Big Sky Conference Men's Tournament Preview.

Round 1:

#6 Portland State at #3 Montana State

-The Bobcats are on a high after beating their arch rivals on the road in Missoula to secure the higher seed.  Meanwhile, the Vikings almost fell out of the tournament, but got in based upon a two game sweep of Idaho State and Weber State at home.  Portland State has some other things going for them, like being the only team in the Big Sky with a victory over a ranked team.  If the Vikings can hold the Bobcats scoreless for five minutes, just as they did to Weber State last Sunday, they have a good chance of advancing past Bozeman.

BTW--Portland State has not finished their regular season.  They are the last Big sky team to take on the Seattle Redhawks.

#5 Northern Arizona at #4 Montana

The Lumberjacks also have to be feeling a little sigh of relief just to get into the tournament as well.  They also had to fight off  losing streak just as Idaho State and Eastern Washington appeared to have turned their seasons around.  Montana has played well the season, at times, but have fallen victim to their own inconsistency.  Montana has enough impressive wins for an NIT bid, but also has some cheap losses as well.  The Grizzlies need to count on taking care of business in the conference tournament to win a post-season bid.

Waiting in the wings.

#2 Northern Colorado has the most impressive resume of all the Big Sky teams.  They have a 3-1 record against the Mountain West Conference, and a near miss against Oklahoma.  But they have four losses in Conference play.  But three of those losses are games that they should have won.  Losses are to Montana State in Bozeman, Montana at home and at Portland State.  But they should have enough to impress the NIT comittee should they not win the tournament.  In Ogden, they will get the higher seeded of the remaining teams.

#1 Weber State has been in this position before.  But they will need to take care of business at home to get to the post season this year.  Their most impressive non-conference win was against Utah, who has been hovering around .500 all season.  Getting off to a 1-5 start did not help their chances either.  An early exit, like last year, will likely be the end of the season this year.   They get the lower seeded of the first round survivors.

My all-conference team.

First Team
PG--Damien Lillard-Weber State
SG--Will Figures-Northern Colorado
SF--Bobby Howard-Montana State
PF--Jamie Jones-Portland State
C--Steve Panos-Weber State

Second Team
PG--Anthony Johnson-Montana
SG--Cameron Jones-Northern Arizona
SF--Franklin Session-Weber State
PF--Shane Johannsen-Northern Arizona
C--Brian Qvale, Montana

MVP--Lillard
Newcomer, Jr College--Session
Newcomer, Freshman--Branden Johnson, Montana State
6th Man--Nick Hansen, Weber State
Coach--Tad Boyle, Northern Colorado