Boise State defeated regular season champion and host Idaho in the final, 80–68,[2] to clinch their third Big Sky tournament title (1976, 1988, 1993). The game was televised on ESPN, with a tipoff after 9 pm PST(midnight EST).[3]
Fourth-seed Montana was attempting to win a third straight title, but was upset in the quarterfinals.[4] It was the first Big Sky tournament in Moscow in eleven years.[5]
Format
Conference membership returned to eight this season; after thirteen years in the Big Sky, Nevada departed for the Big West the previous summer.
The tournament format was unchanged; the top six teams from the regular season were included and the regular season champion earned the right to host.[5] The top two earned byes into the semifinals while the remaining four played in the quarterfinals; the top seed (host) met the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.[6]
The Broncos (21–7) received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; no other Big Sky members were invited to the tournament or the NIT.[7] Boise State was seeded 14th in the West regional and lost by 20 points in the first round to Vanderbilt in Salt Lake City.[8] This was the eleventh consecutive year in which the Big Sky representative lost in the first round.