The 2003 Pacific Life Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament was played between March 13 and March 15, 2003, at
Staples Center
Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it was ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. 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 concentr ...
was
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, which received the
Pac-10's automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament. Upsets defined this tournament, and for the first time, neither Arizona nor UCLA were in the final game. The Most Outstanding Player was
Luke Ridnour
Lukas Robin Ridnour (born February 13, 1981) is an American retired professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
High school career
Ridnour was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and grew up in Blaine, Washington. His fa ...
of Oregon. It was also the first year that longtime sponsor of the tournament, Pacific Life, sponsored the event.
Sponsorship
Pacific Life
Seeds
The top eight Pacific-10 schools play in the tournament. Teams are seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records.
Bracket
Tournament notes
* This tournament opened with the lowest seed, UCLA, stunning top seed and No. 1 ranked Arizona 96–89 in overtime. The second game had another upset with 5 seed Oregon beating 4 seed Arizona State. The upsets continued into the next session with the 7 seed USC beating 2 seed Stanford 79–74. The fourth upset was when USC defeated 3 seed California.
* The championship game featured 5 seed Oregon defeating 7 seed USC 74–66. Oregon, had then become the lowest seed ever to win this tournament (although in later tournaments the 6 seed would win).
* 7 seed USC became the lowest seed ever to make the championship game of the Pac-10 Tournament (still the lowest to date).
* Also of note, this was the first time that neither of the top two seeds were in the final game, and in fact both the 1 and 2 seeds were knocked out in the first round.
* This is the only Pac-10 Tournament in which neither school from Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
participated.
* Arizona set a record for most field goal attempts in one game with 88 vs. UCLA. (33-of-88) (OT). This tournament record still stands.
* Five teams were invited to the 2003 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2003 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. It began on March 18, 2003, and ended with the championsh ...
# Arizona – 17 1 .944 28–4
# Stanford – 14 4 .778 24–9
# California – 13 5 .722 22–9
# Arizona State – 11 7 .611 20–12
# Oregon – 10 8 .556 23–10
Arizona was the #1 seed in the West Regional bracket.
All tournament team
* Luke Ridnour
Lukas Robin Ridnour (born February 13, 1981) is an American retired professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
High school career
Ridnour was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and grew up in Blaine, Washington. His fa ...
, Oregon – Tournament MVP
* James Davis, Oregon
* Luke Jackson, Oregon
* Desmon Farmer
Desmon Kenyatta Farmer (born October 7, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. He played briefly in the National Basketball Association (NBA), for the Seattle SuperSonics and the San Antonio Spurs.
College career
Farmer atten ...
, USC
* Rory O'Neil, USC
* Ray Young, UCLA
References
2007–08 Pac-10 Men's Basketball Media Guide pages 50–60 (PDF copy available a
2007–08 Pac-10 Men's Basketball Media Guide
{{2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox
2002–03 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball season
Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament