Frontier Conference Tournament – Championship Preview

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

No. 3 Montana Tech at No. 2 Carroll College 67-62

Finals

March 2nd

#2 Carroll @ #1 Providence 7pm MT Live Video

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.

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. Jovan Sljivancan has been so fun to watch over the past few years. His Carroll team has won

UPSET SPECIAL:

#3 Montana Tech – Eliminated in Semifinals

Championship Game Notes:

#2 Carroll @ #1 Providence 7pm MT Live Video

Providence 3-1

Another game in which bubble teams will be watching intently. Although we believe that Carroll has done enough late in the season to get in win or lose. Zachheus Darko-Kelly has once again proven that he is amongst the NAIA’s best. The best thing is that he can do it without scoring as well. He impacts the game on so many different levels. We can still remember watching him burst onto the scene as a Freshman at Montana Western and have enjoyed watching him grow these past few years. Same with Jovan Sljivancan, two kids who have been on the NAIA big stage and performed well. Going to be fun watching these two go at it again!

OTHER NOTES:

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

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.