Frontier Conference Tournament Preview

2021 Frontier Conference Tournament Bracket

Quarterfinals

February 25th

No. 6 Rocky Mountain at No. 3 Montana Tech 7pm MT Live Video

No. 5 Montana Western at No. 4 MSU-Northern 7pm MT Live Video

Semifinals

February 27th

Lowest remaining seed at No. 1 University of Providence

Highest remaining seed at No. 2 Carroll College

Finals

March 2nd

League Notes:

The top seed: #10 Providence
NAIA Locks: Providence
NAIA Bubble Teams: Carroll
Best chances to win this tournament: Providence, Carroll

Possible sleeper: Montana Tech

KEY PLAYERS:

Zaccheus Darko-Kelly – Providence: 18.7ppg, 8.9rpg, 5.8apg

One of the NAIA’s best players. ZDK will flirt with a triple-double on almost every night. Late in games they use him a lot as the primary ball handler and he’s such a great playmaker for himself and others. Leads his team in every major statistical category.

Sindou Diallo – Montana Tech: 24.7ppg, 4.0rpg, 2,5apg

Diallo is so good. If it weren’t for ZDK, he would be the Conference Player of the Year. The All-American leads the Frontier in scoring and is one of the toughest players to stop in the league.

Jovan Sljivancan – Carroll: 18.8ppg, 9.5rpg, 3.3apg

Jovan burst onto the scene as a Freshman when Carroll made a big run at the NAIA D1 National Tournament. He’s a tough matchup at 6’5 and is such a smart/headsy player.

KEY TEAMS:

#1 Providence – The heavy favorite to win the Tournament. ZDK and Marcus Stephens provide Providence with a ton of punch. ZDK is one of the best players in the NAIA and is so fun to watch.

#2Carroll – One of the best shooting teams in the NAIA. When they get hot they are tough to beat.

UPSET SPECIAL:

#3 Montana Tech – Led by Diallo, this is a talented group that can play spoiler in this tournament.

Quarterfinal Game Notes:

No. 6 Rocky Mountain at No. 3 Montana Tech 7pm MT Live Video

Montana Tech 4-0

This Rocky team has only one win on the season. It’s been a brutal year for a program who was in the National Tournament not too long ago. Tech shouldn’t have any issues in this one!

No. 5 Montana Western at No. 4 MSU-Northern 7pm MT Live Video

Montana Western 3-1

Jalen Hodges is really good and Montana Western has played well against teams not named Providence and Carroll. MSU-Northern finally snapped a seven game losing streak in their final game of the regular season.

OTHER NOTES:

The Frontier is a (1) auto-bids league. The winner of the FC Tourney will get the auto-bid.

Best Quarterfinal Game: #5 Montana Western @ #4 MSU Northern.

Our Pick To Win It: Montana Tech – Why not, Providence is so talented and really good, but it’s tournament time and we are going to ride out Sindou Diallo. A player we have talked about quite a bit over the past two seasons.