If postseason invitations are the measure of a league’s national reputation, the Big Sky Conference earned no respect on Monday evening.
Idaho, the Big Sky Tournament champion, received a No. 16 seed and will face No. 1 Baylor. The Vandals had an RPI of 123 and 24 wins to their credit yet will face a team that has qualified for six Elite Eights and three Final Fours in Kim Mulkey’s 17 seasons at the helm. The Bears are the seven-time reigning Big XII champions and the No. 4 overall team in the country in the latest AP poll, meaning Idaho essentially received the fourth-lowest field in the 64-team field.
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“Extremely disappointed in the committee and that that they decided to put us at ta 16,” Idaho head coach Jon Newlee told Michael-Shawn Dugar of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. “I think it’s a joke to be honest with you. Our body of work was good this year.
“We got not respect from them. That’s three out of the last four years where we’ve got nothing out of that committee. I don’t know what their problem is.”
Behind a breakout performance from tournament MVP Mikayla Ferenz, a freshman, the Idaho Vandals won three games in four days to earn the league’s automatic bid to the Big Dance. Idaho needed a buzzer-beat in overtime to beat Weber State before running past Eastern Washington in the semifinals and handling Idaho State in the finals. The reward is a first-round matchup with the 33-1 Lady Bears.
Baylor qualified for the Sweet Sixteen 10 times, the Elite Eight six times including each of the last two seasons and the Final Four three times since Mulkey took over in 2000. Baylor won the NCAA championship in 2005 and 2012, posting a perfect 40-0 record during Brittany Griner’s senior season four years ago.
Despite having a No. 19 ranking out of 32 Division Conferences in Rating Percentage Index, Idaho is playing a powerhouse. New Mexico State, the Western Athletic Conference champions, received a No. 15 seed despite the WAC holding a conference RPI ranking of 29. The Aggies had an RPI of 105 during the regular-season. New Mexico State went 3-0 against the Big Sky this season, posting wins over Northern Arizona (87-53), Sacramento State (80-77) and Southern Utah (74-60).
Idaho, the third-place team in the regular-season standings, posted a 0-3 record against teams playing in the NCAA or WNIT tournaments, losing to NCAA No. 2 seed Oregon State (69-44), WNIT qualifier Abilene Christian (71-59) and Montana State (62-59) during the regular season.
The disappointment continued later Monday evening as the Big Sky received just one bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament: the automatic bid received by regular-season league champion Montana State. The WNIT, like the Men’s NIT, expanded to 64 teams in 2009, awarding automatic bids to any of the 32 regular-season conference champions who lose in their conference tournaments and do not receive bids to the NCAA Tournament. The Big Sky received at least two bids each in 2013, 2014 and last season.
Montana State will play Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday. Game times will be announced on Tuesday. The Utes finished 2016 with a 16-14 mark and finishes seventh in the Pac 12. The game will be played at the Huntsman Center, Utah’s home gym. The Utes are 8-0 all time against the Bobcats.
Montana State takes a 21-9 mark to Salt Lake and an assistant coach who is a local legend. MSU assistant John Stockton played 19 Hall of Fame seasons for the NBA’s Utah Jazz, retiring as the league’s all-time leader in assists and steals. His daughter, Lindsay is MSU’s senior point guard.
The Bobcats claimed their first outright Big Sky title in school history this season but lost on a buzzer beater in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament to upstart nine-seed Idaho State. The WNIT bid is the second in MSU’s history; the Bobcats lost in the first round of the 2003 tournament, joining the Lady Griz of Montana as the first Big Sky teams to receive bids to the tournament, an event started in 1998.
“I thought that was unusual, especially considering how well the Big Sky performed in the WNIT last year,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford, the recently anointed Big Sky Coach of the Year. “I think we are a respectable conference. I think Idaho was a little bit surprised by the 16-seed for that tournament. That’s one of the things we want to put on our shoulders is to represent four our conference.”
MSU is the 15th overall Big Sky team to qualify for the WNIT. Montana has qualified three times (2003, 2007, 2014), losing in the first round its first two appearances. Idaho State qualified for the WNIT in 2004, 2008, and 2013, losing in the first round each year. Portland State qualified in 2009 and 2011, winning the Big Sky’s first WNIT game in 2009 and losing to Wyoming in the first round in its most recent appearance. Eastern Washington joined Idaho State in the 2013 WNIT, also losing in the first round.
