The 1987

Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament The Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in men's basketball for the Big Sky Conference. The event has been held annually since 1976, the conference's thirteenth year. The tournament winner earn ...

was the twelfth edition, held March 5–7 at the Walkup Skydome at

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. ...

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...

. Seventh-seeded

Idaho State , mottoeng = "The truth will set you free" , established = , former_names = Academy of Idaho(1901–1915)Idaho Technical Institute(1915–1927)University of Idaho—Southern Branch(1927–1947)Idaho State ...

upset fourth-seeded in the championship game, to clinch their second Big Sky tournament title (first was a decade earlier). The top three seeds (,

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

, ) lost in the first round, which led to a revised format the ISU had entered the tournament with a conference record, overall.

Format

For the fourth year, all eligible teams participated in the tournament field and were placed in the quarterfinals. Seedings and pairings were determined by regular season conference records.

Bracket

NCAA tournament

The Bengals received the automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament, but were seeded sixteenth in the West regional and were routed in the first round by

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

in No other Big Sky members were invited to the tournament, but Montana State and Boise State played in the 32-team NIT and hosted first round games. BSU defeated by a point and MSU lost by eight to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, who defeated the Broncos by five points in the second round in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

References

{{1987 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

Flagstaff, Arizona College basketball tournaments in Arizona