But the grand opening - and two more games - will be.
Salish Kootenai College officially christens its $5.5 million facility with games against Little Bighorn College Monday night.
The games against Little Bighorn, originally scheduled for last month, were postponed because the basketball floor wasn't quite ready.
Since then the floor has been finished and the Bison have played in their new home. The Montana-Western JV squads visited Pablo on Dec. 2 and 3.
But SKC - which plays an independent schedule against a collection of tribal and junior colleges and NAIA junior varsity teams - wanted the official unveiling of the new gym to come against another tribal college.
So the hoopla was postponed until Little Bighorn could be rescheduled.
The schools engaged in some entertaining games last season, and the SKC men averaged more than 120 points in four victories over the Rams. The Bison women split their two meetings against Little Bighorn at Crow Agency, losing 90-80 and winning 78-67 the next night.
Thus come Monday's games. The teams will again have rematches the next night. The women play at 5 p.m. Tuesday, followed by the men at approximately 7 p.m.
The Salish Kootenai College men and women are both defending national champions, having won the season-ending American Indian Higher Education Consortium tournament last season.
The college's new gym, which seats 2,200, is named for SKC President Joe McDonald, who helped to found the school 30 years ago.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com
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