Breaking down the Big Sky basketball tournament schedule

The 2020 Big Sky Conference Basketball Championships will be played from Wednesday, March 11th to Saturday, March 14th. Games will take place at CenturyLink Arena in Boise Idaho. The top five teams at the end of regular season play will earn byes to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

There were two upsets in the first round of the the Big Sky Conference tournament, as No. 9 Sacramento State and No. 11 Idaho State both beat higher-seeded teams. No. 7 Southern Utah took care of business against Idaho though. Whether any of these teams will reach the third round remains to be seen.

The first, second, and third rounds will be streamed on Pluto TV 531 and WatchBigSky.com. The title game will be on ESPN.

March 11

Game 1: No. 9 Sacramento State beat No. 8 Weber State 62-54
Game 2: No. 7 Southern Utah beat No. 10 Idaho 75-69
Game 3: No. 11 Idaho State beat No. 6 Northern Arizona 64-62

March 12

Game 4: No. 9 Sacramento State vs. No. 1 Eastern Washington, 2:00 p.m. ET
Game 5: No. 5 Montana State vs. No. 4 Portland State, 4:30 p.m. ET
Game 6: No. 7 Southern Utah vs. No. 2 Northern Colorado, 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 7: No. 11 Idaho State vs. No. 3 Montana, 10:30 p.m. ET

March 13

Game 8: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 7:30 p.m. ET
Game 9: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 10:00 p.m. ET

March 14

Championship: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 8:00 p.m. ET

Montana (16-10, 12-3) has the most Big Sky championships (11) in the history of the conference and is looking for its third straight NCAA tournament appearance. The Grizzlies have a do-it-all guard in Sayeed Pridgett, who leads the team in points (19.7), rebounds (7.4), assists (3.8), and steals (1.5). Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado trail first place Montana in the standings by a narrow margin, but the Grizzlies seem like they have a good shot at holding onto their lead.