once again, increasing from nine to eleven teams (NMSU did not compete). With all eleven participating Sun Belt members seeded based on regular season conference records, the five highest-seeded teams were awarded byes into the quarterfinal round while the six lowest-seeded teams entered the bracket in the preliminary first round.

Bracket

References

{{2001 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament 2000–01 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball season

Format

Bracket

See also

References