Overview:
UCSB’s men’s basketball team won 20 consecutive Senior Night games from 1999 to 2018
An ancient Greek myth tells us that a swan will sing a beautiful tune just before taking its final breath.
Nowhere does the Legend of the Swan Song ring truer than during Senior Night at UC Santa Barbara’s Thunderdome.
Lucius Davis belted out the national anthem before his final basketball game there in 1992. He gave an encore performance on the 2013 Senior Night when he was officially enshrined as a “Legend of the Dome.”
If past really is prologue, the Gauchos’ Aidan Mahaney, Hosana Kitenge and Evans Kipruto should enjoy their Senior Night moments on Saturday when UC San Diego visits the Thunderdome for a 6 p.m. basketball game.
UCSB won 20 straight Senior Night Games during one stretch, and several Gaucho Hall of Famers saved some of their best Thunderdome moments for last.
March 5, 1988
Brian Shaw was pulled from his Senior Night game with seven minutes left even though the Gauchos trailed UC Irvine, 64-60.
Jerry Pimm, UCSB’s Hall of Fame coach, wanted his future NBA star to refocus after he’d engaged the Anteaters’ Mike Labat in a verbal altercation.
“I just told him, ‘I want you to rest, I want you to sit here, calm down, and think about going back for the last two or three minutes,’” Pimm explained.
He sent Shaw back into the game with 3:31 left and he promptly scored six clutch points to rally the Gauchos to an 83-77 win.
“I think I was a little too psyched up with the emotional ceremony,” said Shaw, who would be named as the Gauchos’ first Big West Conference Player of the Year just a few days later.
“I was thinking about all the nice memories I’ve had since I’ve been here.”
He had enough of them that season to lead UCSB to its first NCAA Division I tournament bid.
Feb. 26, 1990
The Gauchos thought star guard Carrick DeHart would be unavailable for his Senior Night game against UNLV after spraining his ankle severely during the previous day’s practice.
“I was very upset,” said Eric McArthur, his senior running mate. “I couldn’t believe that it had happened. But he’s a tough kid.”
DeHart was tough enough to get trainer Harry Callihan to treat his ankle the entire night and then wrap it with thick duct tape the next day before going out for the opening tip.
He scored 24 points on one good leg to lead UCSB to a 78-70 upset.
DeHart slumped in exhaustion as he sat down on the scorer’s table to watch a sellout crowd surge onto the court in the wildest, mob-scene celebration in Gaucho history.
It was the Runnin’ Rebels’ last defeat before their run to the NCAA championship.
When asked afterward about UCSB’s own NCAA chances, DeHart replied, “Let the chips fall where they may.”
Houston soon fell to the Gauchos in the first round — UCSB’s only win in the March Madness of NCAA Division I basketball.
Feb. 24, 1992
Davis, the Big West Conference MVP, gave Gaucho fans a memorable encore to his Senior Night national anthem.
He scored 29 points in a 64-59 victory over a New Mexico State team that would eventually advance to the NCAA Sweet 16.
“This is just a great way to go out,” Davis said. “… There are no words I can use to express the feelings I have right now.”
His national anthem and Legend of the Dome ceremony 21 years later set the tone for the 2013 Gauchos to end a five-game losing streak by beating Pacific, 66-53.
Feb. 20, 1999
Bob Williams’ first Senior Night experience as UCSB’s coach got off to a rowdy start. The student section unleashed a blizzard of tortillas onto the floor after senior all-leaguer B.J. Bunton scored the Gauchos’ first basket.
The officials called a technical foul and awarded two free throws to Cal Poly.
“When you’re playing for a Big West championship, you don’t want to give them anything,” Williams said later.
UCSB has banned tortillas from the Thunderdome ever since.
The two free points awarded to Cal Poly became a moot point, however. Bunton got them back and more with a double-double of 26 points and 11 rebounds.
Fellow senior Josh Merrill made it a double double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds in the Gauchos’ 82-74 rout.
They would continue on to win the Big West’s Western Division — a startling reversal, considering they’d lost the first eight games of the season.
