1979 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament

1979 Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1978–79
Teams	8
Site	Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, CA
Champions	Pacific (1st title)
Winning coach	Stan Morrison (1st title)
MVP	Ron Cornelius (Pacific)
Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournaments

The 1979 Pacific Coast Athletic Association Men's Basketball Tournament (now known as the Big West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament) was held March 1–3 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.

Top-seeded Pacific topped PCAA-newcomers Utah State in the championship game, 82–73, to win its first PCAA/Big West men's basketball tournament.

The Tigers, in turn, received a bid to the 1979 NCAA Tournament. They were joined in the tournament by Utah State, who earned an at-large bid.

Format

The tournament field expanded once more, this time increasing from seven to eight teams (UC Irvine and Utah State participated in their first PCAA tournament). Previous member San Diego State had departed for the Western Athletic Conference prior to the 1978–79 season.

All eight PCAA members qualified for the event and were seeded based on regular season conference records. All teams began play in the tournament bracket's first round.

Bracket

	First Round Thursday, March 1					Semifinals Friday, March 2					Championship Saturday, March 3
	1	Pacific	57
	8	UC Irvine	52
						1	Pacific	74
						5	Long Beach State	69
	5	Long Beach State	79
	4	Cal State Fullerton	70
											1	Pacific	82
											2	Utah State	73
	3	Fresno State	75
	6	UC Santa Barbara	62
						3	Fresno State	74
						2	Utah State	81
	7	San José State	78
	2	Utah State	85