Overview:
UCSB gears up for a schedule of six non-conference home games that begins on November 2nd against San Francisco State
The name Ajay Mitchell echoes in the ears of UC Santa Barbara sophomore C.J. Shaw.
Shaw, emerging star of the Gaucho basketball team, can’t help but see his UCSB forefather in his dreams.
His NBA dreams.
Mitchell, current star of the Oklahoma City Thunder, blazed a trail that Shaw seeks to follow.
“Coach P says his name every day, all day in practice,” Shaw said of UCSB coach Joe Pasternack. “It’s ‘Have you seen Ajay Mitchell do this? … Have you seen him do that?’
“Like, you don’t ever hear the end of it around here.
“After a week or two, you might get tired of it — but you can’t go wrong with it because Ajay Mitchell is a really great person.”
Pasternack believes one of Mitchell’s greatest assists came immediately after UCSB’s loss to UC Davis in last year’s Big West Conference Tournament opener.
Shaw had battled valiantly, scoring a team-best 20 points, but the defeat had been soul-crushing.
And then … “I literally got a text from Ajay right after the game,” he told Noozhawk.
Mitchell was bent on heading off the mob of power-conference schools that were poised to recruit Shaw away from UCSB.
“He texted me to tell me what he thought,” Shaw said. “He told me to keep trusting Coach P and all the other coaches.
“He was (Big West Conference) Player of the Year as a sophomore and almost every college — every one — and all the agents were coming after him.”
Mitchell told Shaw that he took the time to discuss his college future with his mother.
“He said they decided to trust Coach P,” Shaw said, “and Ajay obviously just stayed the course — stayed at Santa Barbara — and it got him to the NBA.
“He told me that if I just stay focused, and trust the coaches, and X out all the outside noise, that I’ll get to where I want to be.”
Where he wanted to be on Tuesday was UCSB’s official start of practice for the 2026-2027 season.
Tickets also went on sale this week, with the Nov. 2 season opener against San Francisco State looming barely a month away.
“We’ve gotten the highest demand for season tickets that we’ve ever had,” Pasternack said.
That Championship Season
Mitchell’s sophomore season at UCSB is the stuff of Gaucho legend.
He won the 2023 Big West Conference Player of the Year Award while leading the Gauchos to a record-setting 27-8 season, a Big West championship and an NCAA tournament berth.
It put Mitchell’s name on the boards of every mock NBA draft after his junior season of 2024.
He was picked in the second round and earned an NBA championship ring during his rookie year with Oklahoma City.
That progression wasn’t lost on Shaw.
“C.J. really looks up to Ajay,” Pasternack said.
“He’s obviously like a big brother to the team and to me,” Shaw said. “We had lunch together … He works out with us.
“He’s just a great guy.”
Mitchell’s value to the Gaucho program became obvious last March when he convinced Shaw to resist following teammates Jason Fontenet, Zion Sensley and Colin Smith into the NCAA transfer portal.
UCSB added Mitchell to its staff as general manager of the basketball program just a few months later.
“Ajay Mitchell was the only Freshman of the Year from a midmajor conference that season to stay put at his school,” Pasternack pointed out. “He’s going to sign a long-term, NBA max contract someday, and I think our players see that and realize that you don’t have to run away.
“C.J. could have transferred to any school he wanted, but he saw the value of the university, the degree, the academics … and he loves this basketball program.”
Mitchell and Shaw have much in common even beyond their height as 6-foot-5 guards and their quick first steps to the basket.
Both received all-conference honors in their first seasons at UCSB.
Mitchell made the first team while winning the league’s Freshman of the Year Award in 2022.
Shaw earned Big West honorable mention last season after tying the freshman school scoring record of 391 points that Amadou Sow had set in 2019.
Shaw’s per-game average of 12.2 points ranks second to the record of 12.8 that Ricky “Tex” Walker set more than a half-century ago during his freshman season of 1973-1974.
But above all, Mitchell and Shaw are both firmly connected with family in all aspects of their lives.
High Roller
Pasternack learned that a few years ago when he began to recruit Shaw out of Las Vegas’ Mojave High School.
“C.J. has two great parents and a great high school coach,” he said. “It’s really refreshing to see in college basketball these days, with all the agents and all the leaving you see after just one year.
