2018 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament explained

Year:2018
Conference:Big Sky Conference
Division:I
Gender:Men's
Teams:12
Arena:Reno Events Center
City:Reno, Nevada
Champions:Montana
Titlecount:10th
Coach:Travis DeCuire
Coachcount:1st
Mvp:Michael Oguine
Mvpteam:Montana
Attendance:6,765
Television:Pluto TV, ELEVEN, ESPNU (final)

The 2018 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Sky Conference. The tournament was held from March 6–10, 2018 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada. Regular-season champion Montana defeated Eastern Washington in the championship game to win the tournament and receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Seeds

Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. The top four teams received a first round bye.

SeedSchoolRecordTiebreaker 1Tiebreaker 2
1Montana16–2
2Idaho14–4
3Eastern Washington13–51–0 vs Weber State
4Weber State13–50–1 vs Eastern Washington
5Northern Colorado11–7
6Portland State9–92–0 vs Idaho State
7 Idaho State9–90–2 vs Portland State
8North Dakota6–121–1 vs Montana State1–3 vs Eastern Washington/Weber State
9Montana State6–121–1 vs North Dakota0–2 vs Eastern Washington/Weber State
105–13
11Sacramento State4–14
12Northern Arizona2–16

Schedule

SessionGameTimeMatchupScoreTelevisionAttendance
First round – Tuesday, March 6
1112:00 pmNo. 8 North Dakota vs. No. 9 Montana State 76–74Pluto TV 231986
22:30 pmNo. 5 Northern Colorado vs. No. 12 Northern Arizona 82–59
235:30 pmNo. 7 Idaho State vs. No. 10 Southern Utah68–76977
48:00 pmNo. 6 Portland State vs. No. 11 Sacramento State71–67
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 8
3512:00 pmNo. 1 Montana vs. No. 8 North Dakota84–76ELEVEN1,110
62:30 pmNo. 4 Weber State vs. No. 5 Northern Colorado55–80ELEVEN Prime
475:30 pmNo. 2 Idaho vs. No. 10 Southern Utah78–92ELEVEN1,078
88:00 pmNo. 3 Eastern Washington vs. No. 6 Portland State78–72
Semifinals – Friday, March 9
595:30 pmNo. 1 Montana vs No. 5 Northern Colorado91–89 OTELEVEN1,236
108:00 pmNo. 3 Eastern Washington vs No. 10 Southern Utah82–70
Championship game – Saturday, March 10
6115:00 pmNo. 1 Montana vs No. 3 Eastern Washington82–65ESPNU1,378
Game times in PT. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

* denotes overtime period

[1] [2]

NCAA tournament

The Grizzlies received the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; no other Big Sky members were invited to the tournament or the NIT. Montana was seeded 14th in the West regional and lost by fourteen to Michigan in the first round in Wichita. The last Big Sky team to advance in the NCAA tourney was Montana, a dozen years earlier in 2006.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2018 Big Sky Conference Men's Basketball Championship . . April 30, 2022.
  2. Web site: The 2018 Big Sky Basketball Championships Schedule . Big Sky Conference . February 7, 2018.