The Frontier Conference Men’s Tournament gets underway this weekend in Great Falls with a pair of games on Sunday. Earlier this week, I bragged about how insanely accurate the Frontier Women’s coaches were in their pre-season picks, for both league standings and players on the year. You can read more about that HERE.

Hayden Diekhans drives-Picture courtesy of BnO Photography. BRIANNA OMARA
Hayden Diekhans drives-Picture courtesy of BnO Photography. BRIANNA OMARA
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Let’s now compare that to how the Men’s coaches thought it would shake out. The preseason standings looked like this. Each coach picked the conference from top to bottom. Each 1st place vote was worth 6 points, 2nd -5, 3rd- 4, etc. The total number of points was then added up to see where each team finished.

Carroll College (4) 24
Montana Tech (2) 22
UM Western 17
MSU Northern 11
Rocky 8
Providence 8

The Men’s coaches were not nearly as accurate in the preseason poll as the women (you still want the women to be buying your lottery tickets)

The final standings in the Frontier Men’s side ended this way:
Montana Tech (10) 12-3 24-4
MSU Northern 7-8 18-10
Carroll 7-8 13-13
Providence 7-8 13-15
Rocky 6-9 14-13
Western 6-9 11-17

Tech downs Carroll 86-79 Thursday at Kelvin Sampson Court. Photo: Tommy O/Townsquare Media
Tech downs Carroll 86-79 Thursday at Kelvin Sampson Court. Photo: Tommy O/Townsquare Media
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For the first time in over 25 years, a first-place team had a 5-game cushion over the second-place team in the Frontier. The truly crazy part of that 5-game cushion is that the conference season was incredibly competitive. Of the 45 games played, the home team won 31 times, and if memory serves correctly there were 5 or 6 nights where no road team won a game.

Home-court advantage has been such a huge factor this year, which is why I think this Conference tournament could be truly special this season, at a neutral venue. Montana Tech knows they will host a pod of the National Tournament (you can read about that HERE). So they know they don’t HAVE to win this tournament to get in (granted they want nothing more) In my opinion MSU Northern is in, they will have to travel to for their ‘pod’ ( If I’m wagering, they do NOT go to College of Idaho, maybe Arizona Christian,? maybe) But again, I do think they are in. If anyone else wants an invite into a pod they must win this tournament. I honestly believe with the tournament at a neutral site we could see some huge fireworks.

Belly drives v. Providence-Picture courtesy of BnO Photography. BRIANNA OMARA
Belly drives v. Providence-Picture courtesy of BnO Photography. BRIANNA OMARA
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The first games on the Men’s side are Sunday at the Four Season arena in Great Falls.
5pm
Rocky Mountain vs. Carroll College (Carroll went 3-0 against Rocky)
7pm
UM Western vs. MSU Northern (Western won the season series 2-1, winning one at home, one of the road)
The Winners will play either Montana Tech or Providence Monday, the lowest remaining seed will play Tech, the highest will play Providence.

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