The 2017 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament was the 42nd edition of the postseason

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 concen ...

for the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

, held March 7–11 at the

Reno Events Center The Reno Events Center is a 7,000-seat multi-purpose arena, located in downtown Reno, Nevada, that was constructed in January 2005. It was the home to the Reno Bighorns of the NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a p ...

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

. In the final, regular season champion

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

defeated third-seed Weber State in overtime to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It was North Dakota's first NCAA tournament as a Division I team, after multiple appearances in the Division II tourney. On October 8, 2016,

Northern Colorado Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Region Northern Colorado is a region in the northern portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, nort ...

self-imposed a post-season ban amid an ongoing NCAA investigation into program violations, and did not participate.

Seeds

Only 11 of the 12 teams in the conference participated in the tournament due to Northern Colorado's self-imposed ban. Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. The top five teams received a first round bye.

Schedule

{, class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center;" , - !Session !Game !Time* !Matchup !Score !Television !Attendance , - !colspan=7, First Round – Tuesday, March 7 , - , rowspan=3, 1 , 1 , 2:35 PM , No. 8 Portland State vs. No. 9 Northern Arizona , 80–67 , rowspan=3, Watch
Big Sky , rowspan=3, 1,507 , - , 2 , 5:35 PM , No. 7 Sacramento State vs. No. 10 Idaho State , 91–76 , - , 3 , 8:05 PM , No. 6 Montana State vs. No. 11 Southern Utah , 109–105^3OT , - !colspan=7, Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 9 , - , rowspan=2, 2 , 4 , 12:05 PM , No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 8 Portland State , 95–72 , rowspan=4, Watch
Big Sky , rowspan=2, 1,762 , - , 5 , 2:35 PM , No. 4 Idaho vs. No. 5 Montana , 81–77 , - , rowspan=2, 3 , 6 , 5:35 PM , No. 2 Eastern Washington vs. No. 7 Sacramento State , 89–70 , rowspan=2, 1,903 , - , 7 , 8:05 PM , No. 3 Weber State vs. No. 11 Southern Utah , 90–70 , - !colspan=7, Semifinals – Friday, March 10 , - , rowspan=2, 4 , 8 , 5:35 PM , No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 4 Idaho , 69–64 , rowspan=2, Watch
Big Sky , rowspan=2, 2,003 , - , 9 , 8:05 PM , No. 2 Eastern Washington vs. No. 3 Weber State , 80–72 , - !colspan=7, Championship Game – Saturday, March 11 , - , 5 , 10 , 5:30 PM , No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 3 Weber State , 93–89^OT ,

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

, 2,025 , - , colspan=7 align=left, *Game times in PST. Rankings denote tournament seeding

Bracket

* denotes overtime period

NCAA tournament

The Fighting Hawks received the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the very first time; no other Big Sky members were invited to the tournament or North Dakota was seeded fifteenth in the West regional and lost 100–82 to

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

in the first round It was the eleventh consecutive year that the Big Sky representative lost in the first round.

References

External links

{{Big Sky men's basketball tournament navbox

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 concen ...

Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament Basketball competitions in Reno, Nevada

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 ear ...

College sports tournaments in Nevada