TrueBlue82 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 The long-awaited  Summit/Big Sky Challenge opens tonight, with Summit schools hosting five of the nine games (the Big Sky will have the 5-4 home court advantage on Saturday). According to the Vegas line, the Big Sky is favored 5-4 tonight, which would put the Summit in a difficult position to win the Challenge, especially since ORU's home matchup with Weber State on Saturday is a toss-up (at best). The Summit League is ranked as the #23 conference according to NET rankings this year, while the Big Sky is #17, so a win in the Challenge could be an opportunity for the Summit to move higher in the rankings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodak651 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 I worry that this may get ugly for the Summit League. Highly doubt UND will be of any help. Sorry... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 7 hours ago, nodak651 said: I worry that this may get ugly for the Summit League. Highly doubt UND will be of any help. Sorry... The first four games (all Summit home games due to the Central Time Zone) have reached halftime, and the Big Sky leads three of four (and the only Summit lead is from Omaha, and the Mavs are only up by one). Your prediction of ugly looks pretty good so far, nodak651. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasgrip Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 10 hours ago, nodak651 said: I worry that this may get ugly for the Summit League. Highly doubt UND will be of any help. Sorry... Welp, ORU did their part. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 On the men's side, Big Sky leads 5-4 at the halfway mark. For the women, Summit leads 5-4 after Wednesday's play. The challenge awards 1.5 points for a road win and 1 point for a home win. Combined, the score is now 11-11. The first tie-breaker is margin of victory, which the Summit leads 1,375 to 1,365. Pretty amazing that it is that balanced! 2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Old Titan Posted January 4 Popular Post Share Posted January 4 Full confession:Â my initial reaction to this whole deal was kind of "meh...", but in hindsight Wednesday night was a lot of fun, with all the games taking place at the same time and the obviously balanced competition. Looking forward to Saturday; still hoping something similar can someday be arranged with the Horizon League, and/ or the Mid-American & Missouri Valley conferences. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Couldn't agree more, OT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted January 7 Author Share Posted January 7 The Summit women win Saturday’s round 7-1/2 to 4, to stake the Summit to a 3-1/2 point margin before the nine men’s games. The Big Sky takes two of three afternoon games on the men’s side, to cut the Summit advantage to 2-1/2 with six evening games to play. The nine women’s games also increased the Summit League margin of victory by 62 points, in case a tiebreaker is necessary.  Unfortunately, the Big Sky is favored in five of the six remaining games, so the Summit will need an upset or two to prevail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted January 7 Author Share Posted January 7 Assuming that Montana will defeat South Dakota at home (up by 15 in the second half), the Summit League/Big Sky Challenge will end in a 21.5 to 21.5 tie, which is pretty impressive after 36 total games. As to the tie-breaker, by my back-of-the-napkin math, unless Montana defeats South Dakota by 103 points, the Summit League will win the initial Summit/Big Sky Challenge. Kudos to Summit newcomer St. Thomas for capturing the full ten points possible by sweeping all four games, both home and away. Also thankful that Western Illinois dropped out of the league after last season. I'm pretty sure the Leathernecks' participation would have snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory for the Summit League.   6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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