A March Madness basketball double-header comes around for UC Santa Barbara as often as Halley’s Comet.
Only once in the lifetimes of the Gaucho men and women have both made it to the NCAA Tournament during the same season.
Those worlds collided only in 2002. The 14th-seeded men barely lost to No. 3 Arizona in the regional at Albuquerque, New Mexico, 86-81, while the No. 12 women upset No. 5 Louisiana Tech the following day in Austin, Texas, 57-56.
The rarity of that confluence prompted a similarly remarkable response from UCSB chancellor Henry Yang: He and wife Dilling hitched a ride with the school’s pep band on its bus trip from one tournament to the other.
Traveling 700 miles with students armed with noisemakers must’ve seemed as arduously long as a trip through the Milky Way.
But get your ear plugs ready, chancellor. Those stars could be back in alignment for another basketball double-dipper in March.
The Gaucho men (9-2), the coaches’ preseason pick to win the Big West Conference, enter this week’s start of league play with a national NET computer ranking of No. 96. Only No 82 UC Irvine rates better among Big West schools.
Although UCSB’s women (7-3) were picked second to Hawai‘i in their preseason poll, their current NET ranking of No. 107 is by far the best in the Big West.
Their marches toward March Madness will both begin on Thursday against Cal State Fullerton.
The Gaucho men will travel to Orange County to face the Titans at 6 p.m. in a game that will be televised nationally by ESPNU. The women’s team will play host to Fullerton at 7 p.m.
Road-Testing the Gaucho Men
UCSB coach Joe Pasternack learned a hard lesson last year when he scheduled eight of his 11 nonconference games for the cozy confines of the Thunderdome. You’re liable to hit plenty of bumps when you start a road less traveled … so don’t wait to get rolling.
The Gauchos lost their way last year in their first five league road games, losing all but one. They never did catch up to the leaders and finished in fifth place.
Pasternack’s response for this season was to schedule the majority of his games on the road for the first time in his six years as UCSB’s coach. It helped the Gauchos get the stinkers out of the way early with losses at Northern Arizona and Duquesne.
They regrouped in the weeks that followed and will now enter league play with a three-game road winning streak.
“We even started with scrimmages at San José State and Stanford to toughen our team up for all these road games,” Pasternack told Noozhawk. “It’s all been about preparing us for conference.
“These road games, you’re not going to shoot the ball well all the time, so you have to be unbelievably gritty on defense, and you’ve got to rebound the ball.”
The Gauchos have done well on both accounts, holding opponents to 42.6% shooting and out-rebounding them by a margin of 8.3 per game — 20th-best in the country.
Andre Kelly, a 6-foot-9 graduate transfer from Cal, ranks fourth in the Big West in rebound average (7.4) while 6-10 senior Miles Norris (6.8) is seventh.
Guards Ajay Mitchell and Josh Pierre-Louis have headed up the defense, both ranking among the league’s top eight in steals.
They will be tested by Fullerton (6-6), last year’s Big West Tournament champion. The Titans have won all five of their home games this season.
“Our conference is really good,” Pasternack said. “Cal State Fullerton went to the NCAA Tournament last year, and everyone has had really good wins so far this season.”
Four Big West teams have wins over Pac-12 schools. UC Davis (7-5) and UC San Diego (5-7) both defeated Cal. Hawai‘i (8-3) smacked the Pac on Friday, defeating Washington State in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic.
Irvine (7-5) bagged the biggest Pac-12 win of all at No. 21 Oregon, 69-56. The Anteaters also went to the wire at No. 24 San Diego State before losing, 72-69.
“We told our guys at the beginning of this year that you have to be among the top two or three in defense and rebounding if you want to win league,” Pasternack said. “Last year, we weren’t.
“Irvine uses that recipe. They’re among the top teams in the country with that.”
The Anteaters have a rebound margin of 8.0 per game and are holding their opponents to just 39.6% shooting.
If Irvine has an advantage over the Gauchos, it’s in three-point shooting. It ranks 11th in the country with a percentage of .403.
Junior guard D.J. Davis, their leading scorer at 13.9 points per game, is making 44.3% of his threes to rank 32nd nationally.
