1990 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament

1990 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1989–90
Teams	10
Site	Long Beach Arena Long Beach, CA
Champions	UNLV (6th title)
Winning coach	Jerry Tarkanian (6th title)
MVP	Larry Johnson (UNLV)
Big West Conference men's basketball tournaments

1989–90 Big West men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 24 New Mexico State	16	–	2		.889			26	–	5		.839
No. 2 UNLV†	16	–	2		.889			35	–	5		.875
UC Santa Barbara	13	–	5		.722			21	–	9		.700
Long Beach State	12	–	6		.667			23	–	9		.719
Utah State	8	–	10		.444			14	–	16		.467
Pacific	7	–	11		.389			15	–	14		.517
Cal State Fullerton	6	–	12		.333			13	–	16		.448
San Jose State	5	–	13		.278			8	–	20		.286
Fresno State	4	–	14		.222			10	–	19		.345
UC Irvine	3	–	15		.167			5	–	23		.179
† 1990 Big West tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 1990 Big West Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 7–10 at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California.

Defending champions UNLV defeated fourth-seeded Long Beach State in the final, 92–72, and captured their sixth PCAA/Big West championship. This was the Runnin' Rebels' sixth title in eight seasons.

UNLV, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1990 NCAA tournament, which they would go on to win. Fellow Big West members New Mexico State and UC Santa Barbara received at-large bids.

Format

There were no changes to the tournament format from 1989. All ten conference members participated in the field, with teams seeded in the bracket based on regular season conference records.

The top six seeds were given a bye into the quarterfinal round while the four lowest-seeded teams were placed into an initial preliminary round.

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 7					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 8					Semifinals Friday, March 9					Championship Saturday, March 10
						1	#23 New Mexico State	72
						9	Fresno State	66
	9	Fresno State	71
	8	San José State	56
											1	#23 New Mexico State	85
											4	Long Beach State	90
						5	Utah State	68
						4	Long Beach State	86
																4	Long Beach State	74
																2	#3 UNLV	92
						3	UC Santa Barbara	62
						6	Pacific	65
											6	Pacific	72
											2	#3 UNLV	99
	7	Cal State Fullerton	82
	10	UC Irvine	63
						2	#3 UNLV	115
						7	Cal State Fullerton	93