March 5-9
Hosted by: Higher seed in first round, #1 seed for semis and finals (i.e. The Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion in Greeley, Colorado).
Sponsored by: Don't see one.
Tickets: Dont bother, cause the 2,800 seat Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion is sold out. Well, how much were they, you ask? I dont know. You go to the website, and the tickets say "Sold Out!" really big, and they wont let you click on it. What kinda BS is that? I should inform you, however, that if youre in the Greeley area, and not a big basketball fan, that on Friday the 18th (2nd day of the tourney), the Union Colony Civic Center will be holding its Gala of Wines benefit. Tickets are $40.
The Bracket:
The Big Sky keeps a low profile. How do they do this? THey have nine teams in their conference, and only invite six to the tournament! a) thats only 66%, the smallest percentage of any conference. And 6 is the lowest total number of teams. What would the real harm be in a) inviting all nine and having one play-in game, or b) not inviting the last place team?
Saturday March 5: #3 Weber State v. #6 Eastern Washington (1)
Tuesday March 8: #2 Montana v. Winner of (1)
Wednesday March 9: Finals
The favorite: NoCo. The Bears are undefeated at home this year, where they will play all their games. However, they did lose to Montana, Northern Arizona, and Weber State on the road. They also beat potential semi-final opponent No. Arizona by only one at home last week. So this is by no means a run-away.
Trivia: One of the leaders in games played in a single season is none other than, Ben Howland, who played 34 games for Weber State in 1979. Thats a lot of games.....That year Weber State advanced to the final 32 of the tournament (there were only 40 teams back then, and they won one of the play-in games against New Mexico State).
Ken Bone, Ben Howland, Blaine Taylor, Jud Heathcoate, and Dick Motta were all once coaches in the Big Sky. Bone at Portland State very recently, Howland in the 90s at N. Arizona, Taylor in the early 90s at Montana, Heathcoate at Montana in the mid 70s, and Dick Motta at Weber State in the 60s.
The coaches have had more success than the players. THe last player drafted in the NBA draft from the Big Sky was Rodney Stuckey, out of E. Washington in 2007. Before that? Dan McClintock in 2000. Stuckey was only the second player taken in the first round of the draft. The other was Michael Ray Richardson in 1978, by the NY Knicks, 4th overall.
Richardson played 8 seasons, making the all star team, and putting up good numbers. Then, in 1986, he was suspended for life by David Stern for failing the league's drug test for the third time (cocaine). There was a documentary released on him in 2000, narrated by Chris Rock. In 2007, he was suspended from coaching in the CBA when he said that "jews were crafty because theyre hated world wide." He said he wasn't anti-semetic, using the same defense that Sheen has used, saying that he has "big time jew lawyers."
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