The Bobcat Nation

The Big Sky basketball tourney is held at the regular season champion's home court.

Has there been talk about hosting both tourneys at the same predetermined location?

Stingrays wrote:The Big Sky basketball tourney is held at the regular season champion's home court.

Has there been talk about hosting both tourneys at the same predetermined location?

It has been done that way in the past. In the late 80's and 90's they esperimented with a bunch of variations of theat but it turned out that the Predetermined site (ussually Boise St. although MSU did have it once) team Tanked it that year and attendenced was piss poor. So they went back to the current format. The conversation does come up though about every other year though.

I the 80's and early 90's the host site was determined by the previous years tournament champion. The last time before 96 that we hosted was 87 and I wouldn't say we tanked. Lost a close championship game to a good Boise St. team with Chis Childs and a great big man (the name escapes me). As I recall the feild house was sold out for that championship game and they even built extended seating in the West end bleachers.

I attended a tourney in Boise one year which Boise did not qualify for the tourney. Just isn't quite the same if the host team isn't there. My buddies and I after a few beers and a round of golf sent a postcard to Bobby Dye saying "Having a wonderful time- Wish you were here."

MSU Bobcats.

pony - was the big man Orlando Lightfoot?

He was something to watch.

Lightfoot play for Idaho not Boise.

I was at all the games the year MSU hosted. All sessions were sold out, not just the championiship game. That was the best ever attented tournament in BSC history.

Tonka Beard 6-9 Boise State, center

Ponycat wrote:I the 80's and early 90's the host site was determined by the previous years tournament champion. The last time before 96 that we hosted was 87 and I wouldn't say we tanked. Lost a close championship game to a good Boise St. team with Chis Childs and a great big man (the name escapes me). As I recall the feild house was sold out for that championship game and they even built extended seating in the West end bleachers.

I went to that game. That little SOB (with all due respect) made a great play at the end to win the game. I was so sure that the CATS were gonna win that one. That was an intense, fun game to be at.

Has there been talk about all Big Sky teams making the tourney?

That's the way it should be in my opinion. It was that way when we won in 86. And in 87.

A correction to my first post. The tournament host in the 80's and 90's was the previous years regular season winner. We actually won the tourney in 86, won the regular season in 87 but chocked in the tourney in Weber I believe, but hosted it the next year 88 and lost in the championship game.

Beard, that's right. He was a stud too. Both of them were frustrating to watch.

I do think the league has brought up the idea of all teams making the tourney, but scrapped it due to cost. If fans in some of these west coast and pro-shadow markets would attend those first round games, it would go a long ways toward making the tourney consistently profitable.

I much preferred the format where the top 6 teams went to the tourney with the top 2 seeds receiving a bye, rather than having the quarterfinals with the 3-6 teams the week before as they do now. I think it makes it much more of an event, like when we hosted the tourney in '96.

Hopefully our buddy Dougie F will leave the tourney set-up alone. You must give the conference champion a reward for their accomplishment and hosting the tourney SHOULD send our best team to the Dance every year (unfortunately, that doesn't always happen as we all know!).

One of my favorite memories was back in the 90's when we hosted & won the tourney. Following the championship game, Nico & Quadre came into the stands & thanked the fans; it was a great moment for MSU basketball and moments like that are why the league should NEVER play at a predetermined site.

mslacat wrote:Tonka Beard 6-9 Boise State, center

Nope, mslacat, it was Arnell Jones. Tanoka Beard came a coupla years after that.

I was there for that tournament, covering BSU ... best tournament final of the seven I saw.

-- jeff