WAC men's basketball tournament

The Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in men's basketball for the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Even though the WAC was founded in 1962, the annual tournament has only been held since 1984.

WAC men's basketball tournament
Conference basketball championship
Sport	College basketball
Conference	Western Athletic Conference
Number of teams	8
Format	Single-elimination tournament
Current stadium	Orleans Arena
Current location	Paradise, Nevada
Played	1984–present
Last contest	2025
Current champion	Grand Canyon
Most championships	New Mexico State Aggies (10)
Official website	WACSports.com Men's Basketball

The winner of the tournament is guaranteed a spot in the NCAA basketball tournament every year.

Format and host

The event has alternated between being hosted at campus sites and neutral sites throughout its history. From the inaugural event in 1984 until 1992 the regular season champion hosted the tournament, but in 1993 and 1994 the event was held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City which, although located less than five miles from then-conference member Utah's campus, was considered a neutral site. From 1995 through 2009 the event returned to on-campus sites, although the location was awarded through a predetermined bidding process rather than being given to the regular-season champion. Since 2010 the tournament has again been held at a neutral site, namely Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

Starting with the 2023 tournament, the WAC adopted a new seeding system based on advanced team metrics, developed in large part by statistical guru Ken Pomeroy. Tournament entry will still be based on conference record.^[1]

Tournament results

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Tournament MVP	Location
1984	UTEP	62–55	New Mexico	Juden Smith, UTEP	Special Events Center (El Paso, Texas)
1985	San Diego State	87–81	UTEP	Luster Goodwin, UTEP
1986	UTEP	65–64	Wyoming	Eric Leckner, Wyoming	Arena-Auditorium (Laramie, Wyoming)
1987	Wyoming	64–62	New Mexico		The Pit (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
1988	Wyoming	79–75	UTEP		Marriott Center (Provo, Utah)
1989	UTEP	73–60	Colorado State	Tim Hardaway, UTEP	Jon M. Huntsman Center (Salt Lake City, Utah)
1990	UTEP	75–58	Hawaii	Greg Foster, UTEP	Special Events Center (El Paso, Texas)
1991	BYU	51–49	Utah	Shawn Bradley, BYU	Arena-Auditorium (Laramie, Wyoming)
1992	BYU	73–71	UTEP	Eddie Rivera, UTEP	Moby Arena (Fort Collins, Colorado)
1993	New Mexico	76–65	UTEP	Ike Williams, New Mexico	Delta Center (Salt Lake City)
1994	Hawaii	73–66	BYU	Trevor Ruffin, Hawaii
1995	Utah	67–54	Hawaii	Keith Van Horn, Utah	The Pit (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
1996	New Mexico	64–60	Utah	Kenny Thomas, New Mexico
1997	Utah	89–68	TCU	Keith Van Horn, Utah	Thomas & Mack Center (Paradise, Nevada)
1998	UNLV	56–51	New Mexico	Kenny Thomas, New Mexico
1999	Utah	60–45	New Mexico	Alex Jensen, Utah
2000	Fresno State	75–72	Tulsa	Courtney Alexander, Fresno State	Selland Arena (Fresno, California)
2001	Hawaii	78–72	Tulsa	Carl English, Hawaii	Reynolds Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2002	Hawaii	73–59	Tulsa	Predrag Savović, Hawaii
2003	Tulsa	75–64	Nevada	Kevin Johnson, Tulsa
2004	Nevada	66–60	UTEP	Kirk Snyder, Nevada	Save Mart Center (Fresno, California)
2005	UTEP	91–78	Boise State	Filiberto Rivera, UTEP	Lawlor Events Center (Reno, Nevada)
2006	Nevada	70–63	Utah State	Nick Fazekas, Nevada
2007	New Mexico State	72–70	Utah State	Justin Hawkins, New Mexico State	Pan American Center (Las Cruces, New Mexico)
2008	Boise State	107–102 3OT	New Mexico State	Reggie Larry, Boise State
2009	Utah State	72–62	Nevada	Gary Wilkinson, Utah State	Lawlor Events Center (Reno, Nevada)
2010	New Mexico State	69–63	Utah State	Jamhar Young, New Mexico State
2011	Utah State	77–69	Boise State	Brockeith Pane, Utah State	Orleans Arena (Paradise, Nevada)
2012	New Mexico State	82–57	Louisiana Tech	Wendell McKines, New Mexico State
2013	New Mexico State	64–55	Texas–Arlington	Sim Bhullar, New Mexico State
2014	New Mexico State	77–55	Idaho
2015	New Mexico State	80–61	Seattle	Tshilidzi Nephawe, New Mexico State
2016	Cal State Bakersfield	57–54	New Mexico State	Dedrick Basile, Cal State Bakersfield
2017	New Mexico State	70–60	Cal State Bakersfield	Ian Baker, New Mexico State
2018	New Mexico State	72–58	Grand Canyon	Jemerrio Jones, New Mexico State
2019	New Mexico State	89–57	Grand Canyon	Trevelin Queen, New Mexico State
2020	Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic
2021	Grand Canyon	74–56	New Mexico State	Jovan Blacksher, Grand Canyon	Orleans Arena (Paradise, Nevada)
2022	New Mexico State	66–52	Abilene Christian	Teddy Allen, New Mexico State
2023	Grand Canyon	84–66	Southern Utah	Rayshon Harrison, Grand Canyon
2024	Grand Canyon	89–74	UT Arlington	Tyon Grant-Foster, Grand Canyon
2025	Grand Canyon	89–82	Utah Valley	JaKobe Coles, Grand Canyon

