When Oakland Fort hit the buzzer-beating three to push out nine-seeded Northern Arizona over one-seeded Eastern Washington last year, fans knew they were in for a good Big Sky Championship.
NAU went on to the championship game where they faced Montana State. The Bobcats were coming off a double overtime win against Weber State while the Lumberjacks had beaten Montana 83-71.
Fast forward one year, and it seems like basketball fans are in for a similar level of excitement.
On the men’s side, Eastern Washington dominated the season, grabbing the one-seed by three games. However, there’s a lot of parity down the rest of the line. The two and three-seeds have the same conference record (12-6), as do seven and eight (7-11). The five and eight-seeds were also only determined by two games.
The same can be said about the women’s side, except that EWU only took the top seed by one game. Further down, the fourth and fifth (10-8), along with the eighth and ninth (4-18), finished with the same records.
Throughout the season, it was clear that the Big Sky wasn’t going to be easy, and every team proved that. The Sacramento State men, which have the final seed in the tournament, beat fourth-seeded Weber State earlier this year. Their counterpart, the eighth-seeded women, destroyed number-two seeded NAU 82-66 not even a month ago.
The Vandals also proved that they aren’t a team to take lightly. While the men have struggled over the past three games, they did pick up an 81-75 victory over fifth-seeded Montana State at the beginning of February. They’re also going into the tournament the saying “no one wants to see us a third time.” Well, junior guard Quinn Denker is at least.
Meanwhile, the women, who picked up the sixth seed with a win over Portland State on March 4, were consistent throughout the season. They were only swept by four teams, EWU, NAU, Northern Colorado and Montana. Idaho hopes that Montana doesn’t get the season sweep when they battle on March 11.
The Eastern Washington men have won their past four games by an average of 6.5 points, and their final win was by three points against Sacramento State. With those stats, whether the Eagles get the Hornets or the Vandals, they will get bounced in the second round again.
With EWU out of the picture, who wins it all? My prediction, Montana. They should be able to take down Portland State, then not lose to UNC for a third time, and they’re in the championship against maybe Weber State.
The Eastern women enter the tournament on a 10-game win streak. Although some of those games were as close as one-point victories, the stretch also included a 25-point win over NAU. The Eagles will fly to at least the semifinals, where they’ll likely meet MSU.
On the bottom side of the women’s bracket, I’m once again taking the Griz. They’ll face Idaho, who they swept, and then probably NAU, who they beat earlier in the season. From there, the Griz should take on EWU in the championship, with the Eagles winning.
While it’ll be hard for teams on the men’s side to live up to the same excitement that was NAU’s run last year, there’s no denying that it’s possible. Idaho played EWU close the second time around and swept Sacramento State during the regular season, so don’t count the Vandals out.
On the women’s side, Idaho State was only mere centimeters from beating Montana and potentially getting the sixth-seed. The Bengals will also be a team to watch out for.
The 2024 Big Sky Tournament, or “Starch Madness,” as it’s been called, will be one for the books.
James Taurman-Aldrich can be reached at [email protected] or on X @jamesaldrich25