2006 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2006 Big Sky men's basketball tournament was held March 4–8, with the final two rounds at the Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, Arizona, home of regular season champion Northern Arizona.

2006 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2005–06
Teams	6
First round site	campus sites
Semifinals site	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, Arizona
Finals site	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, Arizona
Champions	Montana (6th title)
Winning coach	Larry Krystkowiak (2nd title)
MVP	Virgil Matthews (Montana)
Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournaments ← 2005 2007 →

2005–06 Big Sky men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Northern Arizona	12	–	2		.857			21	–	11		.656
Montana †	10	–	4		.714			24	–	7		.774
Eastern Washington	9	–	5		.643			15	–	15		.500
Montana State	7	–	7		.500			15	–	15		.500
Sacramento State	5	–	9		.357			15	–	15		.500
Portland State	5	–	9		.357			12	–	16		.429
Idaho State	4	–	10		.286			13	–	14		.481
Weber State	4	–	10		.286			10	–	17		.370
† 2006 Big Sky tournament winner

Second-seeded Montana defeated host Northern Arizona in the championship game, 73–60, to win their sixth Big Sky tournament title.^[1]

Format

Conference membership remained at eight. Similar to the previous year, the top six teams in the regular season conference standings participated in the tournament. The top two earned byes into the semifinals while the remaining four played in the quarterfinals, which were played on Saturday at the home court of the higher seed. The lowest remaining seed met the top seed in the semifinals on Tuesday.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals Saturday, March 4					Semifinals Tuesday, March 7					Championship Wednesday, March 8
						1	Northern Arizona	98
						5	Sacramento State	83
	4	Montana State	70
	5	Sacramento State]	71
											1	Northern Arizona	60
	(Pairings are reseeded after the first round)
											2	Montana	73
	3	Eastern Washington	81
	6	Portland State	75
						2	Montana	73
						3	Eastern Washington	71

NCAA tournament

Montana earned the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and no other Big Sky members were invited. Seeded twelfth in the Minneapolis regional (Midwest), the Grizzlies upset Nevada in the first round at Salt Lake City.^[2] They were stopped in the next round by Boston College.^[3]

The Big Sky has had a berth in the NCAA tournament since 1968, and Montana was the conference's ninth and most recent team to advance.

Northern Arizona was invited to the 40-team NIT, but lost in the first round to Delaware State.