The 2002 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament was played March 7–9 at
Staples Center
Crypto.com Arena (originally and colloquially known as Staples Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in downtown Los Angeles. Opened on October 17, 1999, as Staples Center, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along F ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. The event was revived after eleven seasons without, and
USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
made its first appearance in the final. The champion of the
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 concen ...
was
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
, which received the
Pac-10's automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament. The Most Outstanding Player was
Luke Walton
Luke Theodore Walton (born March 28, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the lead assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 10 seasons in the NBA as a ...
of Arizona, and a capacity crowd of 18,997 attended the championship game on
Seeds
The top eight teams participated, with all in the Thursday Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. The previous four editions included all ten teams, with the final on Sunday.
Bracket
Tournament Notes
* Arch-rivals Arizona and ASU met for the first time in a Pac-10 Tournament (the 2nd meeting ever by any arch-rival universities).
* Only one lower seeded team beat a higher seeded team the whole tournament (#4 USC over #1 Oregon in the second round).
* In this tournament Oregon set the team single game record for the most blocked shots with 9 (vs. Washington).
* This was the first Pac-10 Basketball Tournament held in the 21st century.
All tournament team
*
Luke Walton
Luke Theodore Walton (born March 28, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the lead assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 10 seasons in the NBA as a ...
, Arizona – Tournament MVP
*
Sam Clancy, USC
*
Brandon Granville, USC
*
Jason Gardner, Arizona
*
Salim Stoudamire
Charles Salim Stoudamire (born October 11, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player.
Stoudamire was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the second round (31st overall pick) of the 2005 NBA draft.
Early life and college
Stoudamir ...
, Arizona
References
{{2002 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox
2001–02 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball season
Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament