Nord -Colorado men lose resentment against Montana in the final of the Big Sky Touramt -Greeley Tribune

The Men's Basketball team of the University of Northern Colorado will go to the first NIT of the school after a defeat against Montana against Montana against Montana on Wednesday in the final of the Big Sky Conference tournament.

After Montana suffocated her first two opponents at the defensive end, he did almost everything early – and didn't miss the rest of the game much. The grizzlies shot 65% of the field and 64% from the bow. The bear offense was not exactly cold and shot 59% and 49% of three, but simply couldn't keep up.

“At the end of the day, when you score in the 80s and ended the game by 60%, you probably shouldn't lose,” said coach Steve Smiley. “I thought we played really hard. Give Montana a lot of recognition. They took hard recordings all night. “

After a season in which it was clear that the Big Sky was a two-horse race after just a few games, it only made sense that he was due to a trip to March Madness on the line on UNC and Montana. The two separated the season, with each team winning its victory in the enemy territory-UNC on January 11th in Missoula 81-57 ​​and on February 6th in Greeley with 86: 78.

The game on Wednesday was the first time that the two best seeds have been playing for the conference title since 2016-as the Weber State No. 1 defeated No. 2 Montana 62-59.

When Montana played the bears against the defense in her first two games of the Big Sky tournament, they certainly did not allow them.

Montana had 16 points with just 4 minutes, 30 seconds in the game. In the semifinals on Tuesday, Montana State scored only 17 points in the first half.

Montana took a lead of 48-39 in the half, but her offensive outbreak did not stop here. The Griz made its first five shots from half-time and finally stretched their lead to 14 with 59-45 with 16:22 to play.

But the bears fought back how they have all season. They made an extended 28-14 run to cut the Bobcats to a 74-73 with just under 3:30 a.m.

“I think our level of faith was really good and I don't think someone is panicked,” said Smiley. “We were really frustrated by the way we played at the defensive end, but nobody was panicked. And when we bring it back to you, I think there was a belief like: “Ok, exactly here we should be.” “”

But that was as close as the bears. The Griz stretched out the lead over four in the next couple, and Kai Johnson met a dagger strept 3 with Quinn Denker with Quinn Denker to extend the lead to seven and take the whole wind out of the sails of UNC.

Super senior outstanding

“There were a few paper cuts in this route,” said Smiley. “We would like to have them back.”

When Montana rolled early, Senior Jaron Rillie, Jaron Rillie, held the UNC alone in the game alone. Rillie ended with 24 points and had turned off the field at a point 10 of 11.

Rillie and colleague Isaiah Hawthorne both made the all-tournament team. Hawthorne added 14 points in the championship game on Wednesday, but went up and down at 29 when the opening win against Weber State.

Deeply

After each of the first two bear competitions, Smiley spoke about how important it was to prevent her opponents from getting hot behind the arch.

After the state of Weber only made two 3s on Sunday and only four in Montana on Tuesday, Montana made 7 out of 11 from the 3-point range in the first half of the Griz.

How we came here

During the first two games in the Big Sky Conference tournament, No. 1 UNC left undoubtedly why they were generally considered the favorite.

Montana with the second time was almost as impressive when the Grizzlies won 13 of her last 14 before the final on Wednesday evening. And after a 74-65 quarter-final victory over North Arizona, which was certainly closer than Griz fans would have wished for, they jumped back impressively with a 78-55 win against No. 6 Idaho in the half year.

Not yet done

While the loss for this bear team is obviously disappointing, her historical season is not entirely over. After the basketball nerds were happy to secure the number 1 in the conference tournament and are achieved in a handful of metrics well enough-UNC will not go to its first.

NIT is older than the NCAA tournament, but plays an obvious second violin to the big dance.

For years, the regular conference champions of the season, who did not qualify for the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament, guaranteed a place in the national invitation tournament (NIT “.

From last season this was no longer the case, since the tournament decided instead for further offers for larger conference teams.

After a few more changes this year, the tournament is now passing on a lower number of automatic offers for smaller conference teams that have proven to be worthy throughout the season. The tournament now assigns teams to a knitting value that average a school ranking in seven popular metrics:

1. NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET): Team performance takes into account the game results, the strength of the schedule, the game location, the net offensive and defensive efficiency as well as the quality of the victories and losses.
2. Kenpom: Prefer how strong a team would be if it is played that night, regardless of injuries or emotional factors.
3. Basketball Power Index (BPI): measures how many points per game a team are better or worse than an average team of Division I.
4. Kevin Pauga Index (KPI): The winnings and losses of each team are positive up to a negative yardstick and average the scores in one season to achieve the team's profit percentage.
5. Torvik (gate): The teams are based on offensive and defensive efficiency and left data as soon as the game is mathematically decided. The games in the last 40 days count 100% and drop by 1% per day for 80 days.
6. Victories over bladder (WAB): The difference between the number of victories that a team has, and the number of victories that would have an average “bubble team” against the same schedule.
7. Strength of the record (Sor): Rank to strength a team that weighs the opponents played, and the likelihood that an average 25th team of the team would have the team's record or better.

Each of these metrics refers to teams from 1 to 364 (the number of teams of division I), whereby Team No. 1 after the metric is the best.

The regular conference champions, who get number 1 in their conference tournament and have a knitting value of 125 or below, after all conference games have been played an automatic bid for NIT.

The rope of the bears achieved the day after the game of the conference game: 124.28.

When the bears found out that they had qualified, Smiley called it “a big thing”. And although he is certainly enthusiastic about the opportunity, he didn't think about it on Wednesday evening.

“It's just not really in your head tonight,” he said.

At 25-9, the bears are removed if they correspond to the university's record. Smiley was in the employees of the former coach Jeff Linder for the other victorious season in 2017-18. Linder is now an assistant at Texas Tech No. 9.

This 17:18 team won four games on the way to a title in the now dissolved college insert tournament and won the only post-season tournament of the university.

The first round of NIT will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Early round games are organized by top teams, and the semi -finals and the championship game are played in Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Originally published: March 13, 2025 at 12:59 p.m. Mdt