The Madness is Upon Us

The 2009 Big Sky Conference WBB tournament lived up to its billing. Every game was hotly contested, even the semifinal between UM and ISU ended up being a great game. I know many people (including your truly) had predicted that game to be a rout, but just as they did all season long, the Bengals surprised us by playing one of their best games of the year and kept it close throughout.

The final between PSU and UM was another great game and I thought Altitude did a nice job of bringing it to us. In the end, you knew PSU/UM would settle the BSC for 2009. They were on a collision course.

UM drew a 13 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. They will play the 4th seeded Pittsburgh Panthers in Seattle on Friday. I think that for only losing 4 games this season, 3 of which were to other NCAA tourney teams and the other to an NIT team, Montana deserved a better seed. This is a consistently good program that is better than a lot of the teams in the tournament. I would have seeded them at a 10 or an 11.

PSU earned an automatic bid in the WNIT and will host Portland on Thursday for the right to play Oregon State on Saturday. The Viks beat Portland already this season and were blasted by OSU. But, you have to like the fact that you get to stay in state for 2 rounds, who knows maybe PSU can make a run!

2009 TW Courtside Big Sky WBB Awards

After an outstanding 2008-09 season, I am excited to debut the first ever Courtside Awards for Big Sky Women's Basketball. There were some outstanding performances and stories this year. How about ISU and SAC's improbable runs to the tournament? How about the impressive seasons of UM and PSU? How about MSU turning around their season at the end of January?

The story lines and individuals we will continue to follow at the tournament kept us entertained and inspired all season long, and now it is time to hand out the hardware (there isn't really any hardware, but there is a ton of prestige tied to these awards!).

First of all, the fan votes. I tried the idea of letting Courtside followers select some of the individual awards and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of responses to the polls. Thank you for voting and here are the results:

TW Courtside BSC Player of the Year: Mandy Morales, Sr, Montana. Morales had an incredible senior season, through a good portion of the season, she led the league in scoring and proved to be one of the most difficult match-ups for opposing teams. Her strong and consistent play is the reason we are all headed to Missoula tomorrow. Runner-up: in a narrow vote, Morales edged out Kelsey Kahle, Sr, PSU.

TW Courtside BSC Outstanding Freshman: Katie Bussey, Fr, Montana State. In the fan voting, Bussey ran away in this category. It was clear early on that Katie Bussey would be a key contributor for MSU this season. The freshman led all other BSC freshman in scoring and was third on MSU's team in scoring. She has the tremendous potential to be the most deadly three point threat in the league in coming years. This season, she is 14th in the league in made three pointers with 35, a stat that leads MSU.

TW Courtside BSC Defender of the Year: Britney Lohman, Sr, Montana. Lohman was second in the conference in blocks this season, but her defensive contributions are hard to quantify with numbers. Lohman always draws the biggest defensive assignment for UM and rises to the challenge. Note: My vote went to MSU's Nubia Garcia. Garcia is the only BSC player in the top ten in blocks, steals, and defensive rebounds. She is a lock-down defender that made some of the BSC's best forwards look pretty average. However, here at Courtside we value democracy so fan vote wins!

TW Courtside BSC Coach of the Year: Dan Muscatell, Sac State. This was a hotly contested category because both Coach Muscatell and Coach Sobelewski at ISU did fantastic work to get their teams into postseason contention. The Hornets won 3 more conference games than they did last season. Sac State will be in the BSC tourney for the first time since 2005 and for just the 3rd time in school history. The Hornets were able to do this thanks to some huge wins in conference play. The Hornet's nest was not a fun place for opposing teams to visit this year, which is a testament to Coach Muscatell's hard work. Runner up: Seton Sobelewski, ISU.

Now, here are the 2009 All-Courtside Teams!

MVP: Mandy Morales, UM

First Team All-Courtside
Kelsey Kahle, PSU
Erica Perry, MSU
Charday Hunt, SAC
Claire Faucher, PSU
Sonya Rogers, UM

Second Team All-Courtside
Nubia Garcia, MSU
Michelle Grohs, ISU
Sade Cunningham, NAU
Caitlyn Anderson, WSU
Britney Lohman, UM

Honorable Mention All-Courtside
Julie Piper, EWU
Kelly Valentine, PSU
Courtney Stoermer, NC
Jenna Brown, ISU
Sarah Ena, UM

Tourney Time

Click on image for a larger view.

Just in case you live under a rock or don't follow Big Sky WBB, here is an update on weekend happenings in the BSC. Montana clinched the 1 seed and hosting rights in a thrilling 70-60 win over Portland State. Over 6,700 fans were in attendance at the game, giving us big hopes for a well-attended tournament this week.