When the Senior Night game ended, the student fans recreated the glory days of a decade earlier by rushing the court.
“It was nice to see all those people out there,” Merrill said. “I’m definitely going to miss this place.
“I tell everyone, even all the recruits that I host, that there is no other place I’d rather have home games than this place when it’s packed.”
March 1, 2003
Mark Hull scored 13 points to beat UC Irvine in his last game at the Thunderdome, but he was in no mood for reflection.
“We’ve got two more to go,” he said of the Big West race. “We’re in the position where we want to be, but by no means is this the end for us.
“It’s just the beginning.”
Two games later, he helped UCSB clinch the first regular-season, Big West championship in school history.
March 6, 2004
All four of the Gaucho seniors contributed to an 89-61 Senior Night Smackdown of Long Beach State: Nick Jones with a season-high 20 points, Branduinn Fullove with 14, Jacoby Atako with six assists and Bryan Whitehead with eight rebounds.
“We started pretty good here, and so I just wanted to go out on a good note,” Jones said. “It’s all about loving the game and having fun.”
March 1, 2008
It took until halftime for Alex Harris, another Big West Player of the Year, to warm up for his Senior Night game against UC Riverside. He came alive to score 14 of his 18 points in the second half to overwhelm the Highlanders, 73-55.
Sophomore James Powell actually led the way by making 7-of-8 shots from the three-point line and scoring 24 points. Brian Shaw was among the fans cheering them on.
“My mind was everywhere,” Harris said. “I’m glad that James and the rest of the guys were able to play so well because I wasn’t able to focus tonight.”
March 3, 2012
The top one-two punch in UCSB basketball history — Orlando Johnson and James Nunnally — clobbered UC Davis on their Senior Night, 90-43.
Johnson scored 20 points while Nunnally netted 21 before they both continued on to pro careers that included time in the NBA.
The 47-point victory margin was the Gauchos’ largest in 41 years.
“Being here as a Gaucho, I wanted to give my best effort tonight, and definitely give them something to remember,” said Johnson, whose 1,825 career points remains a UCSB record.
He was honored as a Legend of the Dome at Thursday’s game against UC Riverside.
Another senior, Christian Peterson, decided to add a personal memory by making the first three-pointer of his career.
“I knew I could get away with taking one tonight — he was subbing me anyways,” Peterson said. “I was a loose cannon.”
March 6, 2014
The fans were fashionably late, with just a sparse crowd on hand for the pregame Senior Night ceremony.
“When the game started, it seemed like it was a scrimmage with nobody in the stands,” senior guard Kyle Boswell said.
But the crowd had swelled to 4,019 by the time Boswell was lighting up Hawai’i with 17 points in an 86-77 win.
The game was marred, however, by a bizarre incident that was later replayed on national news.
A student wearing a shirt that said “Class of 2014” rushed the court to confront Hawai‘i coach Gib Arnold.
He was pulled away by one of Hawai‘i’s players and quickly escorted off the court by Bob Brontsema, the school’s former baseball coach and assistant athletic director.
The student was later suspended from school for two terms.
He also lost his cell phone, dropping it onto the court during the altercation.
When one of the referees picked it up during the resumption of play, UCSB’s student section began chanting, “Call … his … mom! Call … his … mom!”
March 7, 2015
On the eve of their Senior Night, point guard Zalmico Harmon could see how seriously classmate Alan Williams was taking their final game at the Thunderdome.
“I saw him in here about an hour before everybody, and he was getting his work in and shooting his shots,” Harmon said.
Big Al, who would later play parts of four NBA seasons, was making up for lost time: He had missed nearly half of the Big West season with a shoulder injury.
He celebrated his Senior Night by shouldering the load in a 64-56 win over Cal Poly, notching his 48th double-double with 26 points and 19 rebounds.
Feb. 23, 2017
Even a woeful 6-22 season — derailed by ineligibilities and injuries which sidelined the likes of future NBA pro Gabe Vincent — had its swan song end on a high note.