“You really find out who people are in these types of situations, and you know it was just his high school coach, his mom, his dad and him.
“It really reminded me of the old days when that’s who was involved in the decision making, and not outside people trying to make money off a player like C.J.”
Pasternack’s persistence was at full throttle during Shaw’s high school recruitment.
“If I wasn’t answering his call, he was next talking to my mom,” he said. “If Mom wasn’t answering, he was talking to my aunt … my uncle … It would just keep going down the line.”
Shaw actually played center in the youth leagues of Las Vegas. The COVID-19 epidemic, however, prompted a pivotal change in his game.
“I fell in love with basketball more during the quarantine era, when I was in eighth grade,” Shaw said. “My coaches still had the gym open for me, and not a lot of people had that during the COVID year.
“I was in the gym in the early mornings, late nights, still working on my game.
“That was a big blessing … It’s when I developed my game on the outside perimeter, and that helped get me to where I am now.”
Shaw led Mojave High to Nevada State 4A championships during both his freshman and sophomore years.
He averaged 21.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 3.6 assists for his four-year career.
He was named as Nevada’s Gatorade Player of the Year and nominated as a McDonald’s All-American during his senior year.
Shaw, however, didn’t start hearing from any high-major recruiters until just before that school year.
He signed a national letter of intent with UCSB just a few months later, on Nov. 14, 2024.
“What led me to Santa Barbara was, honestly, coach P calling me every day to tell me what his goals would be for me,” Shaw said after a workout last week. “I also wanted to major in marine biology, and that played a major factor.”
He looked around the Thunderdome court and added, “This is a perfect place to be.”
“Great coaching, great people surrounding me, and a great place to get to the next level,” he said.
Shooting Star
JPR, an online basketball analytical service, recently listed Shaw on its list of “under-the-radar midmajor NBA Draft prospects.”
His elite shooting ability can take him far. His three-point percentage of .432 (41-for-95) would’ve led the Big West had he taken a few more shots.
Shaw made 51.7% of his total field-goal attempts (125-for-242) and 82.6% of his free throws (100-for-121) to rank No. 8 in the Big West.
But he regards the Portland game of last Dec. 22 — a contest in which he scored just 10 points — to be his fondest freshman memory.
“I got 11 assists, and a double-double,” he pointed out.
Shaw had no turnovers that night despite taking over the point-guard position from injured star Miro Little just three games earlier.
Little is back this season after having missed 14 games last year.
“Injuries were the main factor for our (18-14) record last year,” Shaw said. “We were all hurt, lost in the first round, and obviously we’re coming back for it this year.”
Little, a veteran starter on Finland’s national team, and Jordan Charles, a lightning-quick freshman from Canada, should allow Shaw to remain at his natural position.
“I’m more of an off-the-ball guard,” he said, “either coming off a down screen or getting a play made for me to go downhill and make plays for others.”
Mitchell motivated him this summer to add more muscle to his 6-5 frame.
“He played a couple scrimmages with us and was really tough to guard,” Shaw said. “He’s big … He’s gotten really strong and he gets to the hoop.”
He expects the Gauchos’ rim protection to improve significantly this season with the players they’ve recruited from the transfer portal.
They include a trio of front-court players in 6-10 Eric Dibami from Florida International, 6-9 Antonio Chol from New Mexico, and 6-8 Declan Duru Jr. from Texas.
“We’ll have actual bigs this year,” he said.
“And the guards we got with V (Viljami Vartiainen from Weber State) and R.J. (Smith from DePaul) will also help build the team and make it better and better.
“I think it’s a great team … one that will make a fun run to the tournament.”
The Gauchos haven’t made it to March Madness since Mitchell led them there in 2023.
Another guard named Shaw guided UCSB to its first NCAA Division I tournament in 1988.
Brian Shaw played in the NBA for 14 years, won three championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers, and has coached in the league ever since. He’s now on the staff of the Los Angeles Clippers.
“I’ve never met him .. we’re not related,” C.J. Shaw said, “but everyone around here asks me if I am, almost every day.”
No problem, he added. Hearing about past Gaucho greats is now a daily routine.