Before 2014, the Big Sky was just 1-11 in WNIT games. In 2014, Montana beat Washington State and Southern Utah beat Colorado State in the first round, respectively. Montana lost to San Diego and SUU lost to Colorado in the second round.
Last season, Northern Colorado, Eastern Washington and Sacramento State all qualified for the tournament. All three won first round games as Eastern Washington defeated Washington State, Sacramento State defeated Pacific and Northern Colorado defeated Colorado State in the first round. Sac beat EWU in the second round and Northern Colorado beat South Dakota by a point to advance to the WNIT Sweet 16. Sac lost to Saint Mary’s and Northern Colorado fell to UCLA to end the postseason runs.
“Utterly disgusted. The Big Sky Conference was completely disrespected” on both the men’s and women’s sides Eastern Washington head coach Wendy Schuller tweeted after the bracket was released and her 20-win team was not part of the field despite a 2nd-place finish in the Big Sky regular season.
She later deleted the tweet but followed up with: “I guess it really is how you start and not how you finish,” and “Thank u for all the sentiments Eag Nation. I’m sad for our team and I’m sad that we won’t get to play for you again. This is a special team.”
The Big Sky went 2-38 against teams that qualified for either the NCAA Tournament or WNIT, including 0-12 against teams in the NCAA Tournament field. Eastern Washington (20-11), Weber State (20-11), Montana (20-11) and North Dakota (18-14) all had resumes worthy of postseason recognition. But the four teams posted a combined 7-20 record against NCAA and WNIT qualifiers including Idaho and MSU, although the two non-conference wins belonged to UND (64-59 over Northern Iowa) and Montana (58-50 over Drexel, the WNIT auto qualifier out of the Colonial).
North Dakota played a total of 11 games against Big Dance or WNIT qualifiers. The Fighting Hawks went 2-9 in those games, beating Montana State, and WNIT qualifier Northern Iowa, the automatic qualifier out of the Missouri Valley. UND lost to WNIT qualifiers Tennessee Martin (84-58), Drake (73-63), Oregon (77-51), South Dakota (73-70), Minnesota (57-47) and Iowa (83-61).
Eastern Washington played seven games against NCAA or WNIT qualifiers. EWU posted a 3-4 record in those games, including 0-4 in non-conference play, losing to WNIT qualifiers Northwestern (74-70), Creighton (66-60), Gonzaga (78-56) and Abilene Christian (72-60). The Eagles swept Idaho and beat Montana State but losses to Portland State, UND and Sac State cost EWU the regular-season title league title.
Weber State, Northern Colorado and Sacramento State each played multiple NCAA Tournament qualifiers, losing all seven contests. Weber played in-state rival BYU and lost by 17 and Washington and lost by 13. Each earned No. 7 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Northern Colorado lost to No. 12 seed South Dakota State (66-62) and No. 11 Colorado State (62-46). Sac lost to No. 15 New Mexico State (80-77), No. 3 seed UCLA (109-76) and No. 14 seed Hawaii (74-72).
Montana lost to Colorado State 75-43 in its lone non-conference game other than Drexel against an NCAA or WNIT team. Portland Sate also lost to South Dakota State, 75-64.
UNC also lost to WNIT qualifiers Saint Mary’s, 65-52, and Akron. Sac also fell 78-54 to NCAA Tournament qualifier Villanova. Weber fell 92-71 at Montana State and lost 77-70 to Idaho in Ogden.
Idaho State, the BSC Tournament No. 9 seed who won three games before losing to Idaho in the championship, lost to NCAA Tournament No. 4 seed Michigan State 79-60. ISU also lost 72-36 to Northwestern and 67-54 to UTEP. The Bengals lost their lone contests to Montana State and Idaho.
NAU lost to New Mexico State along with UTEP (77-66), Long Beach State (69-48) and Nebraska (90-67). PSU lost to Long Beach State (89-71), South Dakota (103-61) and Oregon (122-59). NAU, PSU and Southern Utah were all ranked 311 or lower in RPI among the 342 Division I teams.
Montana State posted a 19-9 Division I record that included losses to Gonzaga and San Diego, its lone games against non-conference post-season qualifiers.
North Dakota and Weber State received invitations to the 16-team field for the Women’s Basketball Invitational.
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