Performance by school

School	Championships	Championship Years
New Mexico State	10	2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022
UTEP	5	1984, 1986, 1989, 1990, 2005
Grand Canyon	4	2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
Hawaii	3	1994, 2001, 2002
Utah	3	1995, 1997, 1999
BYU	2	1991, 1992
Nevada	2	2004, 2006
New Mexico	2	1993, 1996
Utah State	2	2009, 2011
Wyoming	2	1987, 1988
Boise State	1	2008
Cal State Bakersfield	1	2016
Fresno State	1	2000
San Diego State	1	1985
Tulsa	1	2003
UNLV	1	1998
UT Arlington	0
Abilene Christian	0
Colorado State	0
Idaho	0
Louisiana Tech	0
Seattle	0
Southern Utah	0
TCU	0
Air Force	0
Rice	0
Stephen F. Austin	0

• Schools highlighted in yellow are current members of the WAC.
• Among current WAC members, California Baptist have competed in at least one WAC tournament, but failed to reach the title game. Utah Valley made it in 2025.
• Tarleton and Utah Tech have yet to play in a WAC tournament. Both started transitions from NCAA Division II to Division I in 2020, and are ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until 2024–25. Current WAC rules allow transitional schools to play in the WAC tournament upon their arrival in the conference.

Broadcasters

Television

Year	Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
1984[2]	NBC	Charlie Jones	Dan Belluomini
1985	Lorimar Sports Network	Larry Zimmer	Irv Brown
1990	TSI Sports	Carl Arky	Irv Brown
1992	ESPN	Craig Bolerjack	Terry Holland
2007[3]	ESPN2	Terry Gannon	Stephen Bardo
2008[4]		Dave Pasch	Michael Holton
2009[5]		Terry Gannon	Stephen Bardo
2010[6]
2011 [7]		Dave Flemming	Sean Farnham
2012 [8]
2013 [9]	ESPNU	Trey Bender	Stephen Howard
2014 [10]		Steve Quis	Jon Crispin
2015			Sean Harrington
2016		Dave Flemming	Malcolm Huckaby
2017		Eric Rothman	Paul Biancardi
2018		Kanoa Leahey	Corey Williams
2019			Adrian Branch
2020		Dave Feldman	Corey Williams
2021		Roxy Bernstein	Adrian Branch
2022		Dave Flemming	Mike O'Donnell
2023	ESPN2	Dave Feldman
2024

Radio

Year	Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
2010[11]	Westwood One	Dave Sims	Kyle Macy
2011
2012 [12]	Dial Global Sports	Kevin Calabro	Tom Brennan

See also

• WAC women's basketball tournament