Portland State dropped men's basketball in 1981 IIRC (somewhere in there). It was reinstated in 1995. Budget cuts were at the forefront of the decision... even Oregon and Oregon State were cutting sports right and left in the 80s.
At the time, PSU was coming off the Mouse Davis run-and-shoot era. I believe PSU administration felt their football program actually had more cache for that fact than basketball did with Freeman Williams, so men's basketball was cut instead of football.
That decision mystified a lot of people, especially in California (where football is the routine first cut these days). Mind you, that was right at the time PSU became D-2, and the NCAA Tournament hadn't picked up the "March Madness" moniker yet.
You will here some blame Title IX for the cuts, and even moreso for the cuts down the valley. Title IX explains why some programs haven't been reinstated, but Title IX wasn't even enforced in athletics until the early 90s.
