College basketball tournament
| 1981 Big Eight Conference men's basketball tournament | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Season | 1980–81 |
| Teams | 8 |
| First round site | Campus Sites Campus Arenas |
| Finals site | Kemper Arena Kansas City, MO |
| Champions | Kansas (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Ted Owens (1st title) |
| MVP | Darnell Valentine (Kansas) |
| Big Eight Conference men's basketball tournaments← 19801982 → | |
| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Missouri | 10 | – | 4 | .714 | 22 | – | 10 | .688 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kansas State | 9 | – | 5 | .643 | 24 | – | 9 | .727 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nebraska | 9 | – | 5 | .643 | 15 | – | 12 | .556 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kansas † | 9 | – | 5 | .643 | 24 | – | 8 | .750 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oklahoma State | 8 | – | 6 | .571 | 18 | – | 9 | .667 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colorado | 5 | – | 9 | .357 | 16 | – | 12 | .571 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | 4 | – | 10 | .286 | 9 | – | 18 | .333 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iowa State | 2 | – | 12 | .143 | 9 | – | 18 | .333 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| † 1981 Big Eight tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 1981 Big Eight Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 3–5 at a combination of on-campus gymnasiums and Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
In a rematch of the 1980 final (won by KSU), Kansas upset rivals Kansas State in the championship game, 80–68, to win their first Big Eight men's basketball tournament.
The Jayhawks, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1981 NCAA tournament. They were joined in the tournament by fellow Big Eight members Missouri and Kansas State, who earned at-large bids.
Format
All eight of the conference's members participated in the tournament field. They were seeded based on regular season conference records, with all teams placed and paired in the initial quarterfinal round.
All first-round games were played on the home court of the higher-seeded team. The semifinals and championship game, in turn, were played at a neutral site at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
Bracket
| Quarterfinals Tuesday, March 3 | Semifinals Wednesday, March 4 | Championship Thursday, March 5 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Missouri | 95 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Iowa State | 70 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Missouri | 70 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Kansas | 75 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Oklahoma State | 69 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Kansas | 96 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Kansas | 80 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas State | 68 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Nebraska | 66 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Colorado | 70 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Colorado | 61 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas State | 64 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Oklahoma | 56 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas State | 75 | ||||||||||||
References
- sports-reference.com 1980-81 Big Eight Conference Season Summary
- "1980-81 Big 8 Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
| Big Eight Conference men's basketball tournament | |
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| Big 12 Tournament |
| 1981 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournaments | |
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| Conference | |
| National | |