1997 MAAC men's basketball tournament

The 1997 MAAC men's basketball tournament was held March 1–3 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York.

1997 MAAC men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1996–97
Teams	8
First round site	Campus Sites Campus Arenas
Finals site	Marine Midland Arena Buffalo, New York
Champions	Fairfield (3rd title)
Winning coach	Paul Cormier (1st title)
MVP	Greg Francis (Fairfield)
MAAC men's basketball tournaments

1996–97 MAAC men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Iona	11	–	3		.786			22	–	8		.733
Canisius	10	–	4		.714			17	–	12		.586
Loyola (MD)	10	–	4		.714			13	–	14		.481
Saint Peter's	9	–	5		.643			13	–	15		.464
Manhattan	5	–	9		.357			9	–	18		.333
Niagara	5	–	9		.357			11	–	17		.393
Siena	4	–	10		.286			9	–	18		.333
Fairfield †	2	–	12		.143			11	–	19		.367
† 1997 MAAC tournament winner

Eighth-seeded Fairfield made a cinderella run to win the tournament by defeating Canisius in the championship game, 78–72, to win their third MAAC men's basketball tournament.

The Stags received the conference's automatic bid to the 1997 NCAA tournament as the No. 16 seed in the East region.

Format

All eight of the conference's members participated in the tournament field. They were seeded based on regular season conference records.

All three rounds were played at a neutral site at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals Saturday, March 1					Semifinals Sunday, March 2					Championship Monday, March 3
	1	Iona	71
	8	Fairfield	80
						8	Fairfield	73
						4	St. Peter's	61
	4	Saint Peter's	51
	5	Manhattan	48
											8	Fairfield	78
											2	Canisius	72
	3	Loyola (MD)	43
	6	Niagara	53
						6	Niagara	59
						2	Canisius	78
	2	Canisius	84
	7	Siena	44