Overview:
Gaucho men aim for their third NCAA Tournament bid in the last four years; UCSB women seek their first title since 2012
A look into the crystal basketball reveals little about what to expect in the Big West Conference this season.
Much remains up in the air even as UC Santa Barbara retains high hopes for league races that begin Thursday for both its men’s and women’s teams.
“Top to bottom, this is the deepest I’ve ever seen the league,” said Joe Pasternack, who is in his seventh season as the Gaucho men’s coach.
“I wouldn’t argue with any of the preseason picks … We just don’t know,” said Bonnie Henrickson, the ninth-year coach for UCSB’s women.
Her team finished fourth behind defending champion Hawai‘i, UC Irvine and UC Davis in the preseason coaches’ poll.
The Gaucho men open play at 6 p.m. Thursday against UC Davis at the Aggies’ University Credit Union Center while the women also play Davis with tipoff set for 7 p.m. at the Thunderdome.
UCSB’s men, Big West Tournament champions in two of the last three years, were favored by nine of the league’s 11 coaches to repeat that success. Last season’s 27-8 record set a school record for victories.
But the history books tell of little dominance in the Big West during the last two decades. Ten different schools have won the league title in the last 20 years.
UCSB (7-3) will face more challengers than ever this season.
UC Irvine (7-5) won a road game at at No. 16 USC and lost by just a point at No. 25 San Diego State. Long Beach State (8-4) also upset the Trojans as well as Michigan, both on the road.
But the biggest shock waves are coming out of Cal State Northridge (9-3), which is off to its best start in a decade. The Matadors, which were picked to finish 10th in the 11-team race, stunned UCLA 76-72 at Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday.
The 108-year-old Pac-12 Conference is about to begin its final season in a euthanasiac exercise that USC and UCLA triggered by announcing their defection to the Big Ten.
The conference will fracture into parts headed to the Big 12, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the West Coast Conference, in addition to the Big Ten.
The Big West piled onto that Pac-12 rubble by kicking Los Angeles’ two superpowers on their way out the arena door.
“It’s been amazing,” Pasternack told Noozhawk. “This is the best I’ve seen the Big West play in the nonconference since I’ve been here.
“I mean, Northridge beats UCLA … Cal Poly almost had Oregon State (a double-overtime loss) … UC Riverside lost at UCLA by just a point … Hawai‘i (8-4) has had a heck of a nonconference.”
A major culture change was brought to Northridge by new coach Andy Newman.
The Matadors, who lived up to their nickname with an olé defense the last few years, are suddenly ranked 27th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (38.8%).
Their rebound margin (plus-12.6) ranks even higher at No. 6.
UCSB has hung its hat so far on offense. It ranks sixth in the NCAA for field-goal percentage (.522) and 43rd for points per game (82.7).
Ajay Mitchell, who won last season’s Big West Player of the Year Award as a sophomore, has followed that up with an even better junior year.
“Ajay was poised even as a freshman, but every year he gets even more mature,” Pasternack said.
The 6-foot-5 point guard ranks 28th in the nation with a scoring average of 19.8 points per game. His shooting has been on target from all distances: 52.5% from the field, 47.1% from three-point range and 88% from the free-throw line.
Mitchell also averages 4.0 assists with just 1.7 turnovers per game.
And UCSB has other weapons to fire when the opposition tries to muzzle its Belgium Baller with a double-team defense.
Yohan Traore, a 6-11 sophomore transfer from Auburn, is averaging 15.7 points with the nation’s 15th-best field-goal percentage (.648).
Junior guard Cole Anderson ranks 51st in three-point percentage (.409) while averaging 12.0 points.
And senior guard Josh Pierre-Louis, one of the Big West’s best defenders, has also proven to be one of the league’s most versatile offensive players with averages of 12.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists.
But Pierre-Louis, who is bidding to become the first Gaucho to ever play in three NCAA tournaments, cautions his teammates about what their offense will face against league opponents.
“They know us,” he said. “We know how they play but they know how we play, too.”
The league has become the final stop for several veteran basketball coaches: The Big Rest Home Conference, if you will.
Seven of the Gauchos’ 10 league rivals are guided by head coaches who have been at their schools for at least eight seasons.
