| Year: | 2016 |
| Conference: | Big Sky Conference |
| Division: | I |
| Gender: | Men's |
| Teams: | 12 |
| Arena: | Reno Events Center |
| City: | Reno, Nevada |
| Champions: | Weber State |
| Titlecount: | 10th |
| Coach: | Randy Rahe |
| Coachcount: | 3rd |
| Mvp: | Jeremy Senglin |
| Mvpteam: | Weber State |
| Television: | ESPNU (final) |
The 2016 Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 7–12 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada. This was the first Big Sky tournament at a neutral site and the first to include all twelve conference members.[1] The top two seeds met in the final; regular season champion Weber State defeated Montana and advanced to the NCAA tournament.
All 12 Big Sky schools participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference season record, with the top four teams receiving a first round bye. A tiebreaker system was used to seed teams with identical conference records.
| Seed | School | Conference | Tiebreaker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weber State | 15–3 | |
| 2 | Montana | 14–4 | |
| 3 | Idaho | 12–6 | |
| 4 | Idaho State | 11–7 | |
| 5 | North Dakota | 10–8 | 1–1 vs. Weber State |
| 6 | Eastern Washington | 10–8 | 0–1 vs. Weber State |
| 7 | Montana State | 9–9 | |
| 8 | Portland State | 8–10 | |
| 9 | Northern Colorado | 7–11 | |
| 10 | Sacramento State | 6–12 | |
| 11 | Northern Arizona | 3–15 | 1–1 vs. Idaho State |
| 12 | Southern Utah | 3–15 | 0–2 vs. Idaho State |
| Session | Game | Time* | Matchup# | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round – Tuesday, March 8 | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 12:05 pm |
| 74–67 | |
| 2 | 2:35 pm |
| 85–80 | ||
| 3 | 5:35 pm |
| 75–79 | ||
| 4 | 8:05 pm |
| 74–52 | ||
| Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 10 | |||||
| 2 | 5 | 12:05 pm |
| 78–74 | |
| 6 | 2:35 pm |
| 49–83 | ||
| 7 | 5:35 pm |
| 70–53 | ||
| 8 | 8:05 pm |
| 77–73 | ||
| Semifinals – Friday, March 11 | |||||
| 3 | 9 | 5:35 pm |
| 83–78OT | |
| 10 | 8:05 pm |
| 81–72 | ||
| Championship – Saturday, March 12 | |||||
| 4 | 10 | 5:45 pm |
| 62–59 | |
| |||||
* – denotes overtime period
[2]
The Wildcats received the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; no other Big Sky members were invited to the tournament or Weber State was seeded fifteenth in the East regional and lost to Xavier in the first round It was the tenth consecutive year that the Big Sky representative lost in the first round.