Pac-10 Tournament

The Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament takes place March 10-13 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. All nine teams will participate in the tournament, and they will be seeded according to their regular-season finish. The No. 8 and 9 seeds play a single play-in game on March 10 at 8 p.m. West Coast time to complete the quarterfinal bracket. The four quarterfinals are set for March 11 with doubleheaders starting at 12 and 6 p.m. The semifinals with be played on March 12 at 6 and 8:30. The first three rounds of the tournament will be televised by Fox Sports Net. CBS airs the championship game on March 13 at 3 p.m. The winner of the event receives the Pac-10's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Tickets are available by calling the Staples Center box office at (213) 742-7340. They can also be purchase through Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000, or online at ticketmaster.com. Although it is one of the oldest Division I conferences in the country, the Pac-10 didn't begin a postseason tournament until 1987. It was discontinued after only four years due to poor attendance and opposition from coaches. It didn't resume until 2002 under a new sponsor - Pacific Life. The tournament has been played every year at the Staples Center, its permanent site, which also is the home for the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers. Southern California is the defending Pac-10 champion, defeating Arizona State, 66-63, in the title game. USC's DeMar DeRozan was the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Arizona leads the way with four Pac-10 tournament titles, one more than UCLA. Oregon has two titles and Stanford, Washintgon and USC one apiece.

Washington claims 2010 Pac-10 title

Washington captured the Pac-10 men's basketball title with a 79-75 victory over top seed California in the championship game on March 13. Cal erased a 61-52 with 11 minutes to go by scoring 14 consecutive points and holding Washington scoreless for more than 5 1/2 minutes. However, the Huskies responded with a 12-2 run of their own. Quincy Pondexter scored 18 points and Isaiah Thomas added 16 for Washington, which also won the Pac-10 tournament championship in 2005. Theo Robertson scored 25 for the Cal, which had a six-game winning streak snapped in a final between the Pac-10's last two regular-season champions The Golden Bears won their first regular-season crown in nearly 50 years in 2010. In earlier tournament games, Washington defeated Oregon State, 82-70, and Stanford, 79-64. Cal advanced with wins over Oregon (90-74) and UCLA (85-72).

Pac-10 Tournament History

The first Pac-10 Tournament was held in 1987, with UCLA taking the first title. It was discontinued after the 1990 season, with the NCAA Tournament bids being decided by regular season standings. The tournament was reinstated in 2002 with the intent to increase exposure for the conference and help with NCAA tournament seeding.