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.
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