Sac State clinched its third-ever BSC tournament with a walloping of Northern Colorado 74-60 on Saturday afternoon. Hats off to Dan Muscatell and crew on a job well done. Montana State capped off its regular season with an 85-67 win over Eastern Washington. EWU finished the season +6 in the win column over last season, completing a nice turnaround. With a loaded roster back for next season, EWU is primed for a 2009-10 run.

So, we are set for what should be a great tournament this week. In a 3-6 match up, MSU and NAU will tip things off in the first round at 5:30 pm on Thursday. The Jacks swept MSU in the regular season in 2 lopsided victories. MSU is one of, if not the, hottest teams heading into the tournament, and the bracket sets up for another run at the title game, similar to last season's magical run. MSU is 5-1 since their last meeting with NAU, but the 'Cats mustn't take NAU for granted, because the Jacks have been a very difficult match up for MSU over the last couple of seasons.

The ISU/SAC opening round match up is intriguing because SAC has never beaten ISU, but this year's 2 game series was decided by a total of 7 points. Will SAC have more momentum heading into this meeting due to its thumping of NC and ISU's resounding loss to WSU? Or will ISU's front court be too much for the Hornets as it was earlier this year?

An MSU win would set up another rematch with PSU in the semis. The two teams split in the regular season, with the Viks winning the most recent game. This would be the match up of the tournament in my mind. UM is the overwhelming favorite to win it all. They will have no trouble with whoever they face in the semis, but either PSU or MSU could give the Griz trouble in the final.

I can't wait!!

Note: Thanks to all of you who voted in our Courtside Awards. I will be posting winners this afternoon or tomorrow morning. We will have the fan choices and my awards. Check back soon!

Super Saturday Open Thread

2:55pm

Katia Hadj-Hamou hits a big three at the end of the first half. PSU and UM are tied at 33 at half-time. NC-SAC tip off is in 10 minutes.

2:32pm

With 11:41 left in the first half, PSU and UM are tied at 15. Big crowd on hand in Missoula.

1:20pm

Newspaper Roundups

The Missoulian's Bill Speltz previews the UM/PSU tilt here.

The Oregonian's Ian Ruder has his own preview here.

The Sacramento Bee previews the SAC/NC game here.

12:35pm

If you are a complete statistical nerd like a few people I know, the graphic below will appeal to you. It shows the 8 different possible outcomes based on the 3 games today. The first level shows the winners in the first column and the losers in the second column. The second level shows records based on the possible outcomes. The third level shows the resulting seeds after taking into account tiebreakers. (Click on the graphic for a larger view.)


12:10pm

It's an important day in the Big Sky because we will finally get to answer some important questions like:

Where will the tournament be next week?

Who will be in?

How will the teams be seeded?

Who wins the BSC MVP? (in my mind, that question is answered by the outcome of the PSU/UM game)

We already have 2 of the seeds figured out thanks to Weber State's 74-60 upset of ISU in Ogden last night. With that outcome, ISU clinches the 4 seed while MSU clinches the 3 seed thanks to its season sweep of ISU.

I have camped out with my computer and am ready to load up BigSkyTV.org in a little less than 2 hours. Here's what I will be watching:

2pm- PSU and UM tip off with the winner hosting the tournament.
3pm- NCU and SAC tip off with the winner in and the loser out of the tournament.
7pm- EWU and MSU tip off to close out the BSC regular season.

I will be checking back and updating this post throughout the day, so feel free to leave questions or make comments in the comments section. Enjoy this exciting day!

And then there were 5.

It was another wild night in the Big Sky last night and the picture became a little bit clearer. Despite all odds, Northern Arizona clinched a spot in the tournament with a beat down of Northern Colorado in Flagstaff and by virtue of an Eastern Washington loss in Missoula. Also as a result of those games, EWU has been eliminated from tournament contention. Portland State avenged a January upset, taking care of Montana State in Bozeman. The game did not affect the tournament race, but it did add some more drama to Saturday's showdown in Missoula as both PSU and UM have 14-1 records heading into the contest.

Saturday will be a very important day because all of our questions will be answered. I for one plan to camp out in front of my computer and watch BigSkyTV.org and catch UM/PSU at 2pm and the second half of SAC/NCU after that. Here is what is at stake this weekend:

ISU @ WSU, 7pm MT
ISU travels to Ogden knowing it is in the tournament and guaranteed at least a 4 seed. WSU has been eliminated. Should ISU get the victory and MSU stumble against EWU, the Bengals would get the 3 seed. If the Bengals lose, they are the 4 seed and MSU clinches the 3 seed by virtue of their season sweep over ISU.

PSU @ UM, 2pm MT
The winner will host next week's Big Sky Conference tournament. It doesn't get any bigger than that. For PSU, a win would secure the first ever BSC regular season title. For Montana, a win would yield their 22nd title and 3rd consecutive season of hosting the tournament. The loser of this game will be the 2 seed in the tournament.

