What's Up in the Sky?

DANVILLE, Ca--The Big Sky Conference is a conference typical of so many in the world of college basketball.  Just about any of four or five teams seem to have the talent and coaching to win the regular season title.  The conference is so close that one weekend's results can completely shuffle the deck.  And, non-conference records can be almost meaningless.  Right now, 6 teams are in striking distance.

Case in point:  a year ago, Weber State had a 6-7 record going into conference play. Then, the Wildcats went on a 15-1 rip to win the regular season Big Sky title.  Well guess what?  It just might be "deja vous all over again."

This year, the Weber Cats were 6-6 in non-conference play, but they find themselves atop the conference at 4-1.  Randy Rahe has himself another deep team with 8 players averaging double-digit minutes, three solid rebounders, and good scoring and rebounding off the bench.  Primarily, the bulk of the scoring is coming from a trio of players averaging double-digits:  Damian Lillard (18.9), Kyle Bullinger (10.5), and Steve Panos (10.3).  The hallmark of the team is "team unity."  They are not a flashy bunch and they only showup in one league-leader stat (1st in rebounding).  They play together, and they win more than they lose.

Tad Boyle has his Northern Colorado team breathing rare air.  Already, the 15-4 Bears
have won more games in a single season than in any season in their 6 years in Div-1.  Make no mistake about it, the Bears are legit.  They have solid non-conference wins against TCU, Hawai'i, San Jose State, Colorado State, and a narrow one-point loss to Oklahoma.  A key to this team's success is its depth.  Nine players are averaging at least 14 mpg.  The on-court leader is Will Figures who averages 15.9 ppg and 31.2 minutes.  Devon Beitzel contributes 15.0 ppg.  A couple of bookend forwards, Mike Proctor and Taylor Montgomery, do the heavy duting rebounding.  The Bears are 4-2 in conference play, losing last night to the Vikings.  It's that kind of year in the Sky.

A Big Sky team that does get written about it is the Montana State Bobcats.  They sit at 4-2 in the BSC standings and two of those wins are against Northern Colorado and Portland State.  In addition, they have a win against UCSB, one of the better teams in the Big West.  Bobby Howard leads the team in scoring (13.9ppg) and is second in rebounding (5.2 rbpg).  Brandon Johnson leads in robounding (6.1) and scores 10 ppg.
Erik Rush scores 12.6 ppg and pulls down 4.4 boards, and Marquis Navarre averages 11.5 ppg.

But right behind these three current conference leaders are Portland State at 3-2, and Montana 4-3. Eastern Washington (2-3) hosts Northern Colorado tonight.  An Eagles win thrusts them into the race, too.  Right now, though, it looks like a 5 team race, with a slight edge in favor of Northern Colorado and Weber State.  The determining factor will probably be which team can play best on the road.