They include Dan Monson (16 at Long Beach), Russell Turner (13 at UC Irvine), Jim Les (12 at UC Davis), Rod Barnes (12 at Cal State Bakersfield), Dedrique Taylor (10 at Cal State Fullerton), Eric Olen (10 at UC San Diego), and Eran Ganot (eight at Hawai‘i).
And familiarity breeds contentious defense.
“At this point, it’s really all about your defense,” Pierre-Louis observed.
That’s the rub for a Gaucho team that has allowed a field-goal percentage of .448 — third-worst in the Big West.
Pasternack was left wanting even by Wednesday’s 94-81 victory over Howard.
“We’re not going to beat anybody in conference giving up 81 points,” he said. “That’s a major problem, and we’ve got to get better.”
The Gauchos have been getting healthier, however.
They have won seven of eight games since Mitchell returned from a sprained ankle.
Ben Shtolzberg, a sophomore transfer from Creighton, has fortified UCSB’s backcourt in his two games back from shoulder surgery.
Kilian Brockhoff, a 6-9 freshman recruit off Germany’s U20 National Team, returned to the court from back surgery this month.
And Koat Keat Tong, a 6-10 sophomore who was a key reserve last year, has been making a rapid recovery from two offseason knee surgeries.
“He’s running now and just waiting for the clearance,” Pasternack said. “He’s really ahead of schedule.
“If you’d asked me a month ago, I would’ve said he wasn’t going to play this year. But my medical staff feels really good about him.”
The Big West may run deep, so now so do the Gauchos.
Big West Conference Women
Three seconds is a basketball violation when you linger in the key too long.
It was also how long it took for devastation to set in for last year’s UCSB women.
The Gauchos were three seconds away from a Big West Tournament championship when Hawai’i’s Daejah Phillips sliced through their defense and broke their heart. Her three-point play beat UCSB 61-59.
“Since I’ve been here, there have been a lot of close games … a lot of one-possession games,” Henrickson said. “I suspect it will be similar this year.”
UCSB and UC Irvine tied for the best preseason record in the Big West at just 6-4. But most of the league’s other teams weren’t far off that mark.
“I think everyone is pretty close to each other,” Henrickson said. “A lot of us played similar teams.
“But we just don’t know what’s going to happen. There are going to be a lot of new players from the transfer portal who are going to impact success.”
Last year’s season-ending heartbreak does add some spark for returning seniors Alyssa Marin, Anya Choice and Alexis Whitfield.
“It’s hard to let go and hard to stop thinking about it,” said Marin, a four-year starter at guard. “But at the same time, with this group that we have, I’m super, super excited.
“The incoming people, they’re just so humble and willing to learn and progress with us. I’m so happy with it.”
Henrickson needs that “A Team” of Alyssa, Anya and Alexis to be on their A game if UCSB — 21-12 last season — is to contend for the title again.
“They don’t have to carry us and each score 30, but they have to be solid,” she said. “And they have to be on the floor.
“They get into foul trouble, and suddenly we have all the new guys playing together.”
Whitfield, a versatile 6-2 forward, ranks among the Big West leaders with averages of 15.1 points and 8.3 rebounds. She’s a three-level scorer who shoots 54.5% overall and 44.4% from three-point range.
Marin (9.3 points, 4.2 assists) and Choice (8.5 points, 48.4% in field goals, 40% from three) lead UCSB’s backcourt.
Sophomores Jessica Grant and Skylar Burke give the Gauchos added punch from the guard line.
But the Gauchos’ success could hinge on the development of such transfers as Austria’s Flora Goed, a 6-4 junior from Casper College of Wyoming, and sophomore Mary McMorris, a guard from Northern Arizona.
Freshmen forwards Olivia Bradley and Zoe Borter, along with oft-injured junior center Laurel Rockwood, also bolster UCSB’s bid for its first Big West championship since 2012.
Depth could be the factor that gets the Gauchos over the top.
“We’ve just got to be more consistent,” Henrickson said. “That’s the thing that’s been driving me most crazy.”
She’s already got enough to scramble her brains in figuring out a very Wild, Wild Big West.