NCU @ SAC, 3pm MT
Due to NCU's loss to NAU last night, the winner of this game is in the tournament. Where the winner is seeded is another story. Here are the possibilities:
1. NCU wins, EWU loses: NAU is the 5 seed, NCU is the 6 seed
2. NCU wins, EWU wins: NCU is the 5 seed, NAU is the 6 seed
3. SAC wins: SAC is the 5 seed, NAU is the 6 seed

EWU @ MSU, 7pm MT
Because of its lopsided loss at UM and NAU's defeat of NCU, the Eagles will be in the spoiler roll at MSU's senior night. Depending on the outcome of Friday's ISU-WSU game, MSU might not have anything but pride to play for either. Assuming ISU wins, MSU will need to beat the Eagles to lock up the three seed.

Where Amazing Happens
I am continually impressed every time I see Claire Faucher in action. Last night vs MSU, the PSU point guard registered a triple-double with 20 points, 10 boards, and 10 steals. She was 2 assists shy of a quadruple double. On top of her hoops skills, she is also a comedian. During a free throw attempt, she fumbled and lost the basketball, promptly drawing jeers from the MSU crowd which thought it should count as her attempt. The ref picked up the ball and gave it back to her, and she gave a big shrug to the crowd before making the shot.

My Soap-Box
Why do we still have the regular season champ host the tournament? In this day and age where travel is so expensive and the logistics of travel for BSC teams are so quirky it is almost prohibitive for this format to continue. Here we are about 4 days away from teams having to leave for the tournament and we still don't know where we are going. I have to admit I love the drama and excitement the PSU-UM situation has created this year, but having to pull travel arrangements together for 5 teams and their fans in a span of 3 days is absolutely ridiculous and needlessly costly.

I do have some solutions however. The idea that springs to mind first is that you have the champion from the previous year host the tournament. That has problems in that in many cases, the champion one year is drained of senior players the next year and may not even be eligible for the tournament.

The better idea in my mind is to hold the tournament in a central location: Ogden, Utah. The Dee Events Center is one of the nicest in the conference and has plenty of space. The BSC headquarters are in Ogden. The Salt Lake City airport is very convenient for all of the teams in the conference and would be easily accessible by all fans. If you have a problem with one school continually hosting the tournament, maybe institute a rotation or hold it in a true neutral site like the Huntsman Center in SLC.

I really don't like the idea that some schools are pitching which is to cut the tourney teams from 6 to 4. It would make the remainder of the season meaningless to most of the teams very early in the conference schedule, and I think you would lose a lot of the late season magic.

You Decide '09

I have been planning an awards post for a couple of weeks now, and it hit me that I should let all of you loyal readers have a voice in who wins the TW Courtside Big Sky Conference Women's Basketball Awards! I have been getting a good amount of responses to my polls lately, so now is the time. You will see the polls at the right. Due to space contraints, I had to narrow down the choices, but if there is someone missing that you think deserves a look, let me know in the comments.

Polls close at 5pm on Sunday and I will have a wrap-up post on Monday. Get out and vote!!

Clinchers, Round 2

With just one weekend left in Big Sky regular season play we still have a lot of sorting out to do. Congrats to Idaho State and Montana State who both clinched spots this past week. Here is what can happen this week:

Portland State: has clinched first round bye. Can clinch 1 seed and tournament hosting rights with 1)a win over Montana OR 2)with a win over MSU, EWU wins over UM and MSU, AND ISU win over WSU or NCU loss to either NAU or SAC.

Montana: has clinched first round bye. Can Clinch 1 seed and tournament hosting rights with a win over PSU AND either 1) a win over EWU, OR 2) wins by NCU over SAC and NAU coupled with an ISU loss to WSU, OR 3) MSU win over PSU or EWU.

Montana State: has clinched a tournament spot. Can clinch 3 seed with a win over PSU or EWU.

Idaho State: has clinched a tournament spot, can't get lower than a 4 seed.

Sac State: clinches spot with 1) a win OR 2)a NCU loss to NAU AND EWU losses to UM and MSU.

Northern Colorado: clinches spot with 1)wins over SAC and NAU OR 2)a win over either SAC or NAU AND an EWU loss to UM or MSU.

Eastern Washington: clinches spot with 1)wins over UM and MSU OR 2) with a win over either UM or MSU AND wins by NCU over SAC and NAU OR 3)a win over UM AND losses by NCU to SAC and NAU.

Northern Arizona: clinches spot with a win over NCU AND either a SAC loss to NCU or an EWU loss to UM.

Weber State: eliminated from tournament play.

Many of these scenarios were cleared up by member Mvemjsunpx on BigSkyFans.com. Many thanks!!