Eastern Washington, Idaho look to shock top seeds at Big Sky Conference Tournament
About this time last year, Dan Monson was fired by Long Beach State.
In the days that followed, he led his team to the NCAA Tournament.
Now at Eastern Washington, Monson’s task this week is to lead his men’s basketball team to a similar destination without being troubled by a lack of job security.
Last year, LBSU started the Big West Conference Tournament as the No. 4 seed, and Monson’s team won three games in three days for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. As a No. 15 seed, LBSU lost in the opening round to No. 2 seed Arizona, and less than a month later Monson was hired at Eastern Washington.
The Eagles finished their first regular season under Monson 10-21 overall and 6-12 in conference play, earning them the No. 8 seed in the 10-team Big Sky Tournament. It means they will play No. 7 Northern Arizona (17-14) in the opening round on Saturday at 7 p.m.
All tournament games will be held at Idaho Central Arena in Boise and will be aired on ESPN+.
“Northern Arizona has been our kryptonite,” Monson said in a postgame radio interview after EWU’s 83-72 loss at Montana on Monday. “They are very physical, and we haven’t matched up well against them, but you aren’t going to finish eighth and get a good matchup.”
NAU beat Eastern twice this season, most recently 87-67 on Feb. 22 in Flagstaff. That was the second loss in the Eagles’ current five-game losing streak.
Defeat the Lumberjacks and the Eagles will get another shot at Montana (22-9), the No. 2 seed, on Sunday.
The winner of that game will get a day off before playing either No. 3 Portland State (19-12) or No. 6 Idaho (13-18). The Vikings and Vandals will play their first game of the tournament at 7 p.m. Monday.
The format puts the Vandals and Vikings (plus No. 4 Idaho State and No. 5 Montana State on the other side of the bracket) in the position of needing to win three games in three days in order to claim the tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Montana State (14-17) has won the last three Big Sky tournaments. It did so as the No. 5 seed in 2024, the No. 2 seed in 2023 and the No. 1 seed in 2022.
Northern Colorado (23-8) is the No. 1 seed this season after winning its first official Big Sky regular-season title (shared with Montana) since it joined the conference in 2006. It vacated its 2010-2011 championship due to NCAA violations for using an ineligible player.
Darling named Big Sky MVP
Central Valley High School graduate Dylan Darling was named Big Sky MVP on Friday, when the conference announced its full slate of regular-season awards.
Darling, a redshirt sophomore playing his first season at Idaho State, is averaging 19.9 points this season, third most in the Big Sky. He ranks second in assists per game (5.9) and fourth in steals per game (1.7). He was also named newcomer of the year.
Idaho State’s resurgence this season was also due in part to Evan Otten, who was named freshman of the year. Otten, a redshirt freshman, has started 29 games and in those has averaged 5.6 points and 5.4 rebounds, the latter of which ranks 10th in the conference.
They are similar numbers to EWU redshirt freshman Emmett Marquardt, who is averaging 9.0 points and 4.4 rebounds while starting all 31 of Eastern’s games.
For the first time since 2013, no Eastern Washington players were named first- or second-team all-conference this season. It’s the first time since 1996 that the Eagles didn’t have a player named as much as an honorable mention.
Idaho redshirt sophomore Jack Payne was chosen as an honorable mention, the Vandals’ lone representative in the annual awards.
In his 11th year at Montana, Travis DeCuire was named Big Sky Coach of the Year for the second time in his career. He became Montana’s all-time winningest coach earlier this season.
Awards are voted on by the conference’s coaches, who cannot vote for their own players.