The 2016 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament, a part of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, took place March 9–12 at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. The winner of the tournament will receive the Southland Conference's automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA tournament.
Two programs in their third year of the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I, Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word, were ineligible for the tournament. In addition, Central Arkansas was ineligible for the tournament for failure to meet enhanced NCAA Academic Performance Rating (APR) requirements.
Seeds The top 8 teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. The top 2 seeds earned double byes into the Semifinals. The #3 and #4 seeds received a single buy to the Quarterfinals.
Teams were seeded by record within the division and conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreaker1Stephen F. Austin18–0 2Texas A&M–CC 15–3 3Sam Houston State 12–6 4Houston Baptist 10–8 5Southeastern Louisiana 9–9 6McNeese State 7–11 7 Nicholls State6–121–1 vs. Southeastern Louisiana8 New Orleans6–120–2 vs. Southeastern Louisiana
Schedule SessionGameTime*Matchup#ScoreTelevision First round – Wednesday, March 911 5:00 pm#5 Southeastern Louisiana vs. #8 New Orleans 84–74ESPN327:30 pm#6 McNeese State vs. #7 Nicholls State90–942OT Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 10235:00pm#4 Houston Baptist vs. #5 Southeastern Louisiana73–68ESPN347:30pm#3 Sam Houston State vs. #7 Nicholls State60–59 Semifinals – Friday, March 11355:00 pm#1 Stephen F. Austin vs. #4 Houston Baptist104–68ESPN367:30pm#2 Texas A&M–CC vs. #3 Sam Houston State79–76 Championship – Saturday, March 12478:30pm#1 Stephen F. Austin vs. #2 Texas A&M–CC82–60ESPN2 *Game times in CST. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.
Bracket
* – denotes overtime period
Game summaries
First round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
Awards and honors Source: Tournament MVP: Thomas Walkup
All-Tournament Team:
Hameed Ali (Texas A&M–CC) Demetrious Floyd (Stephen F. Austin) Thomas Walkup (Stephen F. Austin) (MVP) Clide Geffrard (Stephen F. Austin) Jordan Capps (Southeastern Louisiana)
See also 2016 Southland Conference women's basketball tournament
References
External links 2016 Southland Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament Page