March Madness is here, which means Cinderella stories and lesser-known schools will be garnering attention. One of them was St. Francis (PA), who punched its ticket to the Big Dance by winning the Northeast Conference Tournament despite being a sub-.500 team and having a $0 NIL budget.

On Wednesday, the Montana basketball team earned an automatic bid by defeating Northern Colorado, 91-83, in the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Montana was the No. 2 seed in the Big Sky and the Grizzlies have a 25-9 record, so they aren't the underdogs like St. Francis.

However, Montana put together an all-time offensive output in the Big Sky title game victory. The Grizzlies scored 48 first-half points and 43 in the second half. Four of the five Montana starters finished in double figures, with Kai Johnson leading the way with 24 points.

However, Montana put up some stats we haven't seen in years, as Jared Berson pointed out.

‘Montana in tonight’s Big Sky Championship Game:

– 65.2% from the field
– 63.6% from 3
– 85.7% from the line
– 10 turnovers– The Grizzlies are the first team in over 3 years to shoot 65-60-85 in a Division I game — and the first to do it with 10 or fewer turnovers in 13 years.'

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It was quite the barrage from the Montana basketball team. The Grizzlies rank third in field goal percentage in the country (49.8%) while being 58th in points scored (2,523 total points) and 104th in points per game (76.5).

They are also 89th in three-point shooting (35.5%), so it isn't all that surprising to see them score a lot of points. Still, putting up a 65-60-85 game is something we haven't seen in over three years in Division 1.

In Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology, he has Montana as a No. 14 seed facing No. 3 seed Kentucky in the West Region.

Nonetheless, Montana's seeding won't be known until the brackets are revealed on Selection Sunday, but this is a team that can do some damage in the Big Dance.