Big Sky Conference (conference rank: 26th)
March 7, 9-11
All games at Reno.
kPOY: Jacob Wiley, Eastern Washington.
Regular season champ: North Dakota (preseason #146 / 1st Big Sky, current #184)
Overachiever: Eastern Washington (preseason #250, current #186)
Underachiever: Idaho State (preseason #238, current #329)
Weber State, North Dakota, and Eastern Washington are ranked 183, 184, and 186, respectively, at press time. And fifth-seeded Montana is ranked 194th. So practically speaking, there are four identical teams in Reno which makes predicting an outcome difficult. North Dakota won the NIT auto-bid by finishing 14-4 in league play, but Eastern Washington led the league in efficiency margin during conference play.
It appears all of these teams are auditioning for the opportunity to pull off the first 16 vs 1 upset in NCAA tournament. The best non-conference win by a Big Sky team this season was Portland State’s December win at #107 San Francisco. There was only one other Tier B win by league members and it was barely so, a Weber State win at #146 Utah State.
Northern Colorado is postseason-ineligible and as such, was not invited to compete in Reno. ‘UNC banned from postseason’ should have been a headline in all the papers. Alas, a missed opportunity for clickbait.
Qtrs Semis Final Champ 2 Eastern Washington 100 75.7 40.8 21.7 1 North Dakota 100 68.2 37.7 20.4 3 Weber St. 100 66.2 37.4 20.2 5 Montana 100 58.7 31.2 16.3 4 Idaho 100 41.3 18.3 8.0 6 Montana St. 80.3 31.1 14.2 6.1 8 Portland St. 73.0 27.0 11.6 4.8 7 Sacramento St. 64.9 18.7 6.0 1.9 9 Northern Arizona 27.0 4.8 1.1 0.2 10 Idaho St. 35.1 5.7 1.1 0.2 11 Southern Utah 19.7 2.6 0.5 0.08