2021 Frontier Conference Tournament Bracket
Quarterfinals
February 25th
No. 6 Rocky Mountain at No. 3 Montana Tech
No. 5 Montana Western at No. 4 MSU-Northern
Semifinals
February 27th
No. 4 MSU – Northern @ No. 1 Providence 7pm MT Live Video
No. 3 Montana Tech at No. 2 Carroll College 7pm MT Live Video
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.
Semifinal Game Notes:
No. 4 Montana St Northern @ No. 1 Providence 7pm MT Live Video
Providence 4-0
This MSU-Northern team has won 2 straight now after losing 7 in a row prior. ZDK and Providence will look to continue to their dominance of the Frontier Conference this year.
No. 3 Montana Tech at No. 2 Carroll College 7pm MT Live Video
Season series tied 2-2
Montana Tech did get blown out twice at Carroll earlier this semester, but Sindou Diallo is too good of a player to let that happen again. Jovan Slijivancan for Carroll has been really tough his entire career. He’s a kid with great tournament experience and will look to lead Carroll to another Frontier Conference Title game.
OTHER NOTES:
The Frontier is a (1) auto-bids league. The winner of the FC Tourney will get the auto-bid.
Best Quarterfinal Game: #3 Montana Tech @ #No.. 2 Carroll.
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.
NAIA Hoops Report top 25
Not that our Top 25 was ever more than a fun thing to look at anyway, but just wanted to reemphasize that this is NOT
NAIA Top Non-Conf Games
One of the articles that, unfortunately, was pulled from this year’s magazine was the Non-Conference games that we have circled to watch! These are simply
NAIA Hoops Report Preseason Magazine
Sorry again for the delay on getting this out! I want to thank you all for your patience as we worked through getting this out
the narrative is changing…
There is still plenty of work to be done, but this offseason certainly has a different feel to it. Division 1’s hitting us up asking
NAIA to D1 – Elijah Malone Sets 1st round of Visits
Every year we see a handful of NAIA players who transfer to NCAA D1 programs. We have actually seen quite a few in the past
NAIA FAB FOUR PREVIEW
And then…there were four. A Fab Four, to say the least, as we have all four 1-seeds making it to the NAIA semifinals for the
