The 2008 Pacific Life Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament was held between March 12 and March 15, 2008, 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 ...

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, ...

. All ten schools in the conference qualified for the tournament. Number one seed UCLA defeated number two seed Stanford 67–64 to win the conference tournament. It was the first time since

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

that the top two seeded teams were in the final game. UCLA was the regular season champion. A record crowd of 18,997 (Staples Center capacity for Basketball) was on hand to watch UCLA defeat USC 57–54 in the semi-finals. On January 3, 2010, USC Athletic Director

Mike Garrett Michael Lockett Garrett (born April 12, 1944) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) with the Kansas City Chiefs and S ...

announced that the school was to vacate the 2007–08 season's victories for NCAA violations by the basketball team.

Seeds

All Pacific-10 schools played in the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records.

Bracket

* Denotes a vacated win, as the result of a January 3, 2010 announcement that USC has vacated all wins during the 2007–2008 season, including its Pac-10 Conference tournament victory over Arizona State (therefore, USC finished the season with a record of 0–12).

All-Tournament Team

O. J. Mayo Ovinton J'Anthony "O.J." Mayo (born November 5, 1987) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Zamalek SC of the Egyptian Basketball Super League and Egyptian Basketball Federation. He played a single season of colleg ...

, USC * Kyle Weaver, Washington State *

Brook Lopez Brook Robert Lopez (born April 1, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Splash Mountain", he was named an NBA All-Star as a member of the Brooklyn Net ...

, Stanford *

Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook III (born November 12, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, Westbrook made his NBA debut in 2008 and became a star as a member o ...

, UCLA *

Kevin Love Kevin Wesley Love (born September 7, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a five-time All-Star and a two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team, winning an N ...

, UCLA

Most Outstanding Player

Collison drives to the basket in 2008 Pac-10 Championship game

Darren Collison Darren Michael Collison (born August 23, 1987) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Collison played four seasons of college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. He earned All-Pa ...

, UCLA

Aftermath & notes

* Arch rivals UCLA and USC met for the first time in 225 games in post-season play. The teams had split in the regular season, with the Trojans winning at

Pauley Pavilion Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located in the Westwood Village district of Los Angeles, California, on the campus of UCLA. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams. Th ...

and the Bruins winning at

Galen Center The Galen Center is a multipurpose indoor arena and athletic facility owned and operated by the University of Southern California. Located at the southeast corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street in the Exposition Park area of Los Ang ...

. In their third matchup of the season, a capacity crowd of 18,997 at the Staples Center saw UCLA beat USC 57–54 in the tournament semi-finals.No. 3 UCLA Advances to Pac-10 Championship Game With 57–54 Win
. UCLA Athletic Department, March 14, 2008 Both teams had highly regarded freshmen:

and

. * This was the fourth match up between any arch-rival pairs in Pac-10 history, with only the two Oregon schools yet to meet. * Arizona set a record for most points in a half (1st) for any Pac-10/12 Tournament game with 59 (vs. OSU (21) on Mar. 12, 2008. * Brook Lopez of Stanford had an individual tournament record 60 field goal attempts (25 made in 3 games) which still stands. * Nine Pacific-10 teams were invited to Post season play. UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, USC, Arizona, and Oregon were invited to the

2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2007� ...

. UCLA was the number one seed in the West Regional bracket. Arizona State and California were invited to the

2008 National Invitation Tournament The 2008 National Invitation Tournament (known through sponsorship as the MasterCard NIT) was a single-elimination tournament of 32 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams that did not participate in the 2008 NCAA Divi ...

. Washington was invited to the 2008 College Basketball Invitational.

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
{{2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament