1981 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Tournament

1981 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1980–81
Teams	6
First round site	Campus Sites Campus Arenas
Finals site	Beaumont Civic Center Beaumont, TX
Champions	Lamar (1st title)
Winning coach	Pat Foster (1st title)
MVP	Mike Olliver (Lamar)
Southland Conference Men's Basketball Tournaments   1982»

The 1981 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was held March 3–5 at a combination of on-campus gymnasiums and the Beaumont Civic Center in Beaumont, Texas.^[1] This was the first edition of the tournament.

Lamar defeated Louisiana Tech in the championship game, 83–69, to win their first Southland men's basketball tournament.

The Cardinals, in turn, received a bid to the 1981 NCAA Tournament. They were the only Southland member invited to the tournament.

Format

All six of the conference's members participated in the tournament field. They were seeded based on regular season conference records, with the top two teams earning byes into the semifinal round. The other four teams entered into the preliminary first round. A third-place game was held on the last day.

First Round games were played at the home court of the higher-seeded team. All remaining games were played at the Beaumont Civic Center in Beaumont, Texas, the home court of regular season champion Lamar.

Bracket

	First Round Tuesday, March 3					Semifinals Wednesday, March 4					Championship Thursday, March 5
						1	Lamar	83
						4	SW Louisiana	68
	5	Arkansas State	73
	4	SW Louisiana	91
											1	Lamar	83
											2	Louisiana Tech	69
	3	Texas–Arlington	74
	6	McNeese State	79
						6	McNeese State	52		Third Place Thursday, March 5
						2	Louisiana Tech	64
											4	SW Louisiana	79
											6	McNeese State	73

References

1. "1980-81 Southland Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2016.