GREELEY — Northern Colorado coach B.J. Hill brought the Bears back to reality over the weekend.
UNC won the Big Sky men’s championship Wednesday with an 84-54 victory over Sacramento State. UNC celebrated, but the only reward for winning the regular-season title is hosting the conference tournament’s semifinals and championship game. The true reward goes to the tournament winner — an automatic bid to the 68-team NCAA Tournament.
So the Bears (19-10) went back to work, trying to add something spectacular to an already successful season.
The work ahead begins Tuesday when UNC plays Northern Arizona (19-11) at 8 p.m. at the Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion. Montana (20-9) and Weber State (18-11) play the first semi-final at 5:30 p.m. The winners meet Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“I don’t know who’s talking about the NCAA Tournament,” Hill said Sunday after a late-morning practice. “We have a lot of work ahead.”
The Bears lost to all three teams on the road. But the Big Sky Tournament is in Greeley, where the Bears beat all three teams and were 12-0.
“Before we can do any dancing, we have to handle our business this week,” UNC senior forward Chris Kaba said. “We had a really hard practice Saturday and another good practice today, and we’ll have another good practice (today).”
The four Big Sky semifinal teams practice today at Butler-Hancock, bringing a tournament atmosphere to Greeley.
“We’re staying focused on the fact that our next game always is the most important one of our season,” said UNC senior forward Neal Kingman, a Greeley West graduate. “But if we could get to the (NCAA) tournament, it would make Greeley a basketball town.”
Getting an NCAA Tournament bid also would put UNC in the classification of a Cinderella team. Each year it seems a team from a little-known school scares or even eliminates one of the college basketball powers.
“On any given night, anybody can beat anybody,” Kingman said. “But it would be great for a little school like ours to make some noise nationally.”
The key for the Bears is getting the opportunity.
