PDF of Results
2010 America First Credit Union
Big Sky Championship
Saturday, March 6
(At No. 3 and No. 4 Seed)
Quarterfinals
Tuesday, March 9
Semifinals (Televised by Altitude, Altitude 2)
At Dee Events Center, Ogden, Utah
No. 2 Northern Colorado vs. Highest Remaining Seed 4:35 p.m.
No. 1 Weber State vs. Lowest Remaining Seed 7:05 p.m.
Wednesday, March 10
Championship (Televised by ESPN2)
Semifinal Winners 7:05 p.m. MST
Both semifinal games will appear on Big Sky TV.
Times Mountain Standard
This Week’s Highlights
Big Sky Conference Men’s Basketball Championship week has arrived. The tournament begins on Saturday with a pair of quarterfinal games in the Treasure State. Third-seeded Montana State, which made a run to the championship game in 2009, welcomes sixth-seeded Portland State to Worthington Arena….Over in Missoula, the fourth-seeded Montana Grizzlies play host to No. 5 Northern Arizona…Montana State beat Portland State in both regular-season meetings. Montana also swept its quarterfinal opponent during the regular season…Top-seeded Weber State and second-seeded Northern Colorado have byes to the semifinal. Northern Colorado will play in the first semifinal on Tuesday, March 9 at the Dee Events Center in Ogden. Weber State will play in the second semifinal…Saturday’s quarterfinal games can be seen for free on Big Sky TV.
Around the Big Sky
BEARS GET THE BYE: Northern Colorado secured the No. 2 seed and the bye to the semifinals of the Big Sky Championship with its 78-66 victory over Sacramento State on Friday night. Northern Colorado finished the regular season 12-4 in conference and 24-6 overall. The 24 victories ties the school record, previously set during the 1989-89 season. The 24 regular-season victories are the most by a Big Sky team since Weber State won 24 in 2002-03. The conference record for regular-season victories is 25, set by Weber State in 1968-69 and tied by Montana in 1991-92. Northern Colorado won 12 games on road or neutral-sites for the first time since 1965. Northern Colorado won five of its eight road conference games. The Bears are in their fourth season in the Big Sky. Over its first three seasons in the league, Northern Colorado won a total of 16 conference games, five conference road games, and 31 overall games. The Bears will be making their second tournament appearance, and first in the semifinals. Tad Boyle’s Bears fell to Idaho State 67-60 in a quarterfinal game in 2008.
VIKINGS EARN A CHANCE AT THREE-PEAT: Two-time defending Big Sky tournament champion became the sixth and final team to clinch a bid to the postseason with a 98-63 win over Idaho State on Friday. The Vikings added some icing with an 84-79 upset of regular-season champion Weber State on Sunday. Portland State has now qualified for the postseason six consecutive seasons. The Vikings are on a quest to become the first team to win three straight Big Sky tourney titles since Weber State in 1979-81. Portland State will open the tournament at No. 3 seed Montana State. It’s a rematch of last year’s championship game, won by Portland State 79-77 at the Dee Events Center in Ogden. If Portland State upsets Montana State, the Vikings will face Weber State in a semifinal on Tuesday. Portland State’s six straight tournament appearances have been achieved under three head coaches. Heath Schroyer, now the head coach at Wyoming, led PSU to the No. 1 seed in 2005. Ken Bone, now at Washington State, guided the Vikings to four straight appearances. First-year coach Tyler Gevin guided PSU to the tourney this season.
RPI REPORT: The Big Sky Conference remained 18th among Division I conferences in this week’s RPI. The Big Sky is just behind the Southern Conference and just ahead of the Big West Conference. Weber State dropped eight spots to No. 80 following a win over Eastern Washington and a road loss to Portland State. Northern Colorado improved three spots to 110. Montana dropped 18 spots to 132. Montana State improved 22 spots to 186. Weber State’s RPI of 80 is better than the top team from nine other conferences that figure to get just one team into the NCAA Tournament. Weber State is also just behind Oakland of the Summit (61), Murray State of the Ohio Valley (69), Sam Houston State (74) of the Southland and Wofford (78) of the Southern.
HREE FOR THE CATS: Montana State sewed up the No. 3 seed to the tournament with a 73-67 win over Montana in Missoula on Saturday. Montana State completed a season-sweep of the Grizzlies for the first time since the 2004-05 season. Montana State has now beaten Montana three times for the first time in since 1999. Montana State upset Montana in a first-round quarterfinal game in Missoula last March. The Bobcats’ last three-game winning streak over the Grizzlies started at the 1998 Big Sky tournament when the Bobcats beat Montana 68-60 in Flagstaff. Montana State swept the Grizzlies during the 1998-99 season, in Don Holst’s first season as head coach.
HOT HANSEN: Weber State senior Nick Hansen continued his hot shooting from 3-point range over the weekend, hitting 6-of-9 in a loss to Portland State and 3-of-4 in a win over Eastern Washington. In his last five games, Hansen has converted 24-of-34 3-point shots (70.6 percent), including a 7-of-11 effort against Idaho State and a 6-of-6 performance against Idaho State. In his first 23 games this season, haste was 47-of-118 (31.8 percent) from long distance.
TOURNAMENT TV: The Big Sky Conference Championship Semifinals and Championship will be televised. The first semifinal game featuring Northern Colorado will air live on Altitude starting at 4:30 p.m. The second game featuring Weber State will air live on Altitude2. Bill Riley will handle the play-by-play duties with Jay McMillan on color commentary. Jeff Friedman will serve as the color commentator. Wednesday’s championship game will air live on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. Mountain. Dave Fleming will serve as the play-by-play announcer with Bob Valvano on color commentary. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be on Big Sky TV.
Tip-ins: Portland State’s Jamie Jones is third in the nation in field-goal percentage…Northern Arizona’s Cameron Jones needs 18 points to reach 1,000 for his career…UM’s Anthony Johnson scored 31 points in the loss to Montana State…MSU’s Bobby Howard scored 17 points with 12 rebounds in the win over UM…ISU’s Austin Kilpatrick dished out nine assists in his final career game…Montana ranks 10th in the field in field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage...Home teams won 47 of the 72 conference games this season, for a winning percentage of 65.2 percent. Weber State was the only team to go 8-0 at home. Idaho State was the only team not to win a conference road game....EWU coach Kirk Earlywine was given a one-year contract extension this week.