Senior point guard Eric Childress surpassed the 20-point mark for the first time in his 122-game UCSB career by scoring 21 in a 68-61 victory over UC Riverside.
“It felt surreal,” he said.
It felt familiar to coach Williams. The victory capped his 19-year Gaucho tenure with a Senior Night record of 19-0.
“We’ve had some pretty good seniors who’ve had some pretty spectacular nights,” he said.
Just before the game, Childress advised his younger teammates to “Try to take each day for what it is and try not to go too fast … Work as hard as you can because time flies by, and it’s not going to wait for you.”
March 3, 2018
Vincent, who still ranks 11th on UCSB’s all-time scoring list with 1,441 points, wanted to share the spotlight during his final game at the Thunderdome.
He shared the basketball with his teammates, handing out a game-high seven assists in their 86-61 victory over Cal Poly.
It marked the Gauchos’ 20th consecutive Senior Night victory.
Their 27-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio set a school record, and the 27 assists ranked as the fifth most in a UCSB game.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been part of a game with those type of numbers,” coach Joe Pasternack said afterward.
“Gabe has had a great career here,” he added. “This was a great way to have him go out.
“He is our team-leader. He doesn’t have to make shots to make us better, he just has to do what he does, which is lead and be unselfish.”
March 7, 2020
UCSB star Max Heidegger, one of only two departing Gauchos, sat on the sidelines with a severely sprained ankle on his Senior Night.
But junior JaQuori McLaughlin made it a memorable night nonetheless.
He launched a pullup jumper that glanced off the front of the rim, kissed the backboard softly and settled through the hoop at the final buzzer to cap a wild, 69-67, comeback victory over Blue-Green Rival Cal Poly 69-67.
McLaughlin admitted that he “actually stumbled a little” while going up for the shot.
“When we fell behind by 13 in the second half, we kept coming together as a team during timeouts,” he said.
“The crowd was great tonight … This is what it’s all about.”
It was also their last game altogether: The emerging COVID-19 pandemic prompted the cancellation of all postseason basketball tournaments the following week.
March 6, 2021
The atmosphere at the Thunderdome had completely flipped during McLaughlin’s Senior Night: College basketball was played in empty arenas while the pandemic spread throughout the country.
The Gauchos were still able to win all 11 of their home games, finishing with a 70-54, Senior Night victory over Cal Poly.
“It’s just been such an amazing journey since last March, not getting to be with our players except on Zoom in April, then May, June, July and August,” Pasternack said after the final home win. “Sept. 12 was the first time we were actually able to see our players.
“They were away from us for six months, and then it all began on the tennis courts, lifting weights and shooting on Dick’s Sporting Goods baskets for six weeks.”
They won 18 of 19 games during a 10-week stretch run, sweeping through the Big West tournament, before losing a 63-62 heartbreaker to fifth-seeded Creighton in the NCAA tournament.
March 4, 2023
UCSB added to its Senior Night celebration by cutting down the Thunderdome nets after clinching the Big West Conference co-championship with UC Irvine with an 81-61 victory over Hawai‘i.
“The overall experience, the life here, has meant so much,” senior guard Calvin Wishart said after scoring 15 points in his final home game.
“I want to live here and now, on top of all of that, the basketball experience of being able to cut down nets in the T-dome tonight was special.”
Sophomore Ajay Mitchell, the Big West Player of the Year and future star of the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, was one of three Gauchos to register a double-double, getting 10 points and 11 assists.
Miles Norris (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Andre Kelly (12 points 10 rebounds) closed the door on their Thunderdome careers with a bang.
“Cutting down those nets here after the game was special,” Norris said. “We knew what we had at stake.
“But we’re not comfortable. Monday we go to Vegas and take that a game at a time, but we’re still not there right now. We still got more to prove.”
They did just that, setting a Gaucho record for victories with their 27-8 mark and winning the Big West Tournament to advance to the NCAA Division I tournament for the seventh time in school history.
That’s the same destination of a journey that UCSB will continue when it tips off against UC San Diego on Saturday for another Senior Night.
