1988 West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

{{Short description|Basketball tournament held in March 1988}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox NCAA Basketball Conference tournament|Year=1988

|Conference=West Coast Athletic Conference

|Division=I

|Gender=Men's

|Image=

|ImageSize=200px

|Caption=

|Teams=8

|Arena=Toso Pavilion

|City=Santa Clara, CA

|Champions=Loyola Marymount

|TitleCount=1st

|Coach=Paul Westhead

|CoachCount=1st

|MVP=Hank Gathers

|MVPTeam=Loyola Marymount}}

{{1987–88 West Coast Conference men's basketball standings}}

The 1988 West Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 5–7 at the Toso Pavilion (now Leavey Center) on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.{{cite web|title=1987-88 West Coast Conference Season Summary|work=sports-reference.com|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/conferences/wcac/1988.html|accessdate=February 19, 2018}} This was the second edition of the tournament; it included all eight teams and all seven games were held at the same site.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TqgpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jO8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6388%2C2827060 |work=Spokesman-Review |location=(Spokane, Washington) |last=Blanchette |first=John |title=Zags draw Waves in opener |date=March 5, 1988 |page=D7}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=d_JVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0uEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6993%2C1270645 |work=Eugene Register-Guard |location=(Oregon) |agency=Associated Press |title=Loyola Marymount nearly trips over lowly Pilots |date=March 6, 1988 |page=6B}}

Regular season champion Loyola Marymount defeated tournament host and #3 seed {{cbb link|1987|sex=men|team=Santa Clara Broncos|title=Santa Clara}} {{nowrap|104–96}} in the final to win their first WCAC (now WCC) tournament {{nowrap|championship.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=efJVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0uEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6935%2C1778494|work=Eugene Register-Guard|location=Oregon|agency=Associated Press|title=Loyola claims WCAC crown|date=March 8, 1988|page=2D}}}}

The Lions earned the automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament and were seeded tenth in the West regional. Sent to Salt Lake City, they outscored Wyoming 119–115, but were stopped {{nowrap|123–97}} by second-seeded North Carolina.