The 2021 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the GLIAC of the 2020–21 NCAA Division II men's basketball season which took place March 2–5, 2021. The Semi-Finals and Finals were played in John Friend Court in Hammond, Indiana, with the first two rounds being held at the home stadium of the team that had the better record of their respective matchup. For example, the matchup between #3 Michigan Tech and #6 Purdue Northwest would be hosted by Michigan Tech.
Ashland defeated Michigan Tech 85–77 in the championship game to win the college's first GLIAC tournament title. As a result of the win, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA DII tournament.
Seeds Ten of the GLIAC members and affiliate members participated in the GLIAC Tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. The top 6 teams received a first round bye. Tiebreakers occurred if two teams received the same amount of points for the tournament.
SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreak 11Wayne State12–52Grand Valley St11-63Michigan Tech12-64Ferris State8-85Ashland11-76Purdue Northwest8-87Parkside9-108Lake Superior State8-109Northwood6-1210Saginaw Valley State7–12
Schedule SessionGameTime*Matchup#Score First round – Tuesday, March 211 8:00 PMNo. 8 Parkside vs. No. 9 Saginaw Valley State72-772N/ANo. 7 Lake Superior State vs. No. 10 Northwood Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 42312:00 PMNo. 1 Wayne State vs. No. 8 Saginaw Valley State74-7643:15 PMNo. 4 Ferris State vs. No. 5 Ashland85-100356:30 PMNo. 2 Grand Valley State vs. No. 7 Lake Superior State72-5769:45 pmNo. 3 Michigan Tech vs. No. 6 Purdue Northwest74-63 Semifinals – Friday, March 5474:00 pmNo. 5 Ashland vs. No. 8 Saginaw Valley State83-5787:30 pmNo. 2 Grand Valley State vs. No. 3 Michigan Tech59-65 Championship – Sunday, March 7592:30 pmNo. 3 Michigan Tech vs. No. 5 Ashland77-85 *Game times in Eastern Time. #Rankings denote tournament seeding.
Bracket
Game summaries
First round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
References