Overview:
Aggies did not forfeit despite pulling out of last week’s game at Fullerton ‘due to limited student-athlete availability’
UC Santa Barbara played itself back to the top of the Big West Conference basketball standings last week …
… And it can be knocked back down before anybody plays even one more game.
The laws of physics say that’s impossible. But the ridiculous laws of the NCAA and the Big West make it so.
League bylaws state that any basketball team with less than three available reserves can cancel a game as a “no contest.”
Article 7 of the NCAA’s “Men’s Basketball Rules Book,” meanwhile, decrees that a team shall not be penalized with a forfeit if it declares a “no contest.”
In other words, if you’re shorthanded, it pays to not play.
In such an unsporting world, injury-plagued UC Davis can end the championship hopes of the injury-plagued Gauchos by canceling Thursday’s 6 p.m. game in Northern California.
Improbable, right?
Don’t tell that to Cal State Fullerton (18-12, 12-6), the league’s hottest team with six-straight wins. It had its own title hopes quashed by Aggie decree last week.
UC Davis canceled its Clash of the Titans in Fullerton by announcing that it was “unable to compete” in Thursday’s contest “due to limited student-athlete availability.”
“We are disappointed that we cannot compete in this critical late-season contest,” UC Davis athletic director Rocko DeLuca said in a university statement.
“However, after consulting with our medical professionals, it is clear that, while difficult, this is the best decision for our student-athletes’ health and well-being.”
The Big West does not replay a “no contest,” which means that Fullerton can finish no better than 13-6 in league play.
That leaves the Titans virtually no chance of catching all three co-leaders, especially with UC Irvine and UC Riverside (both 20-10 and 13-5) playing each other this Thursday.
UC Davis (17-12, 10-7) could hang on to the sixth seed for the upcoming Big West Tournament — gaining the event’s last first round bye — by not playing this week’s home games against UCSB and seventh-place Long Beach State (16-14, 10-8).
I won’t insult the Aggies by suggesting they would exaggerate the medical condition of their players to improve their situation. I know schools that would, however, especially with NCAA Tournament money at stake.
Why offer that possibility?
A cancellation should be a forfeit. That’s how no-shows are treated in the normal world, no matter their excuse.
Seven Is Enough
The Aggies did play their Saturday game at last-place Cal Poly (7-23, 1-17), winning 58-52, even though they played only two reserves.
The irony must’ve stirred some raging ire in Fullerton.
Teams often play with less than eight. John Wooden won the last of his 10 NCAA basketball championships by using only six UCLA players to defeat Kentucky in the 1975 final.
Three of his Bruins — Richard Washington, Dave Meyers and Pete Trgovich — played all 40 minutes.
So Wooden wasn’t smart or prudent enough to play at least eight?
The UCSB women’s basketball team soldiered through three straight games with only seven players during the opt-out, COVID-19 season of 2020-2021.
Coach Bonnie Henrickson had only eight available for the majority of that season. But she never considered opting out of a game.
It’s un-American.
Both UCSB’s men (22-7, 13-5) and Long Beach have a lot to lose if UC Davis declares more “no contests” this week. It’s difficult to tell what the Aggies are thinking since they’ve offered few details about their situation and withhold all injury reports.
“We need a good 24 to 48 hours of rest to tell us how many guys we can go into battle with,” coach Jim Les told reporters after Saturday’s win at Cal Poly.
“We’ll just keep plugging along and we’ll be ready to go on Thursday and Saturday.”
Les, a former NBA sharpshooter, played in 1990 for the Santa Barbara Islanders of the old Continental Basketball Association.
Those who know him best consider him a noble competitor who is genuinely concerned about his players’ health. They say it pained him to cancel the Fullerton game.
But these incredibly bad optics injure a league that has been struggling to earn respect in the Division I basketball world.
Anteater Women Entered Hibernation
UC Irvine’s women’s team declared two “no contests” — canceling games against, ironically enough, UC Davis and Cal Poly — after leading scorer Hunter Hernandez suffered a season-ending knee injury at UCSB on Feb. 15. She was the third starter that the Anteaters had lost for the season.
They returned to play their last two games with eight players, winning both to stay in contention for the league title with a 14-2 record. Long Beach State leads at 16-2, with UCSB, 19-9 overall, locked into third place with a 12-6 record.
The Big West declared last week that, for both the men and women, the school with the highest winning percentage would be declared regular-season champion and the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament.
It made sense during the COVID-19 pandemic season of 2020-2021 that “no contests” would not be counted as forfeited losses. But there’s no good reason for that approach now.
The NCAA allows a basketball roster of 15 players, plus redshirts. UCSB augments its basketball team with plenty of quality walk-ons. Its bench has remained full even when injuries occur.
The Gaucho men had just eight scholarship players available for last week’s game against Long Beach.
Four capable walk-ons were willing and able to go, however. One of them, former Arroyo Grande High star Gage Gomez, even got some playing time during the first half.
“We’re not a program that makes any excuses,” head coach Joe Pasternack said afterward. “It’s next man up. It’s life. It’s college basketball.”
No Pain, No Gain
Most athletes must play through ailments, anyway. The greatest of them reach their greatest heights in spite of them.
Ronnie Lott of the San Francisco 49ers played in a 1985 NFL playoff game despite crushing a finger that had to be amputated. He would’ve given another finger to anybody who suggested he shouldn’t play.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling won Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series despite bleeding from some crude, pregame surgery that sutured a tendon to his ankle tissue. You would’ve had to drag him off that mound, kicking that ankle and screaming.
And if you think this argument has no leg to stand on, also consider:
- Tiger Woods’ triumph at the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken leg and torn ACL.
- Jack Youngblood playing defensive end on a broken leg for three NFL playoff games while leading the Los Angeles Rams to the 1980 Super Bowl.
- Kerri Strug sticking the landing for her vault on a badly sprained ankle to give the U.S. gymnastics team a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games.
Need a basketball example?
Michael Jordan was nauseous with the flu when he scored 38 points in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. I shudder to think what would’ve come out of Jordan’s mouth had anyone tried to bench him that night.
UCSB’s Josh Pierre-Louis turned his aching back on those who thought he should sit out Saturday’s basketball game at UC San Diego.
He spent a full Friday in the training room before scoring 14 points, grabbing four rebounds, handing out three assists and leading the defense in 30 valiant minutes of basketball on Saturday.
“Josh gutted it out,” Pasternack said after the Gauchos’ 87-71 victory put them back into first place.
That’s what sports is all about.
It’s not the winning. It’s the playing.