The 2017 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament, was the postseason men's basketball tournament that completed 2016–17 season in the Southland Conference. The tournament was held at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas from March 8–11, 2017. The winner of the tournament, New Orleans, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a 68–65 OT win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Two programs in their final year of the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I, Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word, were ineligible for the tournament.
Seeds The top 8 teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. The top two seeds earned double byes into the semifinals in the merit-based format. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds received single byes to the quarterfinals.
Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreaker 1Tiebreaker 21 New Orleans13–5 2 Texas A&M–CC12–62–0 vs. Incarnate Word 3 Stephen F. Austin12–61–1 vs. Incarnate Word2–0 vs. Texas A&M-CC4 Houston Baptist12–61–1 vs. Incarnate Word 1–1 vs. Texas A&M-CC5 Sam Houston State10–8 1–0 vs. New Orleans6 Lamar10–80–1 vs. New Orleans7 9–9 8Central Arkansas7–114–3 vs. UIW/Nicholls State/Northwestern State/ACU1–1 vs. Northwestern StateN/ANicholls State7–114–3 vs. UIW/Central Arkansas/Northwestern State/ACU0–2 vs. Northwestern StateN/ANorthwestern State7–113–3 vs. UIW/Central Arkansas/Nicholls State/ACU
Schedule SessionGameTime*Matchup#ScoreTelevision First round – Wednesday, March 8, 201711 5:00 pmNo. 5 Sam Houston State vs. No. 8 Central Arkansas77–69ESPN327:30 pmNo. 6 Lamar vs. No. 7 Southeastern Louisiana77–65 Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 9, 2017235:00 pmNo. 4 Houston Baptist vs. No. 5 Sam Houston State59–63ESPN347:30 pmNo. 3 Stephen F. Austin vs. No. 6 Lamar75–59 Semifinals – Friday, March 10, 2017355:00 pmNo. 1 New Orleans vs. No. 5 Sam Houston State75–63ESPN367:30 pmNo. 2 Texas A&M Corpus Christi vs. No. 3 Stephen F. Austin77–69 Championship – Saturday, March 11, 2017478:30 pmNo. 1 New Orleans vs. No. 2 Texas A&M Corpus Christi68–65 OTESPN2 *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:
All-Tournament Team:
See also 2017 Southland Conference women's basketball tournament
References