2018 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament

2018 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2017–18
Teams	12
Site	Reno Events Center Reno, Nevada
Champions	Montana (10th title)
Winning coach	Travis DeCuire (1st title)
MVP	Michael Oguine (Montana)
Attendance	6,765
Television	Pluto TV, ELEVEN, ESPNU (final)
Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournaments

2017–18 Big Sky men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Montana †	16	–	2		.889			26	–	8		.765
Idaho	14	–	4		.778			22	–	9		.710
Weber State	13	–	5		.722			20	–	11		.645
Eastern Washington	13	–	5		.722			20	–	15		.571
Northern Colorado	11	–	7		.611			26	–	12		.684
Idaho State	9	–	9		.500			14	–	16		.467
Portland State	9	–	9		.500			20	–	14		.588
Montana State	6	–	12		.333			13	–	19		.406
North Dakota	6	–	12		.333			12	–	20		.375
Southern Utah	5	–	13		.278			13	–	19		.406
Sacramento State	4	–	14		.222			7	–	25		.219
Northern Arizona	2	–	16		.111			5	–	27		.156
† Conference tournament winner

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.

Seed	School	Record	Tiebreaker 1	Tiebreaker 2
1	Montana	16–2
2	Idaho	14–4
3	Eastern Washington	13–5	1–0 vs Weber State
4	Weber State	13–5	0–1 vs Eastern Washington
5	Northern Colorado	11–7
6	Portland State	9–9	2–0 vs Idaho State
7	Idaho State	9–9	0–2 vs Portland State
8	North Dakota	6–12	1–1 vs Montana State	1–3 vs Eastern Washington/Weber State
9	Montana State	6–12	1–1 vs North Dakota	0–2 vs Eastern Washington/Weber State
10	Southern Utah	5–13
11	Sacramento State	4–14
12	Northern Arizona	2–16

Schedule

Session	Game	Time	Matchup	Score	Television	Attendance
First round – Tuesday, March 6
1	1	12:00 pm	No. 8 North Dakota vs. No. 9 Montana State	76–74	Pluto TV 231	986
	2	2:30 pm	No. 5 Northern Colorado vs. No. 12 Northern Arizona	82–59
2	3	5:30 pm	No. 7 Idaho State vs. No. 10 Southern Utah	68–76		977
	4	8:00 pm	No. 6 Portland State vs. No. 11 Sacramento State	71–67
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 8
3	5	12:00 pm	No. 1 Montana vs. No. 8 North Dakota	84–76	ELEVEN	1,110
	6	2:30 pm	No. 4 Weber State vs. No. 5 Northern Colorado	55–80	ELEVEN Prime
4	7	5:30 pm	No. 2 Idaho vs. No. 10 Southern Utah	78–92	ELEVEN	1,078
	8	8:00 pm	No. 3 Eastern Washington vs. No. 6 Portland State	78–72
Semifinals – Friday, March 9
5	9	5:30 pm	No. 1 Montana vs No. 5 Northern Colorado	91–89 OT	ELEVEN	1,236
	10	8:00 pm	No. 3 Eastern Washington vs No. 10 Southern Utah	82–70
Championship game – Saturday, March 10
6	11	5:00 pm	No. 1 Montana vs No. 3 Eastern Washington	82–65	ESPNU	1,378
Game times in PT. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

	First round Tuesday, March 6					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 8					Semifinals Friday, March 9					Final Saturday, March 10
						1	Montana	84
						8	North Dakota	76
	8	North Dakota	76
	9	Montana State	74
											1	Montana	91*
											5	Northern Colorado	89
						4	Weber State	55
						5	Northern Colorado	80
	5	Northern Colorado	82
	12	Northern Arizona	59
																1	Montana	82
																3	Eastern Washington	65
						2	Idaho	78
						10	Southern Utah	92
	7	Idaho State	68
	10	Southern Utah	76
											10	Southern Utah	70
											3	Eastern Washington	82
						3	Eastern Washington	78
						6	Portland State	72
	6	Portland State	71
	11	Sacramento State	67

* denotes overtime period

Source:

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.