Big West changes tournament format

The Big West Conference announced Wednesday a format change for its

men’s and women’s postseason basketball tournaments that should be

beneficial to UC Irvine’s men’s team.

The change, which will begin with the 2003-04 season, will have

the top two teams in the league receive an automatic pass into the

semifinals. The third- and fourth-place teams will receive a

first-round bye.

If the format had been in place last season, the Anteaters, who

finished second, would have automatically been placed in the

semifinals and only would have had to win two games to advance to the

NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.

“This new format is designed to reward regular season performance

and create even greater incentives as teams compete for positioning

in the final regular season standings,” Big West Commissioner Dennis

Farrell said in a released statement.

The format is a replica of the one adapted by the West Coast

Conference prior to last season.

Eight men’s and eight women’s teams will advance to the tournament

at the Anaheim Convention Center, March 10-13.

The first-round games will include only teams seeded Nos. 5 to 8.

Winners of those two games will advance to play the No. 3 and No.

4 seeds in the quarterfinals, with the two winners advancing to take

on No. 1 and No. 2 in the semifinals.

In each round, the highest seeded team will play the lowest seeded

team remaining.