UCSB is shooting just 32.2% from beyond the arc and making only 5.4 threes per game. Only 22 of the nation’s 363 Division I teams have made fewer.
Pasternack believes his shooting stars will come around just as reliably as Halley’s Comet.
“I’m not worried,” he insisted. “We have great shooters. I have no concern about it.”
The Gauchos’ overall shooting percentage of .479 does lead the conference and ranks 51st in the nation.
Mitchell, last season’s Big West Freshman of the Year, is No. 7 in the Big West for scoring (15.4 per game) and first in assists (4.6). Norris is scoring at a 13.5-point clip.
All 11 Big West teams have a go-to threat. UC Riverside’s Zyon Pullin leads the league at 20.3 points per game while UC Davis’ Elijah Pepper is close behind at 19.7. Bryce Pope averages 16.3 for UC San Diego, Fullerton’s Latrell Wrightsell and Cal State Northridge’s Atin Wright are both at 15.5, and Hawai‘i’s Noel Coleman and Long Beach State’s Joel Murray are at 15.2.
“We have really good coaches in our league and their systems are very good,” Pasternack said. “There are no gimme games.”
The Gauchos will make their Big West home debut on New Year’s Eve this Saturday with 4 p.m. game against UC San Diego.
“We’re sending out QR codes for the community to come free and giving out a lot of free stuff for the kids (see ad below),” Pasternack said. “We really want to get the community out for this one.”
UCSB Women Set Course for Victory Lane
The Gaucho women have a deep, multitalented team centered around 6-foot-4 senior Ila Lane.
She leads the Big West with a rebound average of 8.7 per game and is fifth in scoring at 14.0. Her field-goal percentage of .628 leads the league and ranks 15th nationally.
“What the fans see with Ila on game day is what we see in practice every day,” UCSB coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “She goes hard every day. There’s never a time when she doesn’t bring great energy or isn’t dialed in and focused.
“That’s what the great ones do.”
Alexis Tucker has had several big moments, as well. The 5-11 senior guard carried the Gauchos in back-to-back road games by scoring 20 points at Sacramento State and 29 at Southern Utah. She’s averaging 12.2 per game along with 5.7 rebounds.
“She can hit a ton,” Henrickson said. “The consistency every day is what we’re looking for. That’s a corner she needs to turn, and that we need her to turn.
“When you’re talking about big goals and team goals, there are players who have that burden, and she’s one of them.”
Last year’s graduation of five-year starting point guard Danae Miller created UCSB’s biggest void. Henrickson turned to a pair of juniors to fill her roles: Alyssa Marin on offense and Anya Choice on defense.
Marin, from Camarillo High School, ranks second in the Big West in assist average (4.2) and ninth in three-pointers per game (1.5) with a percentage of .438.
Choice has been tasked every game with defending the opposition’s top player.
“Those two have done a really, really good job with all that encompassed Danae’s minutes,” Henrickson said. “There was a lot that Danae did, and not just running the offense, but also on the defensive end and in the late-game stuff.
“They have both really grown and matured and have been able to handle the lion’s share of that responsibility.”
Henrickson often goes 11 deep with her player rotation.
She’s had to get creative in finding enough court time for such players as seniors Taylor Mole and Tatyana Modawar; sophomores Kennedy Johnson, Alexis Whitfield and Callie Cooper; and freshmen Jessica Grant and Skylar Burke.
Laurel Rockwood, a 6-4 sophomore, made it an even dozen last week when she came back from the injured list and recorded a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds against Cal Lutheran.
“It’s a great problem to have,” Henrickson said. “We’ve been through some seasons when we haven’t had that luxury. It’s a luxury for any program, to be able to go that deep and not have any drop-off at all.
“Our goal is to have the best bench energy in the Big West, and that energy turns into production. That group has been really special that way.”
The team’s chemistry hasn’t suffered from shared playing time.
“They really respect each other because they all bring something a little bit different,” Henrickson said. “They celebrate each other. They’ll tell you, “We’re crazy close … We’re all really different, but we’re all really close.’
“They hang out. They go places together. They even cook together.”
They set the table with a strong preseason. It included an appetizing, Dec. 2 game when they led No. 15 UCLA for the first 22 minutes.
It’s gotten them hungry now for the